Flying into the NW - Talbenny & Tullamore

[willie reynolds]

Although we have two races to cover this week, the results as with the old birds get shorter as the racing gets longer. The NIPA was in Talbenny for the young bird National, and also had a comeback race from Tullamore. Talbenny to most fanciers is the guts of 200 miles, while Tullamore is in and around 120 miles.

Talbenny has over many years proved to be one of the most difficult race points on the calendar, and hard enough as it is for old birds, it is surely many times harder for young and inexperienced young birds. This being the case, we have only two reported day’s birds in the North West. Alan Hall in Omagh, who has been in tremendous form of late, has the first bird, while Anthony in the Derry and District has the second. Anthony is another fancier who is having a super season, with a win from Talbenny and the only bird in the Derry Centre surely the highlight of his season so far. Two top notch flyers with two really game young pigeons. Well done to both men. Alan of course will add this to his collection of Section wins for the year.

The velocities for the birds were Alan Hall (Omagh) 1016, Anthony Mc Crudden (Derry and District) 887.

On then to the Tullamore comeback race where we can stretch the result a bit further. This week we will have to start with the
Limavady club, where Ronnie Witherow keeps on churning out the winners. Ronnie not only takes the first two in the Limavady club, but also tops the Section, way ahead of the chasing pack. Henderson Crawford is in the frame again for third, with A J Kelly in fourth spot. The full result for Limavady looks like this, 1st and 2nd Ronnie Witherow 1709, 1583, 3rd H Crawford 1388, 4th A J Kelly 1340. Top notch flying from Ronnie yet again.

Next up this week, we go to the Foyle club, where Sean Mc Grotty continues his good form of late to make it a double, with two wins in two weeks. Sean also takes second spot with Paul Maxwell who is always there or there abouts in third. Gerry Nixon sneaks one in to take a good fourth spot, while Paul Maxwell rounds out the top five. The full result then for the Foyle was, 1st and 2nd Sean Mc Grotty 1669, 1649, 3rd and 5th P Maxwell 1638 4th Gerry Nixon. ( Didn’t get velocities for the 4th or 5th positions). Well done to Sean, top flying again.

In the Rock club this week, Tommy White, another man who has had an outstanding season, takes first and second positions, while newcomer to the club Jimmy Quigley has a good race with third and fourth. Another newcomer Gerry Mc Glinchey takes fifth. The full result then was, 1st and 2nd Tommy White 1647, 1627, 3rd and 4th J Quigley 1607, 1391, and 5th G Mc Glinchey 1251. Well done again to Tommy, great result.

In the Derry and District this week from Tullamore, it’s the Jim and Gary Ramsey show, with the partnership taking three of the top five spots. Stephen Barker makes the frame this week for second, while the ever present Kieran Reid rounds out the top five. The result then looks like this, 1st, 3rd and 5th Jim and Gary Ramsey 1662, 1617, 1497, 2nd S Barker 1658, 4th B + K Reid 1595.Super racing again from Jim and Gary.

Last but not least this week we have the Tullamore result for the Omagh club. No great surprises here where Alan Hall makes it another double for the week, having already won from Talbenny. Alan almost makes it a clean sweep of the result, taking the first four positions in the club. A J Kelly is the only other man to figure in the result, taking fifth spot. The Tullamore result looks like this, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Alan Hall 1568, 1505, 1502, 1474, 5th A J Kelly 1420.

No result this week for the Maiden City unfortunately. The powers that in the club decided half an hour before strike off that they would not strike off until Sunday afternoon. Well at least they did give half an hour’s notice so who could complain about that. This was apparently to suit those who had not clocked from Talbenny. The question then is what about those who didn’t send to Talbenny ?, and why is there a rule about needing to use two clocks for this and other races? Maybe the NIPA would give special dispensation to the club to allow only their members to use one clock for these races as the rule doesn’t seem to apply anyway, and they just seem to make things up as they go along.
Well done again to all our winners this week, and well done to all those who managed to get a position.
billyknox@btinternet.com