North Road racing in Wexford

[willie reynolds]

North Road Racing In Wexford

Lyn Griffiths Ten Firsts in 2009

It was with great pleasure that I recently paid a visit to the lofts of Lyn Griffiths, a fellow club member in the Wexford United Club.

Lyn has been racing pigeons since 1969 when he first began in Haverford West in Wales, racing on the North Road. This was and I dare say still is a very difficult route racing from points such as Perth and Thurso. Lyn recalled one of his best memories of his time racing in Wales was in 1976 when he score 1st and 2nd club from Thurso clocking 3 hours ahead of the next bird and getting his three birds home in race time. At that time he kept only 24 race birds which he had obtained from Harry Annette from Pencoed who was possibility the first fancier in Wales to clock a bird from the Faroe Islands, a distance of 740 miles.

He also had birds from Thomas Login, Withland Down from birds obtained from Mr. Elliot in London.

As he recalls, the best flyer in his area at the time was Joe Clay.

In 1978 he met his wife in Ireland at a rugby international and was married in 1980. He did not return to the birds until 1992 at his present address and obtained about 50 young birds from a number of Irish fanciers namely Tommy Story and Kevin Darling in Coolock, Dublin and Val Jordan in Doneycarney, also in Dublin. Other birds were sourced from the late Micheal Harris in Haverford west. These birds produced two National winners, one in 1993 and again in 1996. He also won the channel averages that year. After obtaining these birds he flew constantly well, scoring regularly and winning more than his fair share on the North road. In 2000 his club decided to turn to the South road and the performance dropped in the inland races due to his loft being so far of the line although he continued to win on the channel events from Wales. In 2008 Lyn returned to north road racing when the Wexford United club turned back north, racing with the Lenister North Road Federation

Success came immediately with 3 wins which included a 1,2,3, from Lurgan, a 1,3,4 from Ballycastle National, 1st Hamilton, Scotland also scoring 9th and 10th club plus 2nd federation and 2nd Open in Old Birds and has not been less than 5th Open in any National. The bird that won first from Hamilton was bred by a follow club member, now deceased, by the name of Peter Ottrim and was a Staff van Reet bird. In the young birds he was 4th, 5th, and 6th Open Malin Head, Donegal plus 13th and 14th Lurgan Open. This is excellent racing when you keep in mind the difficulties of racing north and the fact he is racing in the Nationals against the top flyers. North road national flying in Ireland covers the length and breath of the country so to be able to score so consistently in the national races is an achievement in it’s self. 2009 proved to be an even better year with 10 club wins, 10 seconds and 4 thirds. In the National races he clock on the day in every race which included from Stirling, Scotland were he was 1st and 2nd club, 2nd fed and 3rd fed with another bird. Then from Hamilton he scored another 1, 2, 3 plus 1st fed, 5th, 21st and 22nd Open. He sent ten birds and lost three winners which shows how difficult these races are.

Back across the channel again and from Muchline, Scotland he again won 1st club and is unsure as to his Open position as he did not have the results to hand. By years end he had won all averages in the club, Best Old bird and Best Young Bird. Altogether it was a fantastic year.

At the time of writing Lyn has just won 1st and 2nd club, 1st and 2nd fed, so it looks like 2010 will be another good year for him.

Present Birds

His present birds are from Keith Couzans, Fishguard, James Redmond, Wexford, which are eagleson Busshart x Staff Van Reet. Tommy Story has again supplied some Bertie Campus birds and Mills & Cray, Pembroke.

Racing system

Lyn prefers to race on RoundAbout as he feels that the hens are better than the cocks. The young birds are kept of the Darkness up to the beginning of June. On occasion he will re-pair the birds for the channel events.

He allows the young birds to pair and rear babies if they want.

The old birds are given four to five tosses out to 20/30 miles before the first race and are not trained during racing.

The young birds are trained up to 30 miles starting with 5 miles and working up to longer tosses. They are trained as often as possible up to the first race and there after are trained twice per day from 4 miles in any weather on the line of flight, which he feels is very important for the young birds. They should be straight out of the basket and return home as directly as possible.

Feeding

The old birds are fed barley for the first two days following return from the race .On the third and fourth days they have 50/50 mix of widowhood mix and barley, then full widowhood mix up to basketing at the rate of 1 oz per bird. When they stop eating barley the food is withdrawn. For the longer race the barley is decreased and four peanuts per bird per day are given.

The young birds are fed Gerry Plus with 25% barley added and on weaning are placed directly in the young bird lofts on straw. They are on darkness from day one and come off the darkness on the 6th of June. Basket training is given while they are still babies. The young birds are raced out to 200 miles and 25% are kept back each week.

Ideas about the Sport

Lyn feels that not enough is being done to control predators and that we need to get more organised in this regard. He also feels that vaccination should be stopped as it has served its purpose.

Lyn has asked me to thank all those who have given him the best of their stock and his club mates who are always willing to help when he cannot attend the club for marking or after clocking. He says that his club members are always ready to help each other and that this makes for a very happy club.

I can only echo his words in this regard and would like to thank Lyn for his time and for allowing me to complete this report.

The Lame Hen