Talbenny (1) - 30/05/09

[willie reynolds]

Rooney & Son top the Combine again.

The East Down Combine had their first channel race of the season on Saturday 30 May from Talbenny in Wales. Situated between the towns of Haverfordwest and Dale, Talbenny has at times shown itself as a difficult racepoint due to the proliferation of birds of prey in the locality. However this year with a liberation in an east-southeast wind the pigeons were able to clear the racepoint quickly and head out over the Irish Sea. As a result an excellent race with almost 100% returns ensued. Once again a lot of credit must go to the race controller and the race committee who spend hours very week to ensure that our pigeons get the best racing possible.

The birds were released at 9.30am with the winner of the East Down Combine and the South Down Federation timed at 12.22pm for the 166-mile fly. The winner of both is a repeat of last week with the Annalong lofts of K Rooney & Son once again taking the major honours. Kevin and Kristopher have their birds in tip top form and this was their seventh club win of the season. Their birds have also been performing well for others with both Patrick Brown and Gareth Maginn taking Fed and Open positions with birds reared in the Brackney lofts.

This terrific racing from the young partnership to pick up two Open wins in a row, a feat they carried out before when they followed up an Open win from Fermoy in 2007 by winning the Joe Ringland Classic from Skibbereen the following week.

The winning pigeon this week taking 1st club, 1st Fed, 1st section and 1st Open is a two-year-old Busschaert hen. The Busschaert lines come from Ali Bros on one side and Davy Shields, Cragshead in Durham on the other side. This pigeon has won a few prizes for Kevin and Kristopher including second club ninth Fed Sennan Cove Classic last year.

Mickey Croskery Annsborough follows up his 3rd Fed, 3rd Open last week by taking 2nd Fed, 2nd Open this week. It was at this stage last year when Mickey’s pigeons really took off and he won four sections and three Opens in a row. To show that his loft is in form now, Mickey has three birds in the top ten of the Fed result and six birds in the Open result. That’s good racing by any standards.
Mickey’s first pigeon is a yearling hen out of a daughter of the ‘Bolden’ cock and a Walter de Richt cock. This pair has bred several prizewinners for both Mickey and D Croskery & Son.

Mickey’s second pigeon taking 2nd club, 3rd Fed, 3rd section and 3rd Open is the bird that topped the Open from Bude last year. This two-year-old hen is out of the Wily Thas cock that has bred eight winners including five section winners for both Mickey and for D Croskery & Son. The dam is a De Klak hen from Jobey and Gordon of Dunston, in the Up North Combine.
Mickey’s third pigeon this week, taking 6th club, 8th Fed, 8th section and 8th Open is a yearling hen from the original family of De Klaks, which are still the cornerstone of both Croskery lofts.

D Croskery & Son Annsborough also have three pigeons in the Fed result and with five in the top 40 in the Combine result this was another great race for them. Their first bird is 3rd club, 4th Fed, 4th section, 4th Open which shows how competitive the South Down Federation really is. The breeding here is De Klak from new birds brought in three years ago from Jobey and Gordon. This two-year-old hen has been in the prizes four times and has been a very consistent pigeon.

Their second pigeon from Talbenny is another two-year-old Wily Thas hen that is a sister of the pigeon that was 4th Fed in the Friendship National last year from Quimper. This hen is 5th Fed, 5th section, 7th Open. The third pigeon timed is again a two-year-old hen that was 6th Fed, 6th section, 11th Open. This one is out of the ‘02’ cock, a winner of the 3 Bird Channel Championship Club, and the east section on a day when it was 4th Open from Talbenny.

Dundrum’s Brendan Chambers with three birds in the result completes the top ten in the Fed result. As I mentioned last week Brendan was late getting his birds started this year but has certainly caught up very quickly. His first bird this week is 1st club, 7th Fed, 7th section, 14th Open and is a yearling off his Verheye Open winner lines.

Brendan’s second bird at 2nd club, 9th Fed, 9th section, 17th Open is a Braspenning yearling from birds obtained from Ron McKelvey Newry. The third bird is another yearling and this one is from his Verheye stock. This pigeon takes 3rd club, 10th Fed, 10th section 22nd Open to complete an excellent days racing for him with the first seven in the Dundrum club.

Full Result: 1, K Rooney & Son Annalong 1701; 2, 3, M Croskery Annsborough 1673, 1669 ABCD £34; 4, 5, 6, D Croskery & Son Annsborough 1660, 1654, 1636; 7, B Chambers Dundrum 1633; 8, M Croskery 1630; 9, 10, B Chambers 1627, 1620; D Croskery & Son 1615 ABCD ££20.40; M Croskery 1606 ABCD £13.60; S Foster & Connor Dundrum 1507 Nom £9.50:

• This week we have the Final of the Loft KO with S Halpin & Son against Mickey Croskery. This should be very tight with both lofts in good form and both former Combine winners on the channel. While Mickey might be slight favourite, a good west wind could see the knock out go to the Ardglass lofts.
• This week’s race from Bude is a pool race in the Fed, while the Derek Wishart race from Mallow will have a £2 Nom.
• There will be a Free Nom from the Penzance Classic race for yearlings only. One bird per loft to compete for £50 presented to the Fed by Gary Shaw. There will also be the usual £2 nom for this race

• There will be an ETS Demonstration by the German company, Benzing in the Newtownbreda Clubrooms on Friday 12th June at 7.30pm. This is a very reasonable system to buy and all are welcome to attend.

Brendan McLoughlin PO.