The Belmont Hotel on the outskirts of Banbridge on Saturday 1st of November was once again the chosen venue for the Annual Dinner and Prize Distribution for the very well established and highly respected Corcreeney & District HPS. This event is surely cementing itself as one of the best if not the best during the dinner and prize distribution season. Every year the attendance just seems to increase and this year was no exception with extra tables and floor space acquired to facilitate the large turn-out of members, family, and friends and of course and excellent array of distinguished quests that included this year Serge Van Elsacker and his wife Kirsten from the Schilde area of Belgium. Serge has been involved with pigeons a life time, and is regarded as one of the most respected fanciers especially flying Middle distance in Belgium, he quite simply is the man to beat any week. Also on the guest list were Mr & Mrs Fred Russell, Fred has been Secretary of the mighty NIPA for the last 32 years, Mr & Mrs Ronnie Johnston, Ronnie a long time pigeon scribe and now Patron of the Irish National Flying Club and Mr Wesley Sawyers, Wesley’s wife was unfortunately unable to attend due to illness and Secretary Rodney Adamson during his speeches sent the clubs best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.
The officials of the Corcreeney Club Stephen Cairns, Jim Carson and Rodney Adamson pictured with main guest for the evening from Belgium Mr & Mrs Serge Van Elsacker.
This year I was accompanied as a guest of the Club by my wife Celeste, a very rare occurrence indeed due to work commitments, which normally sees just me attend the many events which we are invited to each year. Having arrived early we opted to pick our seats close to the prize winning table making it easy for myself when the many prize winners made it up to collect their awards.
Tom Nelson travelled up from Dublin one again to the event pictured here on the (L) with Johny Buckley and Joe Brown.
We couldn’t have ask for better company for the evening at our table with Henry McLaughlin and son Michael traveling from Coalisland along with good friend and superb racer Tom Nelson of Dublin, Tom I will be catching up with next weekend as a guest of the Irish South Road Federation at their annual presentation this year in the Green Isle Hotel in Dublin, where Tom I do believe is yet again picking up awards.
Enjoying the evening in Banbridge was Mr & Mrs Joe Brown, I think Joe could have made it on stage, an utter star who kept the table I was at entertained all evening.
Also at our table in the Belmont was Former Kings Cup winner Geoff Douglas of Lurgan along with Richard Bothwell and last but not least for endless free entertainment we had the pleasure of Mr Joe Brown accompanied on the night by his good lady wife, Joe as you would expect kept the party and atmosphere going for most of the night, always a pleasure to have Joe in your company, many will vouch for that I am sure. The meal as like last year was absolutely superb and full credit to the chefs for keeping the standard to the highest level, not often you go back to the same place one year later and get the same quality of food, but full praise for the staff of the hotel, as the service and meal from start to finish was faultless.
The meal having been enjoyed by all in attendance it was then over to the secretary Rodney Adamson to address the large attendance with a break down of the 2008 season, which will be remembered by many as one of the most difficult in recent years, mainly down to the very unpredictable weather patterns that we had this year. Rodney as always is very well organized and had all the statistics at hand he duly called upon Kirsten Van Elsacker to come to the front as guest to present the monitory awards to the successful winners during 2008.
It was then the turn of Mr Fred Russell Secretary of the NIPA to present the Cups to the successful fanciers, no prizes for guessing who the main man was again, yes Mr Colin Gibson. The list of cup winners is as follows:
Top Prize Winner Colin Gibson receives his award from cheif quest Kirsten Van Elsacker
Colin Gibson collected the following R Clarke Trophy for Roscrea O/Birds; Ernie Ferguson Cup for Clonmel O/Birds; also the award for 2nd Pilmore Beach in the O/Birds; Murray Blane Cup for topping the Club from Sennen Cove in the Yearling National; Queens Shield for winning the Mallow Five Bird; Stevenson Cup for winning the Classic from Sennen Cove, W Beattie Award for winning Sennen Cove also an award for winning Fermoy again O/Birds; Most Points Inland collecting the British Legion Cup was Colin Gibson, also lifting the B Fletcher Cup for Most Points on the Channel. Colin went on to lift the Turkington Perpetual Cup for the Talbenny Y/B Derby that was this year flown from Mullingar also W Baxter Award for most points in the Y/Bird Season. Excellent season Colin once again, very well done.
Rodney Adamson the Club Secretary collects his award from NIPA Secretary Fred Russell. Rodney finishes runner-up to Colin yet again.
Next best we had the man himself Secretary Rodney Adamson helped immensely by his good lady Pauline. Rodney finished runner-up last year to Colin and does so again in 2008, he collected the following awards for his efforts during the year, The T Nesbitt Trophy for winning Mullingar O/Birds; Rutherford & Smyth Trophy for topping the Club from Tullamore (2) O/Birds; The Stanley Calvert Rose Bowl for topping the Club from the Skibbereen North National; The Tom Chambers Memorial Award for the NIPA Rosscarbery Race; Also again he picked up the Creamline Cup for the Skibbereen Y/B National and also lifted the award for topping the Club from Pilmore Beach (2) in the Y/Birds.
Stephen Cairns collects one of his awards from NIPA Secretary Mr Fred Russell.
Steven Cairns seems to have been going a life time, for as long as I can remember he has been visiting prize tables on a yearly basis, this year is no exception lifting the following The F Kelly Award for Pilmore Beach O/Birds; The S Gilchrist Cup for his achievements in the Rosscarbery O/Bird Inland National; The McNaughton & Blair Award for Talbenny (1); The C Allen Trophy for topping the club yet again from Talbenny (2) and completing the route from the South Wales race point yes three out of three from Talbenny and lifting the “Fisher Cup” Steven Cairns. The man himself went on to the Y/Bird season and also produced some electrifying results within the Club, remembering that the first 6 Y/Bird races were all won by different fanciers. Steven lifted awards for Tullamore (3) and the comeback event also from Tullamore. Well done Steven.
Ernie McKitterick of McKitterick Bros is one of the longest serving members seen here collecting an award from Fred Russell.
The McKitterick Bros, Ernie as always works as hard in the lofts as he does within the Club, a very highly respected member of the Club over many years and a man who also visit’s the prize table more times than not. In 2008 Ernie enjoyed success from Tullamore in the Y/Birds lifting awards for 2nd and 4th Race from that race point, not of course before lifting the A Nesbitt Memorial Award for having the best average from Thurles and Bude, by no means an easy award to win.
Robert Major had a very credible season flying both with Corcreeney and the Fanciers Combine seen here picking up one of his awards.
Robert Major had a smashing year, and it was nice to see him and the good lady present at the event this year, Robert lifted awards for winning the Club from Tullamore and Fermoy in the Y/Birds, I also recall during the season that this fancier had excellent success flying with the newly formed Fanciers Combine recalling one week in particular he run away with the race clocking more than a few arrivals. Well done Robert.
Club Treasurer for the last 28 years Jim Carson always makes his apperance at the prize table.
Mrs Kirsten Van Elsacker presents Tom Wilson with an award during the Corcreeney Dinner & Prize Distribution at the Belmont Hotel.
Jim Carson the long standing treasurer of the Club, 28 years in fact never fails to reach the table and again this year lifts the W Carson Award for winning the Club from Roscrea In the Y/Birds. That completed the work for Fred Russell on this occasion and it was then the turn of Serge Van Elsacker to take to the floor under the guidance of “Mr Motivator” himself Colin Gibson to present the awards for the Corcreeney Breeder Buyer event.
Colin has cradled this race along now for a number of years and has watched it flourish into what is now regarded as the Number 1 Breeder/Buyer event in the country, thanks must be extended at this point to fellow auctioneers Ronnie Johnston and Wesley Sawyers who conducted the sales for the Breeder/Buyer Race. The list of the winners and breeders and the awards won are as follows and as usual the race was flown in conjunction with the INFC Skibbereen Y/B National :-
2008 winners of the Corcreeney Breeder/Buyer picking up their award from Serge are Wonda and Sam Shaw a cool £1,000.
Ronnie Johnston collects the cheques on behalf of Ritchie Ryder and Les Parkinson who bred the 1st and 2nd respectively in the Breeder/Buyer event, it was also Ronnie who sourced the two birds.
Marty Rice from Lurgan pictured collecting his award after finishing 4th in the Breeder/Buyer pictured here with Serge Van Elsacker and Colin Gibson.
Joe Brown on the right picks up the award of 5th in the Breeder/Buyer on behalf of his son Mark from Serge Van Elsacker.
Mo McCorriston of the B & M team from Dromore picks up her winning from Serge Van Elsacker.
Johny Buckley of the G Buckley & Son partnership also made it to the prize table after finishing 9th in the over-all race.
Geoffry Douglas knows how to race a good pigeon having bought the bird put up by Richard Bothwell of Lurgan.
Richard Bothwell is delighted to be picking his award up as breeder of the bird that finished 11th in the over-all race.
1st B & A Brown & S & W Shaw Dromore 1501 £1,000, breeder Ritchie Ryder £1,000; 2nd Kincaid & McCann Dunedin 1493 £500, breeder Les Parkinson £500; 3rd R Adamson Corcreeney 1465 £250, breeder Len McKinstry £250, 4th M Rice Wilton Cross 1418 £100, breeder Karl Murphy £100, 5th M Brown Dollingstown 1404 £100, breeder M Brown £100; 6th J Young & Partners Dundonald 1387 £100, breeder J Young & Partners £100; 7th B & M McCorriston Dromore 1381 £100, breeder Alan Brown £100; 8th C McArdle & Son Banbridge 1367 £100, breeder C McArdle & Son £100; 9th G Buckley & Son Annaghmore 1340 £100, breeder P Boyd £100; 10th E Murray Donacloney 1329 £100, breeder E Murray £100; 11th G Douglas Wilton Cross 1311 £50, breeder R Bothwell £50, 12th E Murray Donacloney £50, breeder E Murray £50.
Very well done to all the winners and as Ronnie Johnston rightly said during his speech this is an excellent opportunity for any fancier not like the One Loft Races for here you keep the pigeon in your own loft and make it ready using your own tactics for the final race that beholds it. It is a race and similar ones like it that Ronnie reckons will be the future of the sport over coming years.
It was a tremendous display of awards and the hard working officials both for the club and the Corcreeney Breeder/Buyer race deserve all the just rewards that the night displayed for it is this work that resulted in the large turnout on the night which included the crème of the de crème as far as fanciers go in Ireland.
The Corcreeney & District Club like so many are struggling with a dwindling membership, although when you have hard workers within a club and continuous drivers bursting with enthusiasm these are the ones that will normally weather the storm, dwindling numbers was one of the topics raised during a question and answer period with the main guest for the evening Serge Van Elsacker, Serge also admitted that numbers in Belgium had also decreased dramatically over the years with now just over 32,000 members listed compared to the highs of 100,000 at one stage. What was maybe encouraging for the fancy in Ireland was knowing that although we have no younger or next to no younger fanciers joining the sport, Serge commented that going by the average age of fanciers within the room at the Belmont Hotel, we in Ireland had a relatively young membership on comparisons with the Belgium scene with the higher percentage of fanciers in Belgium around the retirement age. Serge’s English was impeccable and it wasn’t long before question after question was put his way, to which he willingly went into detail on all, with health and medicines and of course the dreaded Y/B Sickness the common topics for discussion.
Some of the fanciers and friends who attended the Corcreeney & District's Annual Dinner and Prize Distribution at the Belmont Hotel outside Banbridge.
It was yet again for the second year running for me an excellent night out and one I am already looking forward to next year, I would like to thank Colin and the officials for inviting Celeste and I down for the evening, and also extends thanks to the many fanciers and friends to whom we enjoyed their company into the wee hours of Sunday morning, which resulted on my arrival back home just before 3am, earlier than last year I might add. I will end by wishing the Corcreeney club and more importantly the membership a very enjoyable Xmas and a prosperous New Year.
Adie McCormick
Ireland’s Own Pigeon Auctions
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com
Email celestiallofts@aol.com
Tel 028 92 604778.