Ponderosa UK Stud Blue Riband Tarbes Race 1 st Open 1 st SE Section Alan Holdaway with Blue Thyme The Classic s most prestigious race of the season saw the longest day of the year (21 st June) turn in to the longest weekend with most organisations struggling to liberate from France. Many telephone discussions took place between the Club s two Presidents, Race Advisor Steve Appleby and Convoyer s Rube and Ian to make sure the decisions made were in the best interest of the birds. So, after a 2 day holdover the 662 birds sent by 155 members were finally on their way at 2pm on the Sunday. I would like to thank all members who sent for their patience on a difficult weekend. Grateful thanks to all the markers and helpers once again who make sure everything runs smoothly on marking day. The 2013 Tarbes Blue Riband winner is Alan Holdaway from Emsworth 1 st Open 1 st SE Section with Blue Thyme. First of all I would like to thank all those involved with the care and liberation of our birds on what was a difficult weekend. Not a task I am envious of. I would also like to thank Tony Leggatt for taking the birds to the marking station for me. Now to my Tarbes winner, she is 3 years old predominantly Southwell with a bit of G. Kirklands The Pest She is small to medium. Having only been at this address for 3 years, she was bred at the old lofts then brought to the new loft when built. She has been breed down from some of my best distance birds. Her sire has been to Tarbes/Pau on five occasions in the past. Her Dam is a hen gifted to me from Albie Deacon, a return from a cock that I bred them from my good dark hen. Her results have included, 3 rd open Dax N.F.C, 24 th 157 th open San Sebastian N.F.C, 4 th Sec 43 rd Open Pau N.F.C, 54 th Sec 445 th Open Saintes N.F.C, 3 rd Sec 7 th open Nantes N.F.C, 69 th 227 th Open Nantes N.F.C, 1 st S.E Sec Verse Laga NANTES Yearling N.F.C, 1 st Sec 2 nd Open G.D.S.B/N.F.C, 144 th Dax International (19,000+) and 8 th Open Hens International (3,500). The Hen herself went to Tarbes last year with N.F.C being clocked at 20:44 to take the 433 rd open. This year her preparation was Vire with the Solent Fed, Cholet with N.F.C and Carentan with the Solent Fed, 3 days before basketing time with the classic a bit of a gamble I know.
Having decided to take two days off from work once I heard the birds had been liberated I settled down in the garden with the radio, I got my paint and a brush and prepared for a long day as I needed to do something to distract myself otherwise I would be pacing the garden. After a few phone calls to several good fanciers, an ETA was hard to call but the general guide was about 11 o clock would be a goodun. As I ran out of paint, I decided to basket my hens for the Agen Race looking all the time at the drinking trough on the young bird trap thinking I must take it off as I do every race day. It was while I was in and out of the loft, I saw the blue Hen coming due south over the house roof. She landed straight on the loft roof, so I went to call her in, after many calls and no sign of her on the trap, I decided to look outside for where she was. Yes, you guessed it, she was on the drinking trough having a long deserved drink. Now I could have caught her on the drinker, but what if I missed her, so up she went back on the loft roof and just sat there. At this point I picked up a bit of ply to try and move her along the roof, this was no good she just moved up the roof out of reach. So a broom was fetched. Still this was no good. I then decided to let her cock out to try and drive her in, but he went for a couple of laps until he saw her, and drove her in. Just as well she had time to spare. Although she has flown out her body weight, she looked in good order. Considering the time in the basket, and what turned out to be a hard race. My second pigeon a full brother to her came home having been hawked on his back. I had 3 of my 5 home that I sent. I have called her Blue Thyme as this was the colour of the paint I was using at the time. Having tried the roundabout system for a couple of years and found it too time consuming. The birds are raced on natural this year which I find more enjoyable and fits in with work. The birds seem happier with open loft most days therefore the hen was sent sitting 16 days on eggs.
Alan Holdaway. Sid and Val Miles from Peasedown St John are 2 nd open 1 st North West Section with a 5 year old pencil blue cock. He is flown on widowhood and has won several prizes. Last year he flew Tarbes National and came back injured with a broken keel but still won pool money. He flew Tours 2 weeks ago where he was 2 nd Club, 9 th Combine Open and from there he went on to Tarbes. He is bred from our old blue hen Little Betty who won 1 st Combine Marmande in 14hrs 53mins on the day. The following year she was 2 nd Section 14 th Open Pau National 15hrs 16mins on the day. Little Betty has won from Minstead upwards and bred a lot of good pigeons for us. The Sire is a stock bird bred from two Pau National Winners Little Mandy who has also won Marmande winning by over an hour to the next Pigeon. Little Mandy was bred out of a mealy cock who was bred from two Pau National Winners, Little Darling flown by Miles & Dix and Ashgrove King flown by Harding Bros. The Dam of Little Mandy, a chequer hen is also bred from a Pau National Winner Rose Mead Abigail flown by George Burgess. We would like to congratulate the winner and everyone else that timed in, as it was a hard race.
Sid and Val Miles with their Great Grandchildren. Winner of the South West Section and 3 rd Open is previous Tarbes Classic winners Nick and Christine Smith from Salisbury. Our 2 year old cock was sent sitting 12 day old eggs. All our birds are raced on the natural system. He had flown Seaton once and Exeter twice with the Wiltshire Fed and Guernsey and Messac with the Classic. Weather permitting all the birds are trained 30 miles twice a week. Both his Sire and Dam are from the Ponderosa Stud. His sire being a Muller Jan Aarden and is of the First Lady x Aarden 84 lines. His dam is a Granddaughter of Bonfire, 1st National Brive (6228 birds). Our congratulations go to Alan Holdaway. Congratulations also to Nick for his BBC Messac (Le Mans) Section win on the same day. Nick Smith.
4 th Open 2 nd South East Section is Dave Brain from Portsmouth. Firstly, I must thank my wife Annette to whom I ve been married to for forty years for all the work she does around the lofts, feeding getting the birds in from training etc. Without all her help this would not be possible. Also to my friends Richie Thomas and Teddy Harris for keeping me on my toes and for their help when needed and a special thank you to Wearn Bros 1 & E Neilson for the stock I have off them and the advice given to me over the years which has been noted. Now to the birds, the strain of the two birds are Vandenabeeles, 2 nd Section 4 th Open was a 2 yr old blue hen on roundabout which previously was 2 nd Club Bergerac 2012 and 2 nd Club Fougeres 2013 into a strong north west wind. My second bird 8 th Section 15 th Open is the sire to my first bird, which is also a Vandenabeele on roundabout. He is a 3 year old chequer cock, who was 142 nd Open Tarbes Classic 2012, 1 st Club Vire 2013 and 3 rd Club Fougeres 2013. The birds are fed on Kev King s and Gem s mixtures also local farms if available. I should like to thank the convoyers for the condition of the birds after six days in the basket. Thank God for the M27 and food for thought plenty of Diesel!!!!! Well done to all members who got birds home on a very testing day. Dave and Annette Brain. The terrible two Tony Cottrell and Ollie Richmond of Wimborne take the 5 th Open 2 nd South West Section position. GB11N43261 Blue chequer Vandenabeele cock from some of the best of the strain. The Sire GB09R13868 has always been stock and the Grandsire GB03N22484 was bred by Mel and Sue king of Charlton Marshall, known as Thetis 12 th Section 76 th Open BBC Bordeaux, 1 st Section 21 st Open 1 st Gold Ring BBC YB Lamballe, many other prizes and breeder of winners.(mel & Sue s top cock).
The Grand Dam of 43261 is a light blue chequer hen GB03Z87782 bred by M & D Evans from Winston and Ebony and was purchased by us at Blackpool and loaned to Mel and Sue King to breed from in 2009. The Dam of 43261 a blue chequer hen GB08C98995 was bred by Mel and Sue from Eros x Sheba another top breeding pair of the King s. Eros was 1 st Open Nantes NFC amongst many other top positions and Sheba (stock) is sister to a host of winners and a Daughter of 1 st Section 1 st Open BBC Bordeaux. GB11N43261 is known as Supermoon. This season he has flown from Ramsgate and Fougeres with the Rossmore Flying Club in the Dorset Fed and the Messac Classic race where he was clocked 8 th out of 25 birds. We would like to congratulate Alan Holdaway on his win and our very good friend Sid Miles on being 2 nd and only sending 2 birds. Also well done to Nick Smith for winning Section B. (we have birds from all three of these fanciers in our loft). Finally a big well done to the convoyers for looking after the birds so well in very trying circumstances Supermoon arrived home in super condition. Tony Cottrell and Ollie Richmond. One man who enjoys his long distance flying is Tony Leggatt from Havant. Tony is never far away from the top in this race and 2013 sees Tony put in another great performance with 2 birds in the top ten 6 th and 9 th Open 3 rd and 4 th South East Section. Congratulations to my club mate Alan Holdaway on winning this year's Tarbes race. Not only did he beat me, I had to take his birds to the race marking, then on top of that I was asked to verify his winning blue hen. Only kidding Alan, the pleasure was all mine, a super looking pigeon. As a young bird, my own hen was 14 th Solent Fed Guernsey, 33 rd open, 4 th section A BBC Bordeaux. As a yearling, 2 nd day last year's Tarbes Classic, and now 6 th open, 3 rd section.
Many thanks to the Classic team, and help from Dave Hawthorne. Tony Leggatt with his youngest Granddaughter Savannah and his pigeon Savannah Blue. 2 nd North West Section 7 th Open is awarded to Janet and Ken Wilcox of Midsomer Norton. Sadly due to weather conditions Tarbes 2013 turned into a split day race, something we ourselves dislike but these things cannot be avoided at times. Personally, after a 2 day holdover with conditions looking favourable for next day I would like the birds brought back 100 miles and liberated the next morning. Moving on to the bird we timed to be 2 nd Section 7 th Open. She is a 3 year old blue hen sitting 8 days on basketing having been repaired and having had 3 inland and 4 short overseas races to Messac. She was unraced as a young bird and was sent to 10 races up to Saintes as a yearling. Unfortunately missing most of last season due to a bad attack of thrush. She is bred down from birds obtained like the majority of our stock from Geoff Kirkland a half brother /sister mating (yearling), which were bred from an outstanding Van-Den Pol cock (fireyes) we had in 1995. Most of our present day birds contain his blood. Thanks go to the convoyer s and race-controllers on a difficult weekend and congratulations to all who time very game birds we had 3 second day birds from 7 sent.
Janet and Ken Wilcox. We go from one lady (Janet Wilcox) who dreams of breaking her bridesmaid position to a fancier who also deserves to take the 1 st Open spot, Andy Parsons from Salisbury. This years Tarbes Classic sees Andy with 5 birds in the top 18, 8 th, 11 th, 12 th, 16 th and 18 th Open 3 rd, 4 th, 5 th, 6 th and 7 th South West Section plus three other positions as well. Phenomenal flying by anyone standards. My bird timed is from my Burgess/Cannon family. She had three training tosses then Carentan and Cholet with the NFC, having a night out at Cholet. She flew NFC Tarbes last year and arrived on the 3 rd Morning. Her Sire has scored 3 times from Tarbes himself before failing to return from Barcelona. The Dam has scored 4 times from Tarbes. Congratulations to the winners especially my good friend Nick Smith. Andy Parsons. Richie Thomas from Portsmouth is having a cracking season. He started off taking 3 rd Open 3 rd SE Section from the Classic s first old bird race from Guernsey then
followed that with 20 th Open 2 nd SE Section out of Messac. This Tarbes race has Richie taking the position 10 th Open 5 th South East Section also timing another two pigeons. First of all, I would like to congratulate Alan Holdaway on winning first open and first section in the Tarbes classic. Also I would like to thank the Classic for looking after my birds so well, after six days in the basket. I was a bit disappointed when the birds were liberated so late in the day, but this was the Classic s decision and I think it was the right one. The pigeon I got was raced on the Remi de May type system which the cocks and hens have been coming well on. The cock I timed in comes from a Van Wanroy from a hen that was purchased with a winning voucher from Ponderosa UK won by Buddy Shipp. He has had four races this year and was 19 th Solent Fed Vire 2 out of 2,652 pigeons. Then he was 82 nd Open and 16 th Section in the Messac Classic with 2,790 birds. He was also 24 th Open, 10 th Section with the NFC out of 6000+ birds. He is now 10 th Open, 5 th Section Tarbes. The next stop for him is Bergerac against Scraggy s Lad my 2012 Bergerac winner. The 2 nd pigeon that was 49 th Open was a Kipp pigeon brought from my mate Frank Sheader and the 3 rd pigeon that was 64 th Open was also from Frank, all raced on the same system. I had 4 out of 6 pigeons on the day, all the pigeons were fed Verse Laga from Kevin King s shop, other products I use are from Viv and Brian Wall of Gem. I would like to congratulate my very good friends Dave and Net Brain for being 4 th and 14 th Open, and thank you to my lovely wife Jayne for doing all the pigeon training for me since passing her test this year. Also thank you to my mate Kenny Wearn for telling me how to condition pigeons to fly 500 miles+ and I would like to say, it's nice to see a few brothers win big races! We should all meet up at Blackpool to have a Caribbean night to eat chicken, goat and rice. This is Richie Thomas keeping it real and living in an even longer golden mile because I'm not sure how long this golden mile is. P.S Don't eat yellow snow!!
Richie Thomas. (I hope Peter the dog hasn t been stood like that since the Messac Classic Race)!!! Brian and Linda Dixon from Milton under Wychwood are the winners of the North East Section. Brian & Linda's pigeon is from an old family of Cattrysse/Janssen/Biss pigeons. It is a blue bar hen carrying nine flights. She was paired up at the end of March with a view to sending to this race. She has had two previous channel races this year, Carentan and Messac. We always aim for the hens to be sitting for 12 to 14 days. We only fly on the natural system as we like to see the pigeons happy and contented with an open loft as much as possible. Brian started keeping pigeons as a schoolboy over 50 years ago in the Slough Premier club. At that time he was racing pigeons to an old chicken shed. After marriage, two children and five house moves finally settling in the Cotswolds. (Ernie Smith still thinks we have no electric!! Pigeons have had to take a back seat for the last few seasons due to Brian's ill health thankfully now much better and able to spend more time with the birds. Linda says " I like him racing his pigeons as it keeps him out of mischief!
Brian Dixon with his training mate Badger the Dog. Nigel Finch from Wantage is the North East Section s Runner Up. I timed a 2 year old blue cock now called Cosmo as I was planting out some cosmos as he arrived. He was bought at the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Breeder buyer sale in 2011 one of the Cornish pigeons brought up every year. He was bred by V & D Harvey from Penzance of Invincible Spirit x Padfield lines. Thank you for putting him in. This cock has previously been 16 th Section 121 st Open Carentan Classic and 4 th Club Bergerac. This year is his third time over the Channel starting with Guernsey Classic, 14 th Messac Club and now Tarbes Classic. He was sent to Tarbes feeding a 10 day old youngster, his first pairing of the year. He is fed a mixture of foods. Thanks to the convoyer s for their efforts. He is back in good condition after that time in the basket. Well done to Brian Dixon on your Section win. Nigel Finch. Steve Appleby s weather report.
Heavy cloud was identified over the Tarbes race point Sunday morning, again preventing liberation of the two Classic Club s pigeons. This was the same weather pattern that affected Tarbes the previous two days. Low cloud had cascaded down from the Pyrenees mountain range affecting the surrounding areas. On Sunday morning this cloud was forecast to break up as pressure rose and at approximately 13:40 the convoyer s rang to report a liberation sky had become available. At 14:00 hours the birds were released clearing the site immediately in a northerly direction. The flight path up through France was first class: of broken cloud and sunshine (see satellite image). On their return journey the convoyer s reported these good weather conditions and winds were light mainly from the west averaging 8 to 10 mph. At first light Monday morning (day 2) the whole of northwest France was under almost cloudless skies. The race route from northern France to the English south coast was excellent with a clear channel and very good visibility. The high velocity winds over the channel Saturday had now eased down to acceptable force 3 or 4 (10 to 18 mph) Winds generally over the channel were from the west north west veering to a more westerly direction over southern England. Once the birds were airborne the weather conditions for this race were as good as you can get. Well done to all competitors who recorded arrivals in this blue ribbon race. Messac old bird race flown Saturday 25 th May 2013. List of prize and nomination winners from this race are: B E Milkins (NW165) The Nantes Cup, Reg & Rene Heynes Memorial Trophy, NW Section Trophy, 150 Ponderosa UK Stud Voucher, a replica and a framed photograph of the winning pigeon. S Wilcox (NW97) The Runners Up Trophy and replica. M Hayne (SW484) SW Section Trophy and replica. J Attrill (SE405) SE Section Trophy and replica. M/M D Seery (NE352) NE Section Trophy and replica.
Messac Yearling Derby winner M/M G & M Wile & S Lias (NW1343) Wins the Yearling Rose Bowl. Charity Cup Winners. 1. Mrs J Wilcox (NW489) Charity Cup. 2. J Attrill (SE405) Charity Cup. 3. Mrs J Wilcox (NW489) Charity Cup. D Caudle (NW235) - 50 for highest velocity by a New Member. Bergerac Bergerac is just around the corner on Friday 12 th July with marking on Tuesday 9 th July. Your last posting date is Saturday 6 th July. Clare Norman. Tel: 023 8057 3919 Email: secretary@cscfc.com