Nenagh (2) - 05/09/09

[willie reynolds]

Toners Top Combine from Nenagh

The East Down Combine were back in Nenagh on Saturday 5th September for their penultimate race of the season. The early morning weather wasn’t conducive to pigeon racing and we had to wait until noon for the liberation to take place. Wind at the racepoint was southwesterly and a fast race was expected.

Nenagh lies pretty far west and a good west to southwesterly wind helps the South Down fanciers in their quest for Open success.
This is the way it turned out with Annsborough’s Liam and Andy Toner taking the number one position in the East Down Combine. When talking to the dedicated partnership I found it hard to believe that this was their first ever Combine win, although last year they had the best East Down Combine pigeon in the Penzance Young Bird National. They have had a multitude of other leading positions in the Combine over the years.

Liam and Andy keep a small team of pigeons by today’s standards and started the young bird season with 36 young birds.
The winning pigeon and one they will always remember was bred by Robert Shaw, of Annsborough and Corrigs clubs. The sire is a Frank Tasker pigeon that was 2nd Annsborough club and 70th Open from the Old Bird Skibbereen National this year. The dam is a Staf Van Reet from Jeff Greenaway.

The winning pigeon was home in two hours and four minutes for the 135-mile fly a velocity of 1911 for another very high winning velocity.

R McDowell & Son Annsborough have two birds in the South Down Fed result this week at 2nd and 10th. The first of these is 2nd section, 2nd Open while the other one is 20th section. I suppose the McDowell lofts have been relatively quiet this year by their own high standards but look as if they are going to end on a high note.

Their first pigeon is a Kenyon x Van Wildemeersch cross while the sire of the second one is from Joe McGreevy, Crossgar paired to a Billy Lecky hen.

Annsborough’s Mickey Croskery, enjoying another great year’s racing is 3rd Fed, 3rd section, 3rd Open this week. The pigeon timed here is out of a daughter of the ‘Bolden’ cock when pared to a Walter De Richt cock.

Michael Jennings Annsborough is another loft in form at the moment and he has two birds in the result at 4th and 8th Fed and section. The first of these is 7th Open while the other one is 15th Open. Last week Michael was 2nd Fed, 4th Open from Talbenny and 8th Fed from Skibbereen. The two pigeons timed her are nestmates and are from a cock he got from his father Brian. The dam is a Staf Van Reet x Karel Boeckx.

Tyrella’s S Milligan & Dtr have three birds in the result this week to end their young bird season in style.
Their first pigeon is 5th Fed, 5th section, 8th Open and is an Andrie Van de Rhee hen. The second pigeon is 6th Fed, 6th section, and 11th Open and is a Joop Koch whose parents both originated from Fountainhead stud.
Sean and Jennifer’s third pigeon takes 7th Fed, 7th section, 12th Open and is on the sire side a De Klak from Cor and Ann Van-Gestel and on the dam’s side a Braspenning.

The result is completed by Annsborough’s Noel Maguire 8th Fed, 8th section, 15th Open. This pigeon is a Van Rijn from Robert McMeekin, Kingsmoss and is the same way bred as the pigeon that was 6th Fed from Mallow.

Full Result: 1, L & A Toner Annsborough 1911; 2, R McDowell & Son Annsborough 1908.9; 3, M Croskery Annsborough 1908.8 ABCD; 4, M Jennings Annsborough 1907; 5, 6, 7, S Milligan & Dtr Tyrella 1906, 1905, 1904; 8, M Jennings 1895; 9, N Maguire Annsborough 1892; 10, R McDowell & Son Annsborough 1838 ABCD; M Jennings 1794 ABCD; R McDowell & Son 1779 Nom:

• This week the birds will be in Skibbereen for the Young Bird Inland National in what is the final race of the season.
• The South Down Fed’s Annual Dinner and Prize Distribution will be held in the Dundrum Inn on Friday 9th October.

Brendan McLoughlin PO.