Skibbereen YB National - 17/09/10

[willie reynolds]

National Delight for Patrick Brown

The last race of the 2010 pigeon-racing season was held on Friday 17 September when the Irish National Flying Club liberated in Skibbereen in Co Cork for their Young Bird Inland National. The race was brought forward from the Saturday due to an adverse weather forecast and this proved a good decision, as the Saturday was indeed unsuitable for racing.

The pigeons were liberated at 10am in a light north west wind and with 450, members ending 3927 pigeons this was always going to be a difficult race to win. The westerly wind was favourable to the shorter flying members in the south section and it was the top Wexford lofts of Billy Cullimore who took the major honours.

However the South Down Federation members had a memorable race with three birds in the top ten of the North section and many more taking open and section positions. Pride of place goes to Annsborough’s Patrick Brown who finished the season in wonderful fashion, taking 1st North section, 41st Open INFC. This was a magnificent achievement for the Lakeside Lofts competing against 3073 pigeons from all over Northern Ireland and on the day it was the best that could have been hoped for in this area. This is arguably one of the best performances of the season by a South Down Fed member.

The winning pigeon now known as ‘Geraldine’s Delight’ was named after Patrick’s wife who is a great asset around the loft. The parents of this pigeon are on loan from Annalong’s K Rooney & Son, and Patrick asked me to record his thanks to Kevin and Kristopher for all the help they have given him over the past few years. Anyone who reads this column regularly will know that Patrick has obtained many fine pigeons from the Rooneys.

The sire of the pigeon timed here won an East Down Combine Open from Durrow in 2003 and has bred quite a few winners for Kevin and Kristopher. The breeding is Staf Van Reet from Brownlee, Ward & Nee. The dam is a Janssen from a pair bought at McCormack and Schofield’s clearance sale in Blackpool in 2006. The Janssen pair are ‘Mr Mack’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ and what a superb pedigree they have having bred numerous winners for McCormack and Schofield including ‘Double 500’ winner of 1st City of Leeds Fed two years in a row from 500 miles. They have also bred many prizewinners for the Rooneys at Club, Fed and Combine level.
This young cock was sent to this race on chipping eggs.

Patrick had another two pigeons in the Fed result at 9th and 10th. They were 117th and 118th North section and 221st and 222nd Open. The bird at 9th Fed is again from K Rooney & Son and is a Bastian x Lindelauf cross. All three pigeons timed by Patrick are cocks.

The pigeon at 10th Fed this week was 9th Fed, 15th East section East Down Combine last week. This one is from one of his own Grondelaars hen paired to a hen belonging to Peter Martin, Fortfield from his ‘Red Rum’ lines.

D Croskery & Son Annsborough had another superb season and they too finished with a wonderful result here. They had four birds in the South Down Fed result at 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Fed, taking the following North section and Open positions – 2nd, 9th, 16th and 30th North section and 49th, 79th, 89th and 115th Open. This was one of the best cards on the table on the day.
Dominic and Dolen had a wonderful season at National level, winning a Hall of Fame in the King’s Cup, then winning the Robin Duddy Challenge from the Yearling National and Young Bird National and rounding the season off with this magnificent performance.

Their first pigeon is off a Kees Bousa cock that they bought of John Gerard when paired to their good ‘01’ hen. ‘01’ is a daughter of the ‘Bolden’ cock and had positions from every Inland race in the club and has turned out to be a great stock hen. The pigeon timed here is the same way bred as one that was 1st club, 3rd Fed 26th Open Tullamore earlier this year.

Their second pigeon is a nest mate of last week’s winner that was 1st Fed, 1st East section and 12th Open East Down Combine from Skibbereen Derby. The dam being direct Walter De Ryck, while the sire is a son of the cock that was 4th National Portsmouth.
The pigeons at 4th and 5th Fed are nest mates. The sire is a cock that Dolen got from Eddie Coulter Lisburn from Jeff Greenaway stock, while the dam is one of their own De Klaks. The pigeon at 5th Fed won the Banbridge Breeder Buyer and a prize of £700.
Robert Shaw Annsborough followed up on his superb Penzance Young Bird National result when he had four birds in the Open result by taking two positions in the top ten of the Fed here. Robert has had a super year racing with the NIPA and won Section F in the last 3 young bird races so here was a loft going into this race on form.

His first pigeon is a blue hen that was 2nd club, 10th section F from Rosscarbery. The breeding of this one is Verheye from Stephen Brown & Sons Dundonald coming down from their great racer ‘13’. This bird is 6th Fed, 60th North section, 151st Open.
Robert’s second pigeon is 8th Fed, 110th section and 224th Open. This young cock was 1st section F from Fermoy. The sire is Willy Thas while the dam is from a Huybrecht hen obtained from S Brown & Son.

The result is completed by Annsborough’s Benson Bros who have had their best young bird season for years who take 7th Fed here. This bird was 64th North section, 155th Open to complete a very successful weeks racing as on the Saturday prior to this race this pigeon was 8th Fed, 11th section, 39th Open east Down Combine. The sire is From John Abernethy’s Harmony lofts while the dam is a Vandenabeele from M & D Evans.

Full Result: 1, P Brown Annsborough 1201; 2, 3, 4, 5, D Croskery & Son Annsborough 1195, 1170, 1166, 1155; 6, R Shaw Annsborough 1146; 7, Benson Bros Annsborough 1145; 8, R Shaw 1127; 9, 10, P Brown 1124.97, 1124.87: Nom £16 won by M Croskery & Son
• The Annual Dinner and Prize Distribution will be held in the Dundrum Inn on Friday 15th October.
• Applications for Old bird and young Bird of the Year should be with the secretary before 1st October.