My daughter Bronagh and her husband Ken once again looked after our travel arrangements for the award evening organised by H Beattie & Son in mid October, previously it was held in the Seagoe Hotel in Portadown, County Armagh, this time we travelled to the Belmont Hotel in Banbridge, County Down. Cyril Beattie and son Jeffrey hosted this very popular event to celebrate the company sponsorship with both the NIPA and Irish National FC with a host of winners invited from across Ireland.
An added attraction this year was attendance by various companies associated with H Beattie & Son including Armand Scheers a family friend going back many years when the late Henry Beattie was in his prime racing. He won the famous Kings Cup back in 1994 with “Champion Laurel Queen” 1st Open INFC Rennes, and the family have a special association with the INFC Friendship Nat, Henry winning the race from Falaise in 1979 and then Cyril & Hillary putting their name on the trophy in 2017 from Lamballe. On top of that the family put up the H Beattie & Son Trophy a number of years back to be won for the Best 2 Bird Ave in the Friendship Nat. It has been won by many top lofts, none better than this seasons P Rock & Son from Dublin North East RPC who won 1st & 2nd Open INFC Lamballe and they are themselves former Kings Cup winners.
Sponsorship for the NIPA was as usual the 5 Bird Fermoy Championship in old birds, 2 bags of corn for each 1st Section winner. The winners here were as follows:-
Section A – G & S Smith, Cookstown 6th Open, Section B – J & M Milliken, Rasharkin & District 17th Open, Section C – Jimmy Burrows, Eastway 40th Open, Section D – S G Briggs, Lisburn & District 59th Open, Section E – Keith Allister, Monaghan 4th Open, Section F – McGimpsey Bros, Newtownards vel 1573, Section G – Rodney Adamson, Lurgan Social 35th Open, Section H – Allen Kelly, Omagh & District 1st Open on velocity 1791 flying 170 miles. The race was flown on Friday 7th June 2019 with liberation in Fermoy at 7.45am, 312 members sent 1461 birds.
Sponsorship for the INFC was as I had already mentioned the Friendship Nat flown this season from Lamballe, three bags of corn for 1st Open P Rock & Son, 2 bags of corn for 2nd Open P Rock & Son, and 1 bag of corn for 3rd Open Paul Swindell from Newry City. As well as winning the 2 Bird Average in the Friendship Nat, one week earlier they won the 2 Bird Average in the Kings Cup Grand National from St Allouestre. In the Yearling Nat flown from Sennen Cove, 3 bags of corn are presented to the following best birds. 1st in RPRA, 1st in IHU North Region and 1st in IHU South Region. Joey McLoughlin from Blanchardstown was to win 1st Open on velocity 1543 flying 231 miles, Glen McNeilly from Ballyclare was best in RPRA finishing 2nd Open also on velocity 1543, and North Region of IHU was won by Telford Bros & S & J Milligan of Downpatrick Premier.
A special presentation was also made to Malcolm Robinson from Bondhill who won the 2019 National Champion award. INFC Secretary Trevor Topping and NIPA Secretary Fred Russell each replied following the presentations. During the very interesting evening we enjoyed presentations by Garry Johnston for Versele-Laga, plus Koen Vanlanduyt & Dick de Leeuw for Beyers and guest speaker for the event was Henk Jurriens from Team Eijerkamp from the Netherlands. All in all another great evening for the Beattie Family, and many thanks once again for the invite.
Guests at the Beattie Evening included Garry Johnston, Henk Jurriens, Koen Vanlanduyt and Dick de Leeuw.
The NIPA presentation with secretary Fred Russell.
The INFC presentation with secretary Trevor Topping.
Allen Kelly from Omagh won 1st Open NIPA Fermoy 5B Championship.
Paddy Rock & Son from Dublin won 1st & 2nd Open in the Friendship Nat Lamballe.
Malcolm Robinson won the special award for National Champion in the INFC.