Mount Charles (1) - 23/04/11

[willie reynolds]

Noel Maguire wins Open from Mount Charles

The East Down Combine pigeons were in Mount Charles for their third race of the season on Saturday 23 April. Following a bit of early morning mist the birds were released at 12.30 in a light west wind. Mount Charles is the most westerly race point we have, sitting just outside Nenagh in Co Tipperary. For South Down members a west wind gives them a reasonable chance of making the Open result and this week they managed to do that with sixteen birds making the top forty in the Open. They were no doubt helped by the wind turning northwest on the way home.

Pride of place this week goes to Annsborough’s Noel Maguire who had a magnificent race taking 1st and 2nd South Down Fed, 1st and 2nd East Down Combine. I think this is a great result for pigeon racing, as Noel is the proverbial small team man. He started the season with just nine hens and five cocks and the cocks haven't been in a race yet. This just proves you don’t need big teams to compete with the best and lets any young fancier see that if you look after a small time right you will do just as well.

The two pigeons timed here are out of the same pair but not nest mates. They are Van Rijn yearling hens from ‘Benjamin’ lines. Noel got the Van Rijns from Robert McMeekin, Kingsmoss and they are the same way bred as his 2nd Open Rosscarbery National pigeon. The pigeon at second Open here was 8th Fed from Mullingar two weeks previously.
Noel got the Van Rijns in a couple of years ago from Robert McMeekin and they are going really well for him. With an even smaller team last year Noel had some wonderful Open positions to finish well up the leaderboard for the Inland Championship. Noel was very pleased to receive a visit from Robert to congratulate him on his latest success.

Mr & Mrs Irvine Tyrella are 3rd Fed this week and take a very commendable 4th east section, 5th Open. This will be a good tonic for Mervyn as he recovers from a recent operation and I would like to take this opportunity to wish him a speedy recovery. Philomena and Patrick are obviously doing a good job in Mervyn’s absence.
The pigeon timed here is a two-year-old Grondelaar/Hofkens hen.

Annsborough’s G & P Brown have two birds in the result at 4th and 6th Fed, 9th and 11th section, 13th and 15th Open to give them another great result.

Their first bird had been 3rd club the previous week from Tullamore and it had some very impressive results last year, when it was 1st Fed, 1st section, 4th Open Tullamore and 2nd Fed, 2nd section, 5th Open Talbenny when it won the 3 Bird Channel Championship.
The sire of this pigeon is the Lindelauf cock that won the section from Pilmore Beach in 2008. The dam is a Busschaert, which has bred a lot of prizewinners for K Rooney & Son who are responsible for the majority of Patrick and Geraldine’s best racers these days.
Their second pigeon is another one from K Rooney & Son. It was 6th Fed, 6th section, 15th Open from Bude last year and is a Reynaert through Herbot Bros Belgium. This bird was 10th Fed Fermoy, and 6th Fed, 7th section, 21st Open Talbenny last year, so again a very impressive racing record.

A Murray & Son, having a terrific start to the season in the Dundrum club are 5th Fed, 10th section, 14th Open here. The pigeon timed by Archie and Paddy is a yearling cock. The sire is a M Corens x Frans Laermans and was the young bird of the year in the Fed in 2006. It was six times first club, including, 6th Fed, 9th section, 36th Open Skibbereen YB Derby (1), 6th Fed, 16th section, Skibbereen YB Derby (2), 1st Fed, 31st North section, 59th Skibbereen YB National, and then as a yearling it was 23rd North section, 52nd Open Skibbereen National. The dam is a M Corens hen, which has always been in the stock loft, and is the dam and grand dam of multiple winners for the Murrays and others.

Annalong’s Jim Newell is seventh Fed this year. After a couple of leaner years Jim bounced back to top form last year taking 1st Open in the Derek Wishart race from Fermoy.

The pigeon timed here is a Soontjens yearling cock that was 38th Open the previous week from Tullamore and from his long line of Soontjens which produced many Open winners including his dual Open winner, ‘Concorde’.
D Croskery & Son Annsborough are 8th Fed with a yearling De Klak x Walker cross. This bird won three prizes as a young bird and the dam was also the dam of their Classic winner.

Annalong’s Bobby McConnell was 9th Fed with the bird that was 1st Fed, 1st Open last week from Tullamore. This pigeon is surely in tiptop form at the moment. This pigeon is a yearling that was only having its third race, having been trained only in 2010. It was bred by Bobby’s good friends Arnie and Sylvia Tonks from the West Midlands and contains their top Marc De Cock bloodlines.

The result is completed by Mickey Croskery Annsborough in 10th position. Mickey’s pigeon is a yearling cock whose dam is out of the Bude Open winner and ‘the cairn’, a winner of a host of prizes including 2nd Open Talbenny and 6th Open Bude. The sire is a son of John Jobey’s Queen’s Cup winner.

Full Result: 1, 2, N Maguire Annsborough 1601.2, 1601.0; 3, Mr & Mrs Irvine Tyrella 1584; 4, G & P Brown Annsborough 1564.5; 5, A Murray & Son Dundrum 1564.2; 6, G & P Brown 1564.0; 7, J Newell Annalong 1561.63; 8, D Croskery & Son Annsborough 1561.60; 9, B McConnell Annalong 1561.3; 10, M Croskery Annsborough 1560:

• The DTW was won from 2nd Mount Charles by G & P Brown. A new DTW will start this week from Fermoy.
• Thanks to everybody who made the May Day race such a success and congratulations to the winners J Maguire & Ptrs.
Report to follow next week.

• The Dundonald club are holding a 3-bird challenge from the Skibbereen Classic. Entry is £30 and numbers should be with Len McKinstry today 4th May. (Phone 07902693735). Anybody wanting any further details on this can contact Len or myself.