Watchfield Writings 14.05.11

Watchfield & The Vale Flying Club
*Remember there are No Secrets from a Bottle, just Hardwork, Dedication & Determination*

Well folks here we are again and its now the 15th May, i hope things are progressing well within your lofts and things are going to plan with your results and achievements so far.

We had a wonderful weeks break in lands end, returning home on Friday 6th May. The birds had been confined to the loft all week, i decided to leave all the cocks & hens together to make things easier as they were being looked after fed & watered by Julie a near neighbour, after handling them i decided to throw them into the race for a trainer with a view of starting now to get them ready forour target races which start on the 14th with a club Carentan then the national programme starts on the 21st, so i wanted to take advantage of this newton abbot race as they had done no excercise all week.

Well marking went well, with strong South Easterly winds forecast for tomorrow but a good fly was on the cards for our team.

4th Race, Newton Abbott 07/05/11.
Another good turn out at the club this week, with 13 members sending 181 birds to this race, upon handling our birds and then those of our competitors i knew deep down that ours were in no condition to compete (amazing what a week can do), but it would provide a good fly which is the plan. It was up early on Saturday morning to get the loft chores done and out of the way. We had to wait for the weather to break but they were away at 1330hrs into a south east wind. Well i worked out an approx ETA as being 2hrs 10mins to start to look out but realisticly knew ours would take a little longer.

So we set up the ets and sat and waited, our eta soon came and went and i knew that we would not be close this week, our first arrival came diving from way out the back after nearly two and a half hours to record 15.59hrs, the line were she came from indicates her drifting over the Swindon route then probably going further up towards Oxford before turning and breaking for home, we had a very poor and gappy race and was over 20 minutes adrift of the winners, with the majority of the club having a good race with quick returns.

At the club that night the result was 1st to G & M Seagroatt who timed a 2yr old blue wf Maris/Newelaeart hen to record 1489.6, in 2nd club was R & P Habgood who timed a yearling mealy cock of bill beards famous barless mealy family bred by good friend Steve Bennett of Bristol to record 1487.9 (Rob had a good race with an earlier timing winning the Ferndale club and topping the federation, well done mate), in 3rd & 4th club was M/M Roy & Shiela Titcombe timing two blue cocks firstly a 3yr old followed by a yearling, the first is of Steve Emblem janssen lines and the yearling containing Braakhuis bloodlines.

So there we have it, back to the drawing board for us this week. Which will see us stepping up the workload for the team now following this race, i have to be honest and upon moving the hens on Saturday night i was concerned that i had taken to much out of them as they were tired when they returned and the bodies were “empty” if you know what i mean. So it was back on the race mix now after having a week off and see what happens, i couldn’t sleep properly that Saturday night and was up early to the loft. Straight into the old bird hens section to handle all the hens, phew!! They were back, they had regained their bodies overnight and felt back to normal....panic over.

Birds were excercised on Monday morning & evening, trained them all at Bristol on Tuesday and loft exercise the remainder of the week, leaving them out for an hour each time. The team were looking well and handled well on basketing night.

5th Race, Carentan 14/05/11.
A good turn out at the club this week, for this first channel race of the 2011 season, with 14 members sending 122 birds to this race, upon handling our birds i was happy with their condition and know that this will only improve now we are back on our system (funny enough to repeat myself, it is amazing what a week can do), marking went well and spirits were high of a good testing race on Saturday, we did have a few discussions as to if anybody wanted to send to the BBO race as a club trainer marking tomorrow as some members were sending their remaining teams elsewhere to get a land race into them, we did have a few hens i had left at home and one of these “7487” i am conditioning for a bigger race later in the season and she is living with the youngbirds and had her first basket work on Tuesday when the team was sent to Bristol which she handled well, i now want to get her in a few races. She is a yearling blue hen who was youngbird of the year in the club after winning 2 x 1st, 1 x 3rd and topping the federation last season, but i chose to keep her out of my plans until this time of year when i can start to condition her. So after much discussion we decided to send to the BBO Honiton race as a club trainer.

Up and about early on Saturday morning, got all the loft chores done and out of the way. We soon had the phonecall to say the Carentan birds were away at 0715hrs in a west north west and the BBO birds had gone at 0900hr. So it was out with the calculator and work out some velocities for an approx ETA, well i worked out that we wanted arrivals from BBO at around one and a half hours and the channel birds at around three and a half hours giving ETA’s of 1030hrs and 1045hrs.

So i set up the ets, put the kettle on and prepared for the wait, at 1028 our first arrival appeared and quickly trapped to record 10.28.37, a couple of minutes later our little wf hen dropped to be timed at 10.31.02 and then a couple of minutes later our little yearling hen “7487” came and dropped on the young bird aviary, well happy with this little hens efforts.

Then it was time to get ready for the channel birds, our eta passed and i was wondering were they were when our first arrived as this cock dropped there were 2 more spinning around, these all dropped to be recorded at 10.54.44, then 10.55.26 and 10.55.29 with another following at 10.59. i was quite happy with the way these had arrived although a little slower than i expected, they had worked and looked well.

At the club that night the result was a good one for ourselves finishing 1st, 2nd & 3rd with three 2yr old gaby vandenabeeles racing widowhood, firstly a cheq cock, followed by a cheq hen (nest sister to the winner) and another blue hen all previous good performers for the loft to record velocities of 1191.9, 1188.1 & 1187.8, 4th club was M/M Roy & Shiela Titcombe timing a 6yr old cheq cock racing widowhood, a good performer for the loft this fella recording 1186.3.
The club training race saw another good performance by our birds winning 1st & 3rd from this Honiton race with the westerly wind meaning a faster race from this dogleg land race. We timed firstly a 3yr old cheq gaby vandenabeele hen to record 1634.6 and then a blue wf 2yr old gaby on 1591.2, M/M Roy & Shiela Titcombe finished 2nd, 4th, 5th & 6th with velocities of 1595.4 and then 1561.2.

Thats it for now, got to get the birds rested, recovered and built up now for next week which will see some going to the National Fougeres, and the combine Messac races.

Well that’s it for this week, try hard, work harder, be happy and good returns.

Any news/views to Mark Brown
Email - mb1973@hotmail.co.uk

Fantastic Result Mark cant wish for more than that ...
Great write-up and read as usual ...
ma & pa ... pat & bill ...

great write up as usual mark and well done on your results also good luck for your target races

ell done mark and family maybe you should go away and let your helper look after them for the national credit to them for looking after your birds
if you couldnt sleep last saturday i doubt you will this comming week all the best in the nationals mark fine flying mate keep it up