Mount Charles (2) - 01/05/10

[willie reynolds]

SOUTH DOWN FEDERATION with Brendan McLoughlin

Croskery best from Mount Charles

The East Down Combine pigeons were in back in Mount Charles near Nenagh in County Tipperary for their fourth race of the season on Saturday 1st May. The forecast for the afternoon was for poor weather and so all organisations opted for early liberations. The East Down Combine birds were released at 8am in a variable wind with the early pigeons arriving home just before 11am.

The race was another good one for Federation members with the top eight in the Fed result taking good Open and section positions.

The afternoon turned out much better than expected, at least at the home end and returns were fairly good all round.
The winner of the South Down Fed this week is Annsborough’s Mickey Croskery who takes an excellent 3rd section, 3rd Open. Everybody knows just how well Mickey has raced this past few years and this could be the start of another successful season for him.
The winning pigeon here, named ‘Joe 90’ was 2nd Open Bude in 2008, on a day when Mickey had 8 pigeons in the Fed, section and Open results. This bird was unraced last year having damaged his wing. The breeding is De Klak and Janus & Fox, with the sire being a son of the ‘Provence’ cock.

Noel Maguire Annsborough is 2nd Fed, 5th section and 5th Open this week. Noel was 5th section, 8th Open two weeks ago from Tullamore and he is just racing 6 hens at the moment and all are just racing to the perch. This is terrific racing for a small team man. The pigeon timed here is again from Bob McMeekin, Mossvale and is a Van Rijn yearling hen.

Annsborough’s James Cleland is going well this year too. Having been 9th Fed last week he improves to 3rd Fed this week and also takes 6th section, 6th Open. While James’ focus is primarily on distance racing he also keeps a few birds that can keep him in contention up Ireland. This is another Pros Roosen yearling cock from the stock he obtained from Martin Flynn, Drumaness.

Patrick Brown Annsborough is 4th Fed, 7th section, 13th Open this week to add to his impressive start to the season. This pigeon is an early contender for the Fed Old Bird of the Year having been 7th Fed last week and 1st Fed, 1st section, and 4th Open Tullamore the week before. This bird is from stock obtained from Annalong’s K Rooney & Son. The sire of the winning pigeon this week is the Lindelauf cock that won the section from Pilmore Beach in 2008. The dam is a Busschaert, which has bred a lot of prizewinners for the Rooney partnership.

R McDowell & Son Annsborough are 5th Fed, 8th section, 14th Open as they continue with a consistent start to the season. This yearling Busschaert cock took the first cut of the pools to win £48.50 and the same bird went on to take 5th Fed in the May Day race on the Monday winning £79 to make it a successful weekend.

Donnelly Bros Annalong have had a superb start o the season and are 6th Fed, 11th section, 19th Open here. John and Seamus race about 20 widowhood cocks and they are in top form at the moment. The pigeon timed here was 1st Club the previous week from the first Mount Charles. The breeding is Frans Van Meldert from Darren Walton’s Foxwood lofts in York.

Annalong’s Bobby McConnell has two birds in the result at 7th and 10th Fed. The first of these is 12th section, 26th Open. This bird is two-year-old and whose grand sire on the sire’s side was 9th Open East Down Combine from Sennen Cove while the Grand dam was 3rd Open East Down Combine from Sennen Cove and 7th Open Skibbereen. The Grand sire on the other side won over £3,000 racing in the Midlands National Flying Club.

Bobby’s second pigeon is a yearling and the sire is a brother of the pigeon that was 16th Open East down Combine Skibbereen. The grand sire and grand dam are the same as for his first pigeon. It is clear that the grandparents of these two birds were top class racers.

Tyrella’s S Milligan & Dtr are 8th Fed this week as they take their first club win of the season. Sean and Jennifer’s pigeon is a Joop-Koch yearling cock and it was 15th section, 39th Open.

The result is completed by Annalong’s K Rooney & Son who are 9th Fed this week with a yearling Soontjens cock. While this is their first Fed position this year their names have featured regularly in the reports.

Full Result: 1, M Croskery Annsborough 1500; 2, N Maguire Annsborough 1497; 3, J Cleland Annsborough 1491; 4, P Brown Annsborough 1467; 5, R McDowell & Son 1464 ABCDNom £48.50; 6, Donnelly Bros Annalong 1460; 7, B McConnell Annalong 1451; 8, S Milligan & Dtr Tyrella 1447; 9, K Rooney & Son Annalong 1439; 10, B McConnell 1437; D Blaney Annsborough 1434 ABCD £22.80; S Foster, Connor & Parry Dundrum ABCD £15.20:

• No DTW this week from the Skibbereen Classic.
• There will be a £2 Nom from Skibbereen Classic. One bird per loft – winner takes all.
• The 3rd round of the Loft Knock Out will be from 2nd Fermoy.