Flying into the NW - Clonmel 18/08/12

[willie reynolds]

This week the young birds move on to Clonmel, which is 180 miles plus to most men in the North West. Again this week, we have a very strange race with a few birds recording high velocities, while the rest fall away very sharply indeed. And again this week, returns are poor, with many birds missing at strike off. This seems to be the pattern for racing this year, maybe it’s something in the air or maybe a poor batch of young birds this year, who knows. With the birds up at 11.00 am, and the wind supposedly with them, a quick one with good returns was expected. But as we all know with pigeons, most weeks you never seem to get what you expect.

Just before we get on to this week’s results, a quick update on last week, which turned out to be an outstanding race for the North West birds. In fact we had the first two in the Open from a liberation of some 21,500 birds. Topping the mighty NIPA was Omagh fancier Alan Hall while in second, was Maiden City member John Killen. This is a tremendous achievement for both fanciers, and another boost for the North West birds.

We will begin our round up this week, as we did last week in Omagh, where that man Hall is at it again. Alan not only takes the first three in the club, but once again, tops the Section. Two Section wins and an Open win in two weeks, is outstanding flying by any standards and I’m sure there’s more to come in the remaining races. Well done again to Alan, super racing. The full result for

Omagh looks like this, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Alan Hall 1699, 1683, 1659, 4th and 5th M Caldwell 1655, 1611.
On to the Foyle club this week, where Raymond O Reilly again shows everyone how it’s done. Raymond’s birds have been in great form recently, with another win this week to make it two wins and a second from the last three races. Raymond’s bird this week is the first bird in Derry and will figure high in the Section as well, probably taking fourth spot. And this from a man who was ready to pack them in, the last time I was speaking to him. Surely now, with the way things have been going recently, this will be just the lift he needs. The full result then was as follows, 1st and 2nd Raymond O Reilly 1660, 1569, 3rd and 5th P Maxwell 1491, 1394, and 4th N Mc Grotty 1413.

In the Derry and District club this week, Kieran Reid once again leads the pack home. Another loft in super form this year, and another first for Kieran. This week Kieran takes three of the first five positions, and another top Section position. The very consistent Danny Canning takes another good second this week again while Colm Mc Conomy Jnr takes fourth. The full result looks like this, 1st, 3rd and 5th B + K Reid 1659, 1386, 1323, 2nd D Canning 1590, 4th C Mc Conomy Jnr 1350.

Up in Limavady this week, Ronnie Witherow completely dominates the result, with a clean sweep of the top five positions. Ronnie birds have been in top form all year and it doesn’t seem like there’s any stopping him at the moment. The result then looked like this, 1st, 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th Ronnie Witherow 1668, 1599, 1594, 1562, 1561.

On then to the Rock club this week, where Eamon Quigley is way out in front of the chasing pack. Sean Campbell has a good race with second and third spots, and will be hoping for a win before too long. The full result for the Rock then looked like this, 1st Eamon Quigley 1587, 2nd and 3rd S Campbell 1427, 1175, 4th C Mc Laughlin 1066, 5th J Quigley 1050.

A few new names in the Strabane club this week taking the top positions C Roche takes the red card, with R Mc Ateer in second, John ( Buddy ) Gamble in third, with D Mullen in fourth and G Mc Gavigan in fifth. The result then looked like this, 1st C Roche 1492, 2nd R Mc Ateer 1452, 3rd J Gamble 1374, 4th D Mullen 1199, 5th G Mc Gavigan 1173.

Last up this week we go to the Londonderry club, where the velocities are well down. The drag obviously having a big effect this week. It’s a Kelly dominated result this week, with Joe and Donal in first and third, Bobby Freeman in second, and Donal and the Sow and Grow boys in third and fifth spots. The Sow and Grow boys must be getting ready for the National judging by this result. The full result looks like this, 1st and 4th Joe and Donal Kelly 1239, 1151, 2nd B Freeman 1203, 3rd and 5th D Kelly 1167, 1130.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a result for the Maiden City this week at the time of writing. Maybe I can update this at a later date.
billyknox@btinternet.com