The local club held their Annual Dinner and Presentation of Prizes for 2015 in the Portadown Golf Club, and again were treated to an excellent meal. The last racing season has been very successful for the members with 102 Sect Positions and 90 Open Positions won racing with the NIPA and INFC. Top highlights included a brilliant performance in Bude with 14 birds making the Open Result, added to that in the young bird season 9 birds in Fermoy and then 12 in the Premier YB National from Talbenny in South Wales.
Top performances in the old birds included Malcolm Livingstone 4th Sect & 22nd Open NIPA Corrin with over 26,000 birds, Bobby Creaney 3rd Sect & 5th Open and Frank Wright 8th Sect & 17th Open NIPA Bude, Sloan & Reid 12th Sect & 66th Open NIPA Penzance and Aiden Fearon continued his top performance on the channel by taking 2nd Sect & 7th Open NIPA Sennen Cove Classic.
In the French races the partnership of Hagan & Rowney were 10th Sect & 24th Open NIPA St Malo Nat with the only bird on the day in a difficult race. It the Kings Cup from Saint Allouestre in was Sloan & Reid who had 1st Club, with G Matchett & Sons runner-up and Allan McDonald the former Kings Cup winner 3rd, all 3 birds made the INFC Open Result.
Top results continued with the young birds with John Gordon 15th & 18th Sect in Tullamore (1) and Tullamore (3). In Clonmel Hagan & Rowney 2nd Sect & 20th Open NIPA, Prunty & Hamill 9th Sect & 43rd Open, Larkin Bros 18th & 19th Sect and 57th & 58th Open. In Fermoy Hagan & Rowney again had top spot, with Allan McDonald and Malcolm Livingstone taking the next 4 places. In the Talbenny YB National another brilliant performance from partners Martin Hagan and Philip Rowney again 1st plus 2nd and 5th, and Larkin Bros a close 3rd and 4th. In Fermoy Martin & Philip dominated the result with 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
In the challenging YB National from Penzance the partners Alan and Paul Larkin had their top performance of the season with the top three in the club plus 13th, 45th & 51st Sect and 19th, 66th & 71st Open INFC. The Matchett Bros clocked two birds in the Open Result to complete an excellent club performance.
In the Rosscarbery National it was Club Chairman Allan McDonald who had the top spot winning 1st Portadown Centre, 3rd Sect & 69th Open NIPA. In the final race from Skibbereen the Larkin Bros finished top again and an excellent 26th North Sect & 32nd Open INFC.
Special guest at the dinner was former Kings Cup winner Diamond Carson from Banbridge who along with his late father Dick won the Blue Riband Kings Cup plus a motor car in 1989. Diamond thanked the club for the invitation to present the awards and congratulated the members on such a successful season.
Top Prize-winners were partners Martin Hagan and Philip Rowney who were Club Fancier of the Year winning 6 x 1sts and numerous Open Positions and lifting 8 Cups. This included OB Average, Cross Channel Average and Combined Averages. Larkin Bros will be well pleased with their season finishing 2nd, lifting 6 Cups and winning both Penzance and Skibbereen Nationals. The 3rd Highest Prize-winner was Malcolm Livingstone and he was the man to beat in the OB Inland race programme winning again the Inland Average. He collected 3 Cups and took top spot in Corrin and Rosscarbery National.
Allan McDonald in 4th place won 4 Cups with wins Pilmore Beach and Rosscarbery YB Nat, he had Bird of the Year with his Blue Cheq (h) that took 1st, 2nd and 5th in the young bird season. Paul and Glen Matchett were 5th a very consistent season with many good performances. They were Top Prize-winners in the 2 Bird Club winning the William McDonald Memorial Cup. Sloan & Reid enjoyed success by taking 1st in the Yearling National, Penzance and the Kings Cup, top racing in the cross channel season. Aiden Fearon won 2 Cups and 1 Cup each for John Gordon and Bobby Creaney. Many thanks to Allen McDonald for the text and photos.
Martin Hagan (l) with special guest Diamond Carson.
Allan McDonald.
Malcolm Livingstone.
Aiden Fearon.
Francey Sloan.
Paul Matchett.
S & N Haughian.
Alan & Paul Larkin.
\\\"Charlotte\\\" Bird of the Year for A McDonald.