Its now Wednesday evening, just two day’s before we depart on our annual trip to Belgium to see our very good friend Luc Ceulemans, we are a bit later than usual this year, as he was held up with his initial mating up time, and that has put us back a couple of weeks. Personally I don’t mind as I am not putting the young birds on the darkness system this year, having to rebuild a team after the fiasco of last season, I don’t think I have ever lost or heard of so many birds being lost as there were last year, funny thing is, there were some members of our club that after the early losses with young birds, the rest of their teams went on to complete a great young bird season for them, with very few losses later in the season, it would seem that once the birds got the hang of it, there was no losing them after that.
Joe will probably be rushing home to get his on the dark as quick as possible, although he seldom admits to having any system with his birds either young or old, that’s why our friends from Plymouth christened him no darkness Joe, after being told that he does not put his young birds on darkness, they paid him a surprise visit only to find the usual curtains, blinds and whatnot draped all over the front of the young bird compartments and the young birds inside looking like two year olds ready for the off, needless to say, he got some ribbing over that for quite some time.
Derek, well Derek is Derek, only god knows what he’ll get up to with his lot.
We are getting nearer to the start of racing now, and most will have the baskets out already, the usual suspects will have them ready on time as usual, the rest will tag along in time.
In our own club I expect to see the big five, Davy, Jimmy, JJ, Joe, & the partnership of Roly & Rocca, in no particular order, hopping off the rest of us, not to mention the sparks that will be flying between each of them, as none of them are quite able to dominate the rest, it augers well for the strength of the club, there are others on the fringes that can score in any of the races, Dwayne, Billy, Bogdan, Tony, Damien, Michael, & Archi have all been there before and along with a few others will pose a threat, if any of the top five take their eye off the ball. There may be a slight question mark hanging over the Roly & Rocca outfit, the little Italian has been up to his ears lately with business commitments and a young family to look after, and he finds it difficult to put in the time, and he is the first to admit that it takes 100% dedication to stay at the top, lucky enough, he is blessed to have a partner of the calliper of Roly Brennan, who will help see them through this rough patch.
Kilkenny club should have the likes of Holden & Flood, Conran & Cullen among others to the forefront in their club and who are also capable of taking Fed honours as well. Wexford will be fighting all the way, with the likes of Lyn Griffiths, Thomas Walsh, Anthony Thomas and Peter Doyle, have always raced well on the north road in the past, I’m looking forward to hearing the results from their PRO as soon as the racing season starts.
Enniscorty have depleted numbers this year but I am sure that those that are competing will be up there with the best of them, especially when it comes to the more important Federation races.
I know that John Dobbs has retired from most of the positions that he has held for a number of years now, and maybe that will be all he needs to motivate him for the coming season, as everyone knows, its very seldom that the officials of any organisation, do as well at racing as they should do, for most of their time and efforts are spent for the benefit of other fanciers, efforts that are not always appreciated by the rest of us, so here’s hoping that John is able to get the enjoyment out of the sport that he so richly deserves, for all his endeavours over the years on our behalf, not forgetting of course his side kick Paddy Collins, a dyed in the wool north roader and past winner of the old bird National in 2009.
Newross is a strong club, and I assume that the big hitters will be there or thereabouts again this year, Pat Ronan, Joe o Neill, Francis Kelly, John Tobin have all raced well in the past, right up to National level, there are others that can also do well, but if they don’t put in the effort that’s required to topple these guys, then we all know what happens, as there is mo mercy shown in this game.
Fethard Club will be racing with us this year for the first time, hopefully they too will appoint a PRO to submit results and information from their club as soon as or before the racing season starts. The best of luck to them anyway from all Fed members.
While speaking on the phone recently to old friend, Christy Hannigan, Carrick on Suir, he tells me he is looking forward to the new racing season, unfortunately Christy has no transport nowadays and depends on the goodwill of his fellow club mates to help him with the training of his birds, I’m sure there are plenty of willing hands in his area, as an old stager, it would be a shame to see the likes of Christy, a lifelong pigeon fancier struggling with his birds, and just to remind everyone of the work Christy has put in over the years I have included two photo’s that show Christy, sampling the beer, making sure it was safe for everyone to drink, and also another of him trying to organise the sing song, quite a job, with that lot, on our last visit to Antwerp.
Well that’s it for this week, any news , Photo’s ect. can be sent to me via e-mail to Corcoran@alpinelofts.net or Ph : 00353599145419.
Punch.
Christy_Hannigan_Barney_Nugent_Vincent_shaw_amp_Peter_Power.
l_Michael_Crotty_r_Christy_Hannigan.
