Fougeres National Success for Ivor Dyer

[Administrator]

“BOBBY’S DREAM"
TAKES 1ST OPEN FOR IVOR DYER

The clubs first race of the season saw an entry of around 9600 birds, entrusted to the care of new Chief Convoyer Paul Pym and his team of assistants. The large entry meant using three transporters, with two going on the Portsmouth/Caen route and the third from Plymouth/Roscoff, with all three meeting at Fougeres liberation site.

Chief Convoyer Paul Pym rang at 1700 hours on Friday, to say all was well with the birds and that the weather looked favourable for the Saturday liberation. Steve Appleby our weather man contacted and gave a favourable report for race day with East winds turning south in the Channel, and the full weather information is continued in this report. Both race advisors checked their own sources and the weather for race day also showed good flying conditions throughout England. Early Saturday morning Steve again rang to say the Channel was clear and after a call from Chief Conveyer Paul Pym an agreed liberation was scheduled for 6.30am into a light east wind and birds cleared well in blue skied and sunshine. Our thanks to all the Convoyers for looking after the birds so well and giving the members a very success race. Paul Clements and John Tyerman.

For the weather for this race and all the National Flying Club races I have the back up of Steve Appleby, each race we will produce a map from the race point in France right through France and the UK. On the map we will give the winds at the time of liberation and a wind progress report through the race. As we all know you can get a bird putting up a tremendous performance, but not getting the due recondition it deserves, we hope by giving the members an up to date weather report up through the sections as the race progresses it will give a truer idea of what wonderful performances some flyers achieve in the sections.

On to the race we have Plymouth flyer Ivor Dyer taking 1st Section D – Ist Open Ivor Dyer is no stranger to winning top honours, he was 1st Open National Flying Club Nantes in 2004, Ivor started racing pigeons in 1965 and has kept them ever since. Sadly Ivor’s Brother Bobby passed away in November 2007; Ivor brought some of Bobby’s over to his loft, after pushing them hard down the road he ended up with ten birds.

One hen turned out to be an exceptional bird; she was put down to Saints last season and done well, she was entered into the Fougeres race with the knowledge that with a fair wind she would do well and that exactly what she did taking 1st National.

This two year old hen has now been named “Bobby’s Dream in memory of Ivor’s Brother, Bobby’s Dream is raced on roundabout as all of Ivor’s birds, Gem Widowhood is used for feeding but nothing goes in the water, just good clean water, Ivor is very keen on watching the birds droppings, he says as long as they are ok he is happy. A small team of birds are kept with only three birds being sent to this race with this being a prep race for the Tarbes National. He will be a brave man if he sends her now.

1st Section A. Mr & Mrs Brian Wall, this partnership needs no introduction owner of Gem Products, their section winner will be named “Lucky 7” as it’s the 7th time this partnership has won Section A; Lucky 7 comes down from Brian’s own family of birds. This season they are racing cocks and hens and to date they have won five races, four with hens, Brian uses his own products in the water and Gem Widowhood corn, clearly its working going on the performances so far, normally they race 28 cocks but this year they are racing 28 which includes cocks and hens. Brian has done an awful lot for the sport and I can honestly say you will not meet a nicer man.

1st Section B Mr C Bartlett, He has been racing birds for the last 30 years the winner is a Janssen x Imbrect, and the Janssen side comes down from Fountain Head and Louella with the sire’s side coming from club member Micky Smith. A small team is kept this year racing 26 old birds, he has started using E.T.S. as Chris has to work every other week which has been a real help. Chris would like to thank Roy Waters and Mark Dorrington for helping him set up the system.

1st Section C. John & David Staddon, John and Son David formed their partnership in 2004 and is now one of the best known partnerships in the South of England. They started the season with 20 pairs of racers, with 15 pairs of stock being kept, and only two additives are added to the water a Pro-Biotic or Cider Vinegar. The Section Winner is a pure Jos Thorne yearling cock bred from a Granddaughter Poco Deago on the Dam side, the sires side is from a Son of Bonk, both Jos Thorne champions. Their birds are raced on total widowhood, the hens are fed and let out from their section and go back into that section all week, the same with the cocks. On race day they both trap into the race loft. Such is the quality of this loft they have another cock right behind the Section Winner which will be 2nd Section. John and David won the section from Saints which was the last old bird race of the season and has carried this into the first race for this season. Great flying.

1st Section E is the family partnership of Mr & Mrs E Corkett & Sons, consisting of Eric, Margaret & Sons Gary & Glen. Their first pigeon from Fougeres is a young bird blue pied Flur-Engels cock flown on widowhood, preparation for this race was one inland race; 2nd race was The Midlands National FC Lessay, the week after this he was sent to The National FC Fougeres winning Section E by 52 yards. This pigeon was fed on Gerry Plus in the week never knocked down, on the Saturday returning from a race and Sunday they are fed a diet mixture.

1st Section F We have Alec Docherty taking the honours in his section; his winning bird is a Janssen red Chequer cock, this three year old cock has been very consistent for Alec winning the Picauville race last season with the Wilshire Continual Club. He has been in the sport since 1980 and raced pure widowhood taking many top positions on the way; he uses Gerry Plus for the morning feed, Bamfords Fast and Fancy in the evening. Alec keeps about 60 birds that are race team; stock birds and young birds. The winning bird was bred by Smith and Baker, Darren Baker does the breeding with Ernie Smith the racing, this partnership have bred three birds to take 1st Section in the last three weeks, winning 1st Section Classic: 1st Section Barcelona Club with Alex taking 1st Section in this race. That is real class breeding. Alec also won The Southern Classic Section last year it’s amazing how many top flyers there are in Section F. I could fill the paper with their performances; I think Alec is due a 1st Open so watch this space.

1st Section G Clive & Jill Rogers of Writhlington, Radstock were first Section G with a mealy cock, he is a Van De Bele cross Van Rhys, last week he was their second bird home from the British Barcelona Club Messac Race 90th Section C which just put him right to take 1sT Section G.

Treetops Bird Supplies which is run by Clive & Jill are distributors for Gem pigeon corn, the widowhood cocks are fed on a mixture of Gem Plus and Gem Ruby mixed together with Gem G10 pellets added and Carrs products added on the corn. The cocks were only given one training toss of 10 mils before the start of the season and a couple of inland races before their first channel race last week. Jill Rogers is also a Bricon agent and of course their winning pigeon was timed in on this system.

They keep around 60 pairs of stock birds and now most of their pairings are distance birds but they still keep some good Sparks and Hurst Van de Rhys, bought direct from Kevin Hurst a few years ago, the Van de Rhys hen “Sinita” was the mother of this winning mealy cock. Their team of widowhood cock numbers around 60 and they have bred over 200 young birds to race this year. The young birds are kept on the darkness system and fed on Gem Cowood mix.
Clive has kept pigeons for some years from a youngster and then gave up for a while and restarted in around 1998, Jill has kept pigeons since 1999 Clive and Jill have known each other for years but got together a couple of years ago and were married in August last year. Both being really keen pigeon fanciers their goal is to perform in the big races and they say they are really pleased that their hard work is hopefully starting to pay off.

1st Section H. Twins Robert & Peter Montila take 1st section H with a Van Reet 2 year old cock, this partnership started racing birds at the age of 14 and they are now 46. Their birds are normally raced on widowhood but this year they have been a bit disorganised so for this race the birds were raced paired up with the plan to race them in the Midland National but the weather forecast was bad so they held their birds for this race. Versele Laga with a mix of their own is fed, nothing is places in the water, and medication is used but only when needed. Robert and Paul have 60 birds in their race team.

1st Section I. Mr R H Whitehouse tops his section from this race, Bob has been racing pigeons from the age of 6 and he is now 68 so he knows a thing or 2 about this game. He’s had five 2nd Sections so this is the icing on the cake. His winner was bred by Martin Shepherd; his birds are based on A.H. Bennett of Church Streton: Paul Gilmot of Belgium; Charles Lerkink and Derek Bellingham. Bob keeps 50 birds including stock; the birds are raced on widowhood, natural and celibate, a tonic is put in the water once a week; he feeds a heavy mixture made by Buxton’s, He races his young birds on darkness but feels as old birds they do not race as well.

1st Section J are Mr & Mrs Alan Shore, their winning bird is a 5 year old chequer, white flight cock Son of “Danny Boy” NFC Certificate of Merit winner, 3 times Pau 1993; 94 & 95. The dam is a dark pied hen who is Janssen/Ko Nipius lines and won as a young bird, this pigeon won Market Drayton 2Bird Messac as a yearling; 6th Section 45th Open MNFC Bergerac and has prized in their local club in both inland and over the channel. Their birds are flown on the widowhood system and are fed Bosmolen Vanroaby Sports Mix, as much as they want and the remainder removed after 30 minutes. Vitamins and minerals are used but no other medication and the birds are wormed when they feel it is necessary. Alan has raced pigeons for 50 odd years now but it is only this year, since he has retired that he has been able to spend the time he likes with them and be able to do some training. Alan thinks the only way to sort the wheat from the chaff is by racing the birds as often as possible, he likes a pigeon that can come back from a hard race and then want to fly out with the other birds the next day, pigeons are allowed to make a few mistakes but if they don’t learn from them then they will let him down then he will dispose of them.

1st Section K. Brian Denny, Brian sent this bird as a preparation race for the longer races and he still wins his section, this bird has won 6th Section K; 27th Open NFC Tarbes 748 miles in 2007; 5th Section K Fougeres; 4th Section K 208th Open NFC Tarbes 2008, the nest brother 1st Section K 4th Open Tarbes. Brian only keeps one strain Bry-Dens which he’s had for many years, the section winner is a dark chequer pied cock raced on widowhood. Brian uses Versele Laga Gerry Plus and Super Star Plus, they are fed twice a day from the hopper, and 25 pairs of racers and10 pair of stock are housed. All one strain which he has had over the last 40 years, the race team are let out twice a day and fly for one hour each time, doors are closed and opened when Brian wants them in all trapping is open doors. Just one of Brian’s performances 1st; 2nd; 3rd; 4th; 5th and 6th Section K from Tarbes, the Section winner being the only bird on the day into Section K being timed in at 9.56 four minutes before the hours of darkness kicked in. Thus setting a record for the furthest flying pigeon ever to be recorded on the day of liberation in any race staged by the NFC which of course stretches back well over a 100 years. Brian is now retired nowadays and is assisted by his wife Thelma. At distance Brian must be one of the best flyers in the country if not the world.

1st Section L is the partner ship of Mills, Rice, Abbott and Duffy, their winning bird has been very lightly raced this year(club only) interspaced with short training tosses, the sire is a Herman brought from M and D Evans, the dam is a Janssen daughter of “Princess”. The birds are fed Versele Laga Mix with Multi Vitamins in the water at regular intervals. This blue Chequer hen was sitting for 7 days.

Next race Cholet 6th June so please get your paper work in as soon as possible.

That’s it for this race !!

Ron Crook
Email roncrook@virgin.net
Telephone 01491 613477