BY GORDON PARKER & SON
The 41st Annual Dinner and Prize Distribution for the Glenavy & District HPS was held recently as normal at the impressive Ballymac Hotel on the outskirts of Lisburn which is perfectly placed in making it centrally assessable to many of the Glenavy members and visiting friends and family. Each year their just seems to be less and less prize distributions and the die hard ones who continue to organise and lay on such events are generally met with declining numbers. Not the case I might add for the Glenavy Club for year in year out the evening just seems to draw a larger attendance. I for one was very honoured to be invited as a guest this now for the third year on the trot to which I am extremely grateful to the Committee and Members of this long established pigeon society also guests for the evening were the highly regarded husband and wife team Mr & Mrs Cyril Beattie of H Beattie & Son who sponsor the Glenavy Golden Wing event each year, they travelled up from Dublin for the event having been their setting up their Stall for the Annual Dublin Show that was to take place the following day.
Like any Club in the country they don’t run successfully without the hard work of a few, in a true testament to the Glenavy club, they have more than a few willing workers that productively work hard for the betterment of the Club just not on a monthly or weekly basis but more like a daily basis, under the guidance and leadership of an honourable list of officials who include Jim Ross Chairman, Dougie Harbinson Chairman, Harry McKeown Treasurer, Gordon Parker Jnr Race Secretary, John Withers Ring Secretary and last but by no means least the hard working Secretary Paddy McGarrity.
A nice snap of the Glenavy & District HPS officials pictured with Mr & Mrs Cyril Beattie behind the awards table.
Upon arrival at the venue I was welcomed by Chairman Dougie Harbinson who directed me to were I would be seated for the evening which worked out well within close proximeaty to where the awards table was placed plus I was to be sitting next to the 2008 Top Prize Winner who were once again the father and son partnership of G Parker & Son completing the hat-trick previously winning the title both in 2006 and 2007, having only joined the Club in 2005 to race Y/Birds. Excellent flying by this partnership comprising of Gordon Senior and Gordon Junior who races the birds to his own house on the Stoneyford Road area of Lisburn with a fantastic level of assistance from his two young daughters who are at times very inthuasactic. The partnership have crafted an excellent family of Decroix and Mattheys pigeons that the partnership first obtained way back in 1984, more recently with a few trips to Belgium Gordon Jnr has brought a few very successful pigeons in from England and Belgium and with these he is likely to make a more ardent approach to racing next year in his attempt to retain the title of Glenavy & District Top Prize Winner of the Year for the fourth year on the trot. I have handled a lot of Gordons pigeons and to say they are peas in the pod would be an under statement when you handle like for like you can see how they are keeping the breeding line alive going right back to the original lines all those years ago. I would expect these new additions once tired and tested to be treated just exactly the same. A true credit, to the father and son partnership especially Gordon senior who looks after the stock birds at his own house.
Mr Sheila McLaughlin presents the Top Prize Winners of 2008 Gordon Parker & Son with their winnings.
Now to a fancier who had an electrifying year and one that is likely to keep hot on the heels in pursuit of the top title in runner-up spot was Secretary of the Club Paddy McGarrity. Paddy is only back into pigeons and is highly regarded as an exceptional one at that, when he puts his mind to it, he is the man to beat, I recall one race particularity in the O/Birds he boasted that he would be hard to beat this week, which for an individual like Paddy to make a statement like that was rare, he just didn’t win the Club but the Section D of the NIPA finishing 10th Open, I suppose with an individual performance that would raise a few eyebrows but he had another close behind to finish 3rd Section D, 17th Open NIPA with some 26,149 pigeons competing from Clonmel. This was just one of a number of top results during the year for Paddy who is starting to look once again like a real contender for the top title.
This is now a number of years that the Glenavy Club have used the excellent facilities offered by the Ballymac Hotel for their Annual dinner and prize distribution and the Club would like to thank the management and staff for their professionalism shown at all times, the dinner this year again was superb to say the least, and having ate at this establishment a number of times I have yet to have a bad experience. So with all speeches out of the way it was time for the presentations. First was the presentation of the Gold Ring Awards by Hillary Beattie but before I do I will give you the readership a short bit of detail about the race. The Glenavy Club now for a number of years have organised and run with clinical perfection assisted with unwavering support and sponsorship from Henry Beattie & Son Feeds a young bird Gold Ring race that always gathers huge interest all over the country. This year was no different with many rings purchased for what is now regarded as one of the events in the Young bird racing calendar that so many fanciers look forward to this years race was another huge success this time from Mallow and a special thanks to Mervyn Irwin from Killyleagh for organising the transportation of the pigeons.
Winner of the 2008 Gold Wing Race was Rafferty & toman of Portadown seen here accepting their award from Hillary Beattie.
During the time following the race I kept in contact with Gordon Parker and Harry McKeown who worked many hours assisted for most of the time with John Withers from the Glenavy Club in putting together the result which is as follows there are 23 positions with an extra 5 to facilitate the remainder of the pools in total there was £4,400 of prize money and added to that £2,405.50 of pool money the total pay-out was £6,805.50: - 1st Rafferty & Toman Gilford Vel 1481 £1,377; 2nd G & A Campbell Armagh Vel 1472 £1,032; 3rd Donnelly Bros Newry Vel 1458.93 £991, 4th J & D Braniff Wheatfield Vel 1458.47 £405; 5th Donnelly Bros Vel 1458.24 £369; 6th Donnelly Bros Vel 1456 £256; 7th Eddie Murray Donacloney Vel 1443 £140; 8th Eddie Murray Vel 1442 £140; 9th Donnelly Bros Vel 1441 £252; 10th D & G Ferguson Wheatfield Vel 1440 £224; 11th T & K Mawhinney Donacloney Vel 1439 £131; 12th J Surplus Vel 1428 £100; 13th T & K Mawhinney Vel 1428 £109; 14th G Parker & Son Glenavy & District Vel 1422 £128; 15th J Surplus Vel 1416 £100; 16th M Brown Dollingstown Vel 1413 £129; 17th Eddie Murray Vel 1413 £50; 18th R & G & G Donaldson Portadown Inv Vel 1411 £50; 19th C McArdle & Son Banbridge Vel 1411 £108; 20th G & S McMullen Donacloney Vel 1407 £90; 21st J Surplus Vel 1405 £40; 22nd C McArdle & Son Vel 1398 £73; 23rd G & S McMullen Vel 1397 £209. R Bothwell Vel 1394 £19; D Calvin Vel 1379 £164; D Calvin Vel 1378 £11; D Calvin Vel 1378 £11; R Alexander & Son Harryville Vel 1374 £88. Well done to all the winners.
Next it was the turn of the Club to present their prizes to all the winners in attendance Harry McKeown called upon Shiela McLaughlin wife of Club member Stevie to present the awards much to her surprise the list of prize and cup winners is as follows :- Dean Contract Trophy for winner of the 1st O/Bird Race won by Myles Taylor for the 2nd year on the trot; J Flynn Cup Best Ave 2nd & 3rd O/B Races won by Paddy McGarrity; Meighan Trophy winner of the 5th O/Bird Race won by Paddy McGarrity; Bushes Bakery Award Best Ave O/B Inland S McLaughlin & Son; Scott Brothers Cup Best Ave 1st Two Channel Race won by Jimmy Courtney; McKinstry Cup Winner Bude won by F Denver; Harbinson Memorial Trophy O/B Sennen Cove won by Davy Scott; S Thompson Civic Week Award for O/B Sennen Cove won by Davy Scott; Hamilton Trophy 1st Club Sennen Cove Classic won by G Parker & Son; Mr & Mrs B Collins Award for Sennen Cove Yearling National won by D & M Lilly & Withers; Mrs J McCartney Award for Best Ave Talbenny (2), Bude and Sennen Cove won by James Courtney; Totten Cup for NIPA O/B National won by Davy Scott; The Bickerstaff Cup for winning 1st & 2nd Y/B Races won by Myles Taylor; Mrs Jess Trophy for winner of 3rd & 4th Y/B Races won by S McLaughlin & Son; D P Mullholland Cup 1st Club Fermoy Y/Bird G Parker & Son; Pakenman Arms 1st Club Fermoy (Last Race) Paddy McGarrity; Harbinson Cup Y/Bird Average G Parker & Son; J Flynn Memorial Best Ave All Club Races G Parker & Son; McGraths Meats Cup Wadebridge Y/B National won by Davy Scott; Glenavy Breeder Buyer Award Paddy McGarrity; H McDonald Memorial Cup Best Ave INFC Yearling National and INFC Inland Y/B National D & M Lilly & Withers; Countryman Cup The Lowest Winning Velocity in the Club in 2008 Davy Scott won on Vel 520; R Ferguson Show Members Award G Parker & Son; S Parker Y/B Cup (1) 1st Club Tullamore (1) Myles Taylor; S Parker Y/B Cup (2) 1st Club Telomere (2) M Taylor; S Parker Y/B Cup (3) Tulamore (3) S McLaughlin & Son; S Parker Y/B Cup (4) 1st Club Roscrea S McLaughlin & Son; S Parker Y/B Cup (5) 1st Club Tullamore (4) P McGarrity; H Beattie & Son The Golden Wing Open Rafferty & Toman; Ballymac Trophy INFC Y/B Inland National G Parker & Son. The Over all Top Prize Winner List is as follows :- 1st G Parker & Son, 2nd Paddy McGarrity, 3rd D Scott, 4th S McLaughlin & Son, 5th D & M Shimmons, 6th D & M Lilly & Withers, 7th Myles Taylor, 8th Mrs G K Porter, 9th J Courtney, 10th H McKeown, 11th F Denver, 12th K Carson & Son , 13th S McAllister & Son, 14th H Mallon & Son, 15th D Harbinson, 16th D Coulter, 17th J Ross.
Following the speedy presentation it was left to firstly a Comic Impressionist who I was very impressed with to keep us entertained for close to an hour, very very enjoyable. It then was the turn of some country & western music that lasted well into the wee hours. I opted to leave early due to commitments at the Dublin Show the following morning but I have been assured that everybody in attendance as you would come to expect with such a club thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Before rounding up this report the Club would like to extend special thanks to the family of H Beattie & Son and Versele Laga for their very kind support each year, Homer and myself for giving the Club and especially the members the due coverage they deserve, all the sponsors of the 2008 races to which their were many, Visiting Fanciers who provided kind assistance during the season and last but not least attendees of all Club fund raising events during the season.
Adie McCormick
Richard Donnelly of Donnelly Bros from Newry had a very impressive card from this race having won the event last year.
Young Natalia Parker picks up the Gold Wing Award for her father Gordie Parker they tell me Natalia could be racing her own team next year.
David Calvin knows what this race is all about he has raced outstanding in it over the last number of years and this year was no exception, a fancier at the top of his game.
Davy Scott had an excellent year flying in the Glenavy Club finishing 3rd in the over-all prize winning list.
Young Gavin McLaughlin picks his prize money up from his mum, Gavin races with his father in partnership as S McLaughlin & Son.
Last years Runner-Up John Withers was on hand this year again to pick up his prize money from Sheila John races as D & M Lilly & Withers.
Philip Johnston looks after the pigeons now for Mrs Porter he is seen here picking up her prize money, Mrs Porter is the wife of the late Kirker Porter and how nice it was to see son Sam at the dinner.
James Courtney needs no introductions when we come to the Channel events and he has them in form he is the man to beat.
Francy Denver after picking up the Novice Award last year has already moved up the leader board and already looking forward to 2009.
Kevin Carson steps up to collect his winning from Sheila McLaughlin.
Sam McAllistar seen here picking up his award from Shiela during the Glenavy dinner at the Ballymac Hotel on the outskirts of Lisburn.
Kirsty Harbinson picks up the awards for her G/Father and Club Chairman Dougie Harbinson.
Davy Coulter always gets in on the act and is rarely missing from the prize list at the Glenavy Club.