WELSH SOUTH ROAD NATIONAL FLYING CLUB BERGERAC RACE REPORT The final race of the old bird program was contested on the weekend of 15 th July when the convoy of the Welsh SRNFC was liberated at 5.45 am at Bergerac along with the birds of the Central Southern Classic FC. The winds along the route through France and the channel were forecast to be light west south west with good weather throughout the route. Hopes were therefore high that the Welsh pigeons would get through on the day to their home lofts, most of which were more than 500 miles from the race point in south west France. This proved to be the case as Mark Sparey of Abertillery clocked his superb two year old widower to record 1177 ypm to win 1 st East Section and 1 st Open Welsh SRNFC. This is a truly big hearted pigeon as just two weeks earlier he had competed from Tarbes at more than 600 miles to win 5 th Open National. Raced on the classic Cooper/Gilbert widowhood system he had competed in four earlier channel races in 2011 these being Carentan, Alencon, Tours and Tarbes before his ultimate triumph from Bergerac. Mated in the second week of February he was allowed to rear a round of youngsters and sit the second round of eggs for no more than 6 days before going onto widowhood. The widowers are exercised twice daily for 75 minutes and once over the channel are raced fortnightly and fed accordingly. Before being sent to Bergerac he was given his hen before basketting for the first time this season and allowed access to straw to build a nest. This certainly seems to have done the trick! The National winner is bred from a Deweerdt cock purchased from Andy Gregson of Preston whilst his dam was bred by Mark s good friend and mentor, double International winner, Mark Gilbert and is Deweerdt {Boris lines} x De Bergerac Jan Aarden. Mark s second pigeon in the clock is another two year old widowhood cock and this one looks good enough for 3 rd East section 3 rd Open. He is bred from the 30 Cock so
named because he was purchased for just 30 at Peter Owtrim s bereavement sale. Because of Peter s untimely death there was no paperwork to accompany the cock but Mark was struck on the pigeon and so bought him as seen. He has also bred other good performers for the Sparey loft including a hen to win 16 th National Saintes. The 3 rd Open winner has himself won 16 th National Tours and is still a relatively young pigeon so who knows what the future holds for him. The dam is once again of Mark Gilbert breeding containing the bloodlines of Mark s Dax International winner Southfield Supreme x James Bond Vandenabeele lines. Congratulations Mark on an outstanding win to cap an outstanding season s channel racing.a full loft report on the Sparey team will appear shortly. In second spot at both 2 nd East section 2 nd Open is the Caldicot partnership of John and Ann Rake. John and Ann clocked a two year old hen of ¼ Vanbruaene x ¾ Andy Gregson Deweerdt bloodlines. Sent sitting due to hatch, she had previously flown Carentan twice;messac and Cholet in the build up to the Bergerac race. She is bred from two of the loft s top performers as her mother The Bergerac Hen is a multiple prize winner at National level and will be well placed in this race as she was clocked on the day at a little after 7 pm. The sire of the winner of 2 nd National has flown and won National prizes from Pau, Tarbes and San Sebastian on the south road and also 1 st Thurso on the north road. This is another loft that has enjoyed a good season of channel racing as John and Ann have clocked pigeons high up on most of the National results and are of course multiple National winners over the past 10 or so years. At 4 th East Section 5 th Open is a bird to the phenomenally successful Garndiffaith loft of Ron Scammell and Paul Peploe. This 2 year old chequer pied hen flown on roundabout is one hell of a pigeon! Just look at her channel performances in 2011-1 st Gwent Greater Distance Club Alencon, flown with the BICC; 17 th National Carentan;2 nd National Cholet[beaten by loftmate both came together];8 th National Niort and now 5 th National Bergerac. Absolutely outstanding but when you look at her pedigree the reader can see why. Her sire is the Nearly Cock so
named because he nearly won three Nationals finishing second on three occasions. Her dam is Bernard Clarke s Hen bred by Bernard Clarke and purchased by Ron and Paul at a young bird exchange. She is a winner of 1 st National Picauville as a young bird. With breeding like that she couldn t fail. Now two years old she has been raced throughout the season on the roundabout system and this entails twice daily exercise periods of an hour on each occasion. The food is not rationed here as the roundabout team have access to a hopper of food throughout the day. Next up at 5 th East Section 6 th Open we have another phenomenally successful partnership that of Preece Brothers & Sons of Cwmtillery. This combination has won an incredible 13 x 1sts National and literally scores of other top ten National finishes. Their timer here is a two year old. Unfortunately at the time of writing this report I do not have any further details on this latest top class performer for the partnership. At 6 th East Section 7 th Open is a yearling chequer pied cock raced by the Talywain partnership of Simon Smith and the late Jack Jenkins. This yearling cock was raced on the round about system in the early part of the season and was then re mated to be sitting 16days for Bergerac. He had competed in all races to Messac and was then sent to Niort two weeks before the Bergerac race. After being re mated he enjoyed an open loft from dawn till dusk, supplemented by daily trainers from the Severn Bridge at 17 miles. Here again we see a top class pigeon with impeccable breeding. His sire is a Jan Aarden bred by Scammell & Peploe whilst his dam is bred from Simon s two National winners from Lillers and Brussels. The 2011 season has seen the continued success of Derek Flowers assisted by his brother Clive. In addition to the multi National winning 2010 season Derek has won a further two Nationals on the south east route in 2011. He then decided to turn a small team south to compete with the Welsh SRNFC from Bergerac and his first in the clock is good enough for 7 th East Section 8 th Open. Derek s timer is a 4 year old hen which, once again was flown on round about and then mated to be sitting 10 days on basketting for Bergerac. The hen is a previous winner of 6 th National Saverne in 2010 and had flown the Lillers and Reims races on the south east route prior to going to Bergerac. Her breeding shows the increasing influence that pigeons emanating from the loft of Scammell & Peploe are having on a number of top winning pigeons in South Wales. Sire bred by Scammell & Peploe. Dam is from another Combine winning loft- that of Dave Mathews of Abersychan. She is bred down from the old Kenyons and is related to the National winning pigeons of Comperrat & Holmes of Abergavenny.
Terry and Carol Gardner of Portskewett clocked one of their long distance team of Jan Aardens that always do well for them when the going is hard and the distance long, for 8 th East Section and 9 th Open. Kevin and Tyrone Arnold of Six Bells come in with one for 9 th East S ection 10 th Open, no doubt this was one of their roundabout team that have served them so well in the past winning three long distance Nationals in very short order. The winner of 1 st Centre Section 4 th Open is a two year old hen of Eijerkamp Van Loon bloodlines to the loft of Gareth Treharne and Son Stuart. The partners clocked a two year old sister to the first bird very close behind the section winner and this one will also be high up on the result. They both contain the Van Loon lines of Miss Ellis, Silver Shadow and Chicago. Raced on the roundabout system for the most part of the season they were re mated after the Niort race and sent to Bergerac sitting 4-5 days on eggs. Provisionally 2 nd Centre Section is a bird to the Ferndale partnership of Foster Brothers. Glyn clocked a two year old blue clock of Ken Abbott Van Bruaene x Louella Jan Aarden bloodlines. There s a bit of a story surrounding this timing as Glyn had left the loft at 9 pm and returned at 9.40 to find the blue cock in his box. However he didn t get around to clocking him until 9.56!!!! Anyone who knows our Glyn will understand the reason! Hopper fed on a good breeding mixture, and enjoying an open loft throughout the day the blue cock s last channel race was the testing Messac race on June 4 th. In the interim period he had a short 94 miler from Newbury plus a couple of private trainers from 35 miles plus of course the open loft. Well done Glyn, it was good to talk to you and find that you are still enjoying the sport in your own uniquely laid back manner- long may you do so. The winner of 1 st West Section is a two year old Jan Theelen Mealy cock raced by triple National winners Philip Fishlock &Hilary Roberts. The mealy is bred from stock obtained from Raymond Moleveld via Stuart Wilcox. Yet again we see a pigeon that was raced on round about in the early part of the season, being re mated and winning a top prize at National level. Phil was full of praise for his partner Hilary as he said she does most of the work and the partnership has won all three of their Nationals in the time that she has been with him. The cock was re mated after Cholet and sent to Bergerac sitting 14 days. The Watkins Brothers of Neath come in for 2 nd West section with their timer. Unfortunately I was unable to contact them to get information on their pigeon.
Once again I must emphasise that all the above positions are provisional as they are based on first bird phone verification times supplied to me by the secretary. The final positions may change considerably if fanciers mentioned have clocked subsequent pigeons. Next race is the young bird National from Eastbourne on 3 rd September followed by the Carentan National on 17 th September. In the intervening weeks I hope to contact the winners of the Carentan, Messac and Cholet Nationals and put together brief reports on their winning pigeons. In the meantime here s wishing you all good racing. Gareth Watkins 18/7/2011