Our open season kicks off every year with the first of our old bird nationals with the I.N.F.C. from Skibbereen. The 2019 winner was the very consistent lofts of Ronnie Coleman from Drogheda invitation R.P.C. with a cracking mealy yearling cock now named “Ampelmann”. This cock was raced on the roundabout system at the start of the season with the rest of the team but ten days prior to the open Ronnie taught they needed a change so he mated up his team. Ronnie found that when taking the hens away the cocks were sulking too much so mating them up settled the team down. This most certainly worked as Ronnie had a fantastic race from the open taking 1st 8th 9th & 16th Open E.C.F, great flying. The breeding of “Ampelmann” is as follows; the sire is a Lambrecht which has been a great performer for the Coleman lofts placing three times 1st & six times 2nd only being beaten by loft mates. The dam “Shelly” was also a winner from Pilmore beach placing 1st club, 7th E.C.F our of 4,334 birds. ”Shelly” is bred of the lofts top stock cock ”Sheldon” a Grizzell from Sheldon Leonard. Ronnie also timed the nest mate of “Ampelmann” from the yearling national so Ronnie is very happy with this line. Well done Ronnie on a great performance.
Our next Open was across the water to Talbenny, taking 1st Open E.C.F. was the Castlebellingham lofts of Kevin Sharkey. Kevin clocked a smashing 3 year old old blue hen now named “Maisie” to win 1st club 1st Open E.C.F. She was sent to Talbenny in 2018 and returned home badly hawked the next day. She was set up for the open in 2019 and was sent feeding 2 small youngsters. Prior to Talbenny “Maisie” had a couple of land races finishing 3rd club Fermoy & 6th club Castletown. The Dam of Maisie was from Malachy Maguire of Newry and the sire was one of Kevins own stock birds. Well done Kevin on a great performance.
Our next open was the Sennen Cove Yearling National with the I.N.F.C. This turned out to be a great day for the Skerries lofts of P&J Jones taking 1st club, 1st open E.C.F, 2nd south section, 3rd open I.N.F.C with a cracking check hen now named “Paradise Texas”. This loft has a fantastic record with the East Coast Fed topping the fed many times and when it comes to our opens there are very few days were this partnership doesn’t show up in the top 10. The partnership consists of Paul & his wife Mandy & Paul’s son John. You wouldn’t find a harder working team in racing pigeons leaving no stone unturned in pursuit of success. Here is a few words Paul has put together; “When we were going into the 2019 season we knew it was going to be difficult with myself doing shift work and John doing Exams. We would not have being able to race pigeons without the help of Mandy as she does a lot of the work when myself and John are away. As a result of our work load we decided not to darken the youngsters and just concentrate on the old birds. We were surprised to top the fed two weeks in a row on the land as we were not putting as much time into our team. The loft took a dip in form right up to the national when we finished 3rd open Yearling National. We were very happy to get most of our late bread team to fly the channel and we also timed from all 3 French races finishing 10th open St. Malo E.C.F. This pigeon was sent back to Lambelle two weeks later arriving home just outside race time. In 2016 this pigeon was the winner of the Gold Medal for best Young Bird with the E.C.F”. Well done Paul, John & Mandy, I am sure we will be hearing a lot more of the Jones family.
Our next open was from Bude, taking top spot was a new member to to the East Coast Federation and in his first year racing pigeons Khalid Hilmi. Khalid has sent me a few words about him and his winning hen “Lusk Princess”. Khalid grew up surrounded with pigeon fanciers throughout his youth back in Casablanca in Morocco. He then moved to England in the eighties and in 2001 moved to Ireland. It wasn’t until 2017 that his friend Brian Reid gifted him 4 youngsters so he just built his team up only joining Skerries club for the 2019 season. His Open winner is a smashing blue pied yearling hen now named “Lusk Princess” winning 1st club, 1st Open E.C.F. and Khalid timed 2 more in the result finishing 7th & 41st Open, great flying Khalid. “Lusk Princess” was raced on the natural system and was unraced as a youngster. She had a couple of inland races and only a few short tosses prior to Bude & she was sent sitting overdue eggs. Early in the season she lost her partner and was left with a small youngster, she was that keen she wouldn’t leave the nest to feed so Khalid had to put food and a drinker in to her nest box. She was then mated to a spare cock and was prepared for the channel. When she returned home from Bude she went straight to the nest and never looked at the drinker. The breeding is from a blue pied cock bought at the Dublin show and a hen bought from Louella Lofts from their Van Geel lines. Khalid is overwhelmed by the warmth and generosity of the people in this wonderful sport. He would like to give a special thanks to his friend & mentor Colm Reid and also Paul Carson, Paul & John Jones and David Black. Khalid would also like thank the Skerries and Balbriggan clubs for all their congratulation messages he received and for all their hard work, and to Gary & Ken Guildea for organising this article. Well done Khalid and I have to say one your one of the sports true gentlemen.
Our next two Opens were from Penzance and St. Malo which are two very testing races with no day birds from St. Malo. Winning both opens were the very successful partnership of Brian & Paula Emmett of Boyne Valley R.P.C. Brian and Paula race a very small team of pigeons racing 12 pairs with a few spare. In 2018 they won the old bird averages in their club. They started off 2019 with 26 old birds and were hoping to get a few wins but never dreamed of winning 2 opens. Feeding is twice a day with a light racing mix & half an ounce per pigeon on return from training and 1 ounce in the evening. Training is Monday to Thursday with John Flood from 25 miles along the coast. On the morning of basketing they are fed half an ounce each and they watch that they all get a drink .The year started very well for the Partnership winning 3 of the first 6 land races, then they used a high protein feed to get them ready for the channel races. The first of our channel opens was from Talbenny, which they finished 26th open, they taught their team was lacking something so they went to Herbie Thorpe of Proudstown pigeon supplies for advice. Herbie recommended Hexaplus and some naturavit multivitamins putting their team on it straight away. By the time the Yearling National came around the birds were top condition. They sent 4 to the national timing 3 on the day , finishing 1st 2nd & 4th club, 28th & 52nd open I.N.F.C, 10th & 19th south sect, fantastic flying. The Bude open was next they finished 1st club 6th Open E.C.F, Penzance was next where they were 1st and 2nd club, 1st and 7th Open E.C.F.
St. Malo was next up and with no day birds in our fed they timed early the next morning to win 1st club 1st open E.C.F, an outstanding performance. Their Penzance open winner is bred off Spikes Gift which was bred from a hen gifted to Brian from his late father Spike Emmett, a famous name in pigeon racing. While spike was sick in hospital he told Brian to pick 4 youngsters which he did making a turning point to their success. These pigeons were from the lines of Paul Swindell from Banbridge, Northern Ireland. Their St. Malo winner “Spikes Eileen” which is down from a pair that Brian’s brother picked out for him from Spikes loft after he passed away. Congratulations to you both on an outstanding year and I am sure I will be writing about you again soon.
Our next Open is the King Cup from Saint Allouestre with the winners of this one going to former Kings Cup winners Gerry O’Reilly & Sons Niall & Derek from Malahide. This is one of the best team’s of pigeon fanciers in Ireland when it comes to French racing. It is very rare that Gerry doesn’t cross the door of the clocking station on national day. It was once said to me that if there was a race from the moon Gerry would clock, a master at long distance racing. The first time I clocked from France it was on the second day with only 3 birds in our club, I spoke to Gerry outside the clocking station that day and Gerry was down with his 10th pigeon in the clock out of eleven sent which is an undeniable outstanding performance. The 2019 Kings Cup turned out to be a very hard race with only 167 birds timed over the three days out of 2,478 sent. The O’Reilly’s sent six and timed three winning 1st club, 1st south sect, 1st open E.C.F & 10th open I.N.F.C with a cracking 3yr old check hen. The Breeding of this hen is from Frank Cheetham birds from Jimmy Anderson crossed with birds from S Buwalda of Holland. This hen was privately trained and also had 2 land races prior to the Kings Cup, she was sent hatching 14 day old eggs. Their second pigeon finishing 38th open, 12th south section is again a Cheetham from Jimmy Anderson and is a granddaughter to “River view Red “, the 2012 Kings Cup winner. She too was privately trained and had two land races and was sent sitting 16 days. The third bird to arrive to the lofts was a five year old dark check cock, this is a class pigeon having been timed from France many times. In 2016 he was 1st club, 3rd fed, 21st Quimper National. In 2017 he finished 12th club St Allouestre and in 2018 he was 3rd club, 5th fed, 36th I.N.F.C. Kings cup. In 2019 he was timed to finish 150th open I.N.F.C & 34th South sect. He too was privately trained and had two land races prior to the Kings Cup and was sent hatching 16 days and was mated to their second bird timed. The breeding is again Frank Cheetham from Jimmy Anderson, he is also a grandson of “River View Red” and his Grand Dam is “River View Triumph” which was three times in the result from the friendship National in 2011, 2012, 2013. The dam is from a sister to their 2015 Millar Gold Cup winner “River View Gold”. Well done on a fantastic year and I have to say Gerry and his Sons are a credit to this great sport.
The last race on the old bird calendar is the Quimper National and winning this one was Fintan Moran of Malahide R.P.C. In 2018 Fintan was a winner of a hall of fame award with his gallant red hen “Aoife M”, a fantastic achievement. This year Fintan timed his 4 year old hen now named “Twilight” by his daughter Aoife at 9:30pm on the day to finish 1st club, 1st E.C.F, 6TH open I.N.F.C. & was the only day bird in the fed. This is the second time she has arrived before dark as in 2018 she was timed at 9:50pm to finish 20th Open I.N.F.C. gaining her a merit award with the National Flying Club. “Twilight” was paired at the start of the season and reared one youngster and then raced celibate. She has plenty of experience of the channel and had 5 inland races the furthest being 160 miles prior to Quimper. Following her last race on June 1st she was given a few 50 mile tosses, paired up and sent on a 9 day old youngster. Her breeding is the old Eric Cannon distance pigeons. Her sire was gifted to Fintan from the great N.F.C Tarbes specialist Andy Parson of Salisbury and his sire was 1st sect, 5th open NFC Tarbes 2012 and the dam was 15th open NFC Tarbes with 15 hours on the wing in 2010. The Dam of “twilight” was purchased from D&D McFadden who were the 2019 Tarbes winner and is an inbred granddaughter of Snow Prince 1st sect 4th open Tarbes 2012 and half-sister to their merit award winner Triple Crown 7th, 24th, 56th & 235th open Tarbes. Fintan was telling me that it was great to see her arrive just before dark and she was in fantastic condition. He would also like to thank his wife Cora and daughter Aoife for all their help as without them racing would not be possible. Well done Fintan and Family on a great performance.
On to the young birds starting with Talbenny, taking the red card in this was one of the feds top partnerships McKeown & McEvoy of Castlebellingham. In 2018 this partnership also won a Hall of fame award. Their Talbenny open winner is a smashing blue hen named “Jackie” and had 3 land races prior to Talbenny. She was bred from a pair of yearling in the race loft and both these pigeons were timed from the yearling national. All their young bird team is raced on the darkness system. The main family of pigeon kept are the old Busschaerts which have stood the test of time and you have to be good to stay in this loft. Peter & Ollie have won many open races over the years and in 2019 they were the feds old bird channel averages and the French averages winners. Well done lads on another great year.
Skibbereen was next and winning this one was Balbriggan’s own Stephen Dunne & Son. Stephens winner is a smashing blue named “Muscles”, after his loft helper Wayne Marry. This pigeon not only topped the East Coast Federation but he also placed 2nd middle section & 7th open I.N.F.C, a great performance! Stephen’s pigeons are all raced on the darkness and the breeding is from Gerry O’Maras rocket Ronnie lines. Well done lads.
Our next and last opens was from Penzance with the I.N.F.C. The top award of 1st open E.C.F, 7th south sect & 44th open went to the father and son partnership of PJ Corcoran & Son Tony. Their winner is a cracking check pied hen now named “Ciara” and was also raced on the darkness. They clocked a second bird to win 2nd club 2nd fed, 12th south sect & 114th open. This pigeon was the winner of the E.C.F. Gold Medal for best young bird. They also timed his nest mate from the Talbenny open. The sire of “Ciara” is a pure Jan Arden and is a great grandson of Mister Impossible that was 1st sect, 14th open BICC Barcelona winning over £700, 2nd open SBGD only bird in section in race time. The dam is a Vandenbeale / Verhey cross and was bred for the stock loft from one of their best stock hens 09. This hen won from Skibbereen as a youngster and has many other club fed and national positions. She was responsible for breeding the lads 4 French winners and many other channel winners. She also produced a winner of an I.N.F.C. Meritorious award. Well done PJ & Tony on another great year.
Well done again to all who have topped the fed and I would like to wish you all the best for the 2020 season till next time enjoy your pigeons.
Ken Guildea
PRO East Coast Federation.
Phone 01 8415785
