President: Nigel Rigiani Chairman: Mike Shepherd Patron: Mark Gilbert Fougeres National 1 st & 2 nd Open 1 st & 2 nd Section C Ernie Smith & Darren Baker (Loft 2) from Swindon With No Problem & Gerrard Firstly, there is an amendment to our young bird/ old hens race. We will now be racing from Coutances (code no 5112) and not Vire as stated in your handbooks due to the Vire site being unsuitable. (Nigel site report). Having listened to the reports and surveyed the Vire lib site I feel as convoyer this site would not be in the best interest of the BBC young bird race programmed for this year. A new site has become available recently called Coutances situated roughly half way between Carentan and Vire but to the west hopefully taking the birds straight up the Cherbourg peninsula. I have now visited this site and feel that it is a very good but as it has a security gate and not having the code I could not see what the facilities are re toilets and water. Nigel Rigiani. What a great race this was out of Fougeres, with all Sections and nearly all members timing in within 4 hours of each other. This race being our penultimate old bird race of the season saw 1,864 birds entered by 221 members. It was always Nigel s plan to get the birds away as early as he could to avoid the rising temperatures, so after waiting for the static air from a lightening storm to clear he liberated the birds at 6.55am in to a south, south west wind. Thank you to everyone who stopped to help at all the marking stations and to Chris King who waited behind at Salisbury to help load the transporter. 1 st & 2 nd Open 1 st & 2 nd Section C are Darren Baker, Mitch & Ernie Smith from Swindon flying as Ernie Smith & Darren Baker (Loft 2). The weekend before this race we had sent to Messac in the Wiltshire Fed where we took 1 st & 3 rd in the Club plus 1 st & 3 rd in the Wiltshire Fed. When the birds arrived they looked fantastic, so we decided to enter them in this race. Mitch (my stepson) pooled one & I pooled one. Mitch decided to pool the one who was 3 rd Fed and I pooled the cock that was 1 st Fed. As we were waiting for the birds, two came racing out the south and trapped well they were mine & Mitch's pigeons! Mitch checked the ETS and it was Mitch's pool pigeon which clocked 1 st & Darren's was 2 nd. The 1 st is a 3 year old blue cock, this cock has flown well for us & won a lot of prizes. His sire is a son out of our number one pair of Koopmans. The dam is bred by Mark Gilbert which is out of Dutch Master Lines. Our 2 nd bird is a 2 year old blue cock who has already won two races across the water this year. His sire & dam are bred by Ian Crammond & Nigel Langstaff bred down from there number one pair of
Kees Bosua/ Van Osch family. Darren would also like to thank his racing partner Ernie for all his help & advice over the years!! The picture is of Mitch holding his winner which he has aptly named NO PROBLEM as there was No problem beating his Dad!! Mitch holding 1 st Open 3 rd & 4 th Open 1 st & 2 nd Section D is Roger Lowe from Reading. Sending 14 birds (9 hens and 5 cocks) the first two were yearling hens. 1 st Section being bred from a son of My Little Diamond when paired to Going for Gold winner of 1 st Open Central Southern Classic Flying Club Carentan in 2011. She has been very consistent being 3 rd Fed from Fougeres 1,338 birds three weeks back, 13 th Fed Portland 2,641 birds, 23 rd Section 401 birds, 129 th Open 2,208 birds Guernsey Classic. My second bird is a Daniel Aerens, already a winner of 21 st Fed Yeovil 2,713 birds, 11 th Section 401 birds, 95 th Open Guernsey Classic 2,208 birds. It turned out to be a very good race for me having 10 birds home in less than 20 minutes. Congratulations to Ernie and Darren on another good performance.
Roger Lowe 1 st Section B 5 th Open is John Halstead from Kington Magna in North Dorset. Timing a 3year old chequer white flight widowhood cock named Nyland Vulcan. This cock was winning his second 1 st Section in the last 4 weeks. On 6 th June he was in front of most of the South and West Sections (ABCDG) in the NFC when he was 1 st Section C 49 th Open from Messac (7,053 birds). He has been in good form from the very first club race in April when he was 2 nd Club 18 th Dorset Fed (1,259 birds) and although he has always been a consistent bird he does race better when there is South in the wind. He is from a half brother/half sister pairing, his sire being Nyland Brave a Reynaert Figo cross Bosua who was 2 nd Open BBC Vire, 8 th Open CSCFC Messac and 10 th Open BBC Carentan. Winning 3 rd Section 14 th Open is Nyland Javelin a Busschaert cross Vandenabeele widowhood cock who has been a top performer at the shorter Nationals for the last couple of seasons. Last year he was 1 st Section NFC Cholet, and this season he has a string of top performances 4 th Section 45 th Open BBC Carentan, 4 th Section 12 th Open BBC Messac 4 th Section NFC Messac and now another top 20 finish. All pigeons are fed on Versele Laga mixtures from Steve and Tim Jones of Countrywide feeds, along with Harkers Hormoform and Old Hands Golden Boost. Birds exercise around the loft for 1 hour morning and evening and no training is given after the first race.
John Halstead 6 th Open 3 rd Section D is Pete Wells from Dunstable. Blue chequer cock is my Janssen based family. August bred in 2013 - trained late in year of birth and raced inland as a yearling. The year was his second channel race. My daughter Natalie is holding the new stock cock for Eamon Kelly's stock loft!!
7 th Open 2 nd Section B is Mark and Julie Gower from Fordingbridge. My congratulation go to Darren Baker on a great performance and John Halstead on his good pigeon given the wind direction. My pigeon is a Vandenabeele bred from my good racing hen who has bred at least 7 x 1 st prize winners and 1 st & 2 nd Section. She herself won 2 nd, 6 th & 23 rd Open NFC with up to 6,000 birds competing ( 3 x 1 st sect B & 9 th Open BBC all from across the channel). The pigeon is raced on a loose version of the roundabout system, as work does not often give me the time to prepare as best as I could. He was on his 5 th outing across the channel, he has already won 1 st Section CSCFC Guernsey and was my 4 th bird from Ancenis with the NFC. Thanks again to King of the distance Andy Parsons & Nick Smith for the continued help getting the birds to the marking stations. Mark Gower s cock bird 8 th Open 3 rd Section C is Mark and Clare Brown from Woodlands St Mary. Firstly, we would like to pass on our congratulations to Darren & Mitch top fanciers and always at the top of the results, also Roger Lowe who is a class act. We timed our good blue Vandenabeele/Schoor de Weil/Van Loon cock 52 who was sitting 5 day eggs. This cock is a consistent performer and always puts in his best, his previous results are 2 nd Section BBC National Fougeres 2014 beaten by a loft mate, 10 th Section C 25 th Open BBC Messac on 17 th May 2014 which I thought was a fantastic performance against the wind on that day, 11 th Section NFC Messac 2015 and now 3 rd Section 8 th Open BBC National. He was one of only 7 older birds we retained when in June 2014 we thought we may have been moving and was contemplating retiring from the sport for a spell through work commitments after only part racing for a number of years, however we had bred a team of young birds in 2014 and decided in August that we would carry on and retain these young birds (although unraced, something I will never do again as 2015 yearlings have been truly hard work).
So "52" was bred by our very good friend Steve Bennett of Bristol, his sire is our old champion 33 who Steve had on loan in 2012 and is a Gaby Vandenabeele cock who won 2 x 1 st Combine for me and dad when racing in St Helens and paired to a sister of Steve s "champ a top performer in his own right of Steve s. We are thoroughly looking forward to racing youngsters again this year and developing a team capable of racing well into the future. Mark and Clare Brown s cock bird 1 st Section A 9 th Open is Grahame Deacon from Newport, IOW. Grahame was the first member to clock in Section A in the race at 9.57 am timing his yearling mealy hen who is a Great Grand daughter of Red Chequer 52094 who has scored 3 x 1 st from Thurso 553 miles. Dordins based. She raced the North Road as a youngster with the Southampton North Road Fed and started this season racing North until this race. I entered 16 birds for Fougeres, they were due to go to Hexham but the race was cancelled. I had 15 out of 16 birds home up until Sunday. None of these birds had ever crossed the Channel. Grahame will be 79 in August and has kept pigeons since just after the war 39/45. 1999 was probably my most satisfying season. The local club had 16 trophies for the season and I won 13 of them.
Grahame Deacon Congratulations to my fellow Club mate Colin Edwards from Romsey 10 th Open 2 nd Section A timing all four all his birds sent within 6 ½ minutes. My 2 nd Section 10 th Open is a dark yearling Van Loon hen sent sitting 12 days. She is bred from my original Van Loons, responsible for many good winners crossed with a granddaughter of Chicago and Denver and a dark cock gifted by Martin and Clare Norman. Sire of their Classic Bergerac winner. Previous performances of dark hen as a young bird, 2 nd Section BBC FougeresYB National. This year, 2 nd Club, 5 th Fed, 1 st Hants Two Bird Fougeres and now 2 nd Sec 10 th Open Fougeres. Thanks to all for the condition the birds returned in. I clocked all four entries in 6.5 minutes.
Colin Edwards 1 st & 2 nd Section E Keith Rhodes from Telford. The dark cock is a two year old Busschaert raced on widowhood, the dam is a grand daughter of my good red hen who won numerous top positions in Nationals including 4 th Open NFC. These lines were purchased many years ago from Kevin Curtis of Dorset. The sire is the last son from 95 my chequer cock who won over 5,000 in Nationals plus two Western Region awards. This cock won Saintes and was put to stock to keep the lines going. The dark cock in question was always a consistent young bird and yearling winning in my local Club. As a yearling this year his first race from Wincanton turned out to be an erratic race with many pigeons missing and he came back hawked. He was left to recover and recently had 3 inland races with the Worcester Fed to get him back into condition for this race. The 2 nd pigeon is a yearling dark cock the sire of this pigeon is my blue cock 27 who won many top positions at National level including 1 st Section J 6 th Open NFC Saintes plus two Western Region awards. This cock is from pigeons purchased off Jim gibbon of Sunderland down from Gibbos Girl. The dam is a dark Busschaert hen off my red cock who won 9 x 1 st on the channel in my local Club and Fed before being put to stock.
Keith Rhodes 1 st and 2 nd Section 3 rd Section E Gordon Rigg from Congleton. The cock is a two year old from my team of birds which I am trying to develope for distance racing: re 700 miles and over. He is bred from a Jim Biss based cock when paired to a Dusardyne hen. He was on his first Channel crossing as were the 19 other 2 year old cocks. I managed to get 19 of the 20 sent, back on the day. Many thanks to Nigel for the lovely condition of all of them at 336 miles. Gordon Rigg 1 st & 2 nd Section J Bruce McAllister from Furneaux Pelham. My first bird clocked from Fougeres is a 4 year old blue cock Jos Thone Emperor breeding racing on widowhood and has
scored many times before in BICC and NFC, a very consistent bird possibly one for Tarbes this year. Enjoyed a good race with my next bird 12 seconds later and another on his heels. Pictured with me is my granddaughter Isabella and we have named the pigeon Sparky. Bruce McAllister and Grand daughter Isabella 3 rd Section J John Snr & John Jnr Brady from Benfleet. Our pigeon GB11N84798 Dark Chequer Cock is 100% Jos Thone bred, having Sumo on all four sides of his pedigree. The full pedigree involves "OVI" Jos Olympiad pigeon "sold to China" and a direct brother of Emperor (International winner). This cock has had 4 Channel races this year, racing widowhood and was paired after Tours and has returned to 8 day youngsters. It s great to see our birds showing some form now as we are normally slow starters, but we will be looking forward to the rest of the season.
1 st Section G Joe and Vera Langbridge From Sidlesham. Our pigeon GB 11 R 25982 (late bred 2014) we now call Snap as his father was also 1 st Section G BBC when 2 nd Open Bordeaux 2012 (The Double Unlucky Cock) who was also 2 nd Solent Fed Fougeres beaten by loft mate gaining an RPRA award in the process 250 450 miles. His dam is from a son of Derek Reid from Weybridge s Ryan s Express 1 st Open NFC St Nazaire 2005. Strangely enough most of our better birds have been late breds trained through the off season, then 5-6 races to Fougeres as yearlings. Joe Langbridge 2 nd & 3 rd Section G Mick and Lyn Chaplin from Westend Village, Woking. The 2 cocks dropped together to be 2 nd and 3 rd Section, both having their 8 th race of the season. Only 18 widowhood cocks and their hens are kept for racing and after last weeks race the hens were left with the cocks to pair up for the NFC Tarbes and BBC Bordeaux races. All 8 pigeons sent returned in good time and were in excellent condition.
1 st Section H Paul Davies from St Clement, Jersey. I timed a 6 year old chequer cock called Cheqmate flown on widowhood. His sire was 1 st Section 5 th Open BBC Bordeaux in 2004, his dam was 1 st Section 36 th Open Nantes in 2003 so this is a case of Section winners breeding Section winner. I would like to thank Clare Norman for taking the Jersey pigeons to the marking station, she's one in a million. Paul Davies Convoyers Report Foregoing the preliminaries for fear of repeating myself I will start this report on the ferry at breakfast time watching the French weather report on the television giving us temperatures through France for Friday and Saturday of 41 degrees and clear skies. Friday 3rd July After disembarkation at 06.30 I made the decision to go straight to the lib site as it was only 89 miles down the road. Once we had arrived we positioned the transporter inside the cattle market where it was some 11 degrees cooler than the outside temperature and with the curtains drawn back and as easterly wind blowing down the length of the lorry the birds settled down once the water was on. With a very early morning lib on the cards for the following day the birds were fed and re-watered by 2.30 pm and settled for the night. After a call to Steve Appleby giving me thunder storms moving through the channel during the night things were looking good for an early lib between 5 and 5.30 am with a weather update at 4.50 am. Saturday 4th July I was up by 03.45 and switched the lights on to give the birds an hours drinking time and with the temperature already at 19 degrees the birds were seen to be drinking that early, the only down side was that the thunder storms had not moved on as quickly as thought. Forked
lightening and full cloud cover could be seen to the west and moving across our line of flight which was continuous for three quarters of an hour but heading north easterly all the time. As the morning progressed the wind became more southerly which would be a big help to the birds. A call was made to Steve at 04.50 confirming what I could see and the channel clearing all the time but with the static in the air from all the lightening earlier I decided to delay liberation for two hours to let the air clear. At 06.45 with the strings cut and blue skies to the north a large black cloud obscured the sun completely which delayed the lib until 06.55 when a gap in the clouds appeared putting sun on the baskets but I could see it would not stay until 07.00 hence the funny lib time. The birds headed north into blue skies with the light clouds to the north as can be seen from the picture. My thanks once again to all the marking stations and markers and a special mention to John Garvey I/C for Penkridge who due to the time getting on and I was late leaving for the Walkern marking station was left on his own to tidy every thing up after marking, thanks mate, Steve for the weather and of course to Clare who's internet provider let her down at the worst possible time, thanks Virgin but as always came through with flying colours despite this. Weather Report. Early liberation was delayed by the development of a thunderstorm over the Fougeres region during the early hours of Saturday morning. Fortunately this system soon tracked away north eastwards towards Caen off the flight path. The cloud broke over the race point and with the sun shining Nigel was able to liberate at 06:55. Early on visibility over the channel was poor but by 07:00 hours had improved substantially. Winds were light over northern France mainly from the south west. Over the channel they were fresh from the south south west but changed to west south west during the morning period. Despite the early weather conditions a good race resulted for the B.B.C. members.
Steve Appleby Please note all trophies won in 2014 must be returned to me CLEANED before September 12 th 2015. If you would like to take them to the marking station, the I/C will make sure I receive them. Thank you. For members wishing to attend the dinner on Saturday 21 st November, ticket prices are 35 per person. Those wishing to stop over can book their accommodation direct with The Days Hotel (now renamed The Marsham Court Hotel), Bournemouth on 01202 552111. Please mention the Club when booking to ensure special rates. For more details on the dinner please see your Club Handbook. We had a full house last year, so please book your tickets early. Clare Norman. Tel: 023 8057 3919 Email: secretary@britishbarcelonaclub.com