Navan (1) - 17/07/10

[willie reynolds]

Around South Down with Brendan McLoughlin

Bobby tops the Open from Navan

The East Down Combine held their first Young bird race of the 2010 season on Saturday 17th July. The weather throughout July has been very changeable and as a result some fanciers were struggling to get their young birds trained in time for the first race. Added to this was the problem of young bird sickness, which has raised its head again. Unfortunately this is an all too common problem nowadays and means that some fanciers had to sit out the first race.

For those fanciers who did manage to make the first race and there were many who did, the weather on the Saturday was very suitable for the South Down fanciers, in particular the coastal fanciers. Liberated at 12.15 into a west south westerly wind the pigeons made good progress with the East Down Combine winner clocking at 13.01 for the 42 mile fly. There were a lot of pigeons passing over the South Down area from this race and I heard many of the older members comment that it was “just like the good old days”.

The winner of the East Down Combine and the South Down Federation was Annalong’s Bobby McConnell. Navan has been a successful racepoint for Bobby and Maureen in recent years. They were 2nd Open in 2008 and again in 2009, finally achieving 1st Open East Down Combine in 2010.

However this year’s success was tinged with sadness as they lost their beloved Golden Labrador ‘Duke’ to cancer a few
days previously. Bobby said that ‘Duke’ was an important member of the management team, barking when required to keep the birds exercising and providing a safe environment free from unwelcome intruders.
Their winner as bred from a Frank Sheader Soontjens cock and a Frank Tasker hen obtained from Richard Quinn, Drumaness.

Bobby had two more birds in the result at 7th and 8th Fed. The sire of the first of these is a Van Reet x Busschaert while the dam is a pure Maurice Matthews Belgium and was bred by Arnie Tonks from the West Midlands.
This was Bobby’s first race using his new ETS racing system and he will be delighted with how it all turned out.
The pigeon at 8th Fed is a nest mate of the Open winner. It’s a great start to the season for these birds.

The Federation result is completed by K Rooney & Son, Annalong who had seven birds in the Fed result with the first four of these making the top 12 of the Open result. Kevin and Kristopher had a great old bird season with the highlight being their double Open win, winning 1st Open East Down Combine from Bude on the same day that they were 1st Open NIPA 5 bird Fermoy.

Kevin and Kristopher became the first and so far only member to take the top ten in a Federation result when they had a
clean sweep in the young bird Tullamore last year. I also notice that from Mullingar last year the Rooneys had 8 in the Fed result, with the other two going to Bobby McConnell.

Kevin and Kristopher’s first bird taking 2nd Fed, 8th section and 8th Open is a Staf Van Reet. The dam of this youngster has bred winners for Patrick brown and also bred the winner of the Fed’s pre season race from Navan for P Brown & Son.

Their second pigeon was 3rd Fed, 9th section, 9th Open and is a Gust Jansen, a family of pigeons that have served them well and provided many prizewinners. Their next pigeon in the clock was a Soontjens x Staf Van Reet and takes 4th Fed, 10th section, 10th Open. Looking back through last year’s results this breeding featured regularly for the Rooney partnership.

Their fourth pigeon which was timed two seconds after their first bird takes 5th Fed, 11th section, 11th Open. The breeding here is a Marita Vinks, another breed that did exceptionally well last year in the young birds.
The pigeon at 6th Fed is another Gust Jansen and this one just misses out on the Open result.
The pigeon at 9th Fed is a Soontjens while the one at 10th is from their wonderful Lindelauf pigeons.

Full Result: 1, B McConnell Annalong 1607; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, K Rooney & Son Annalong 1566.53, 1566.53, 1565.96, 1565.39, 1544; 7, 8, B McConnell 1521.52, 1521.01; 9, 10, K Rooney & Son 1518, 1515:
• The Young Bird Knock Out starts this week from Mullingar. Entry fee is £2 per loft.
• Next pool race Tullamore