Farming Life - Wednesday 16/03/11

[willie reynolds]

Lisburn & Dist - Spence Bros Ace Loft in Sect D

Lisburn & District one of the major clubs in the NIPA have a strong membership competing in the Sect D which includes the hot-bed of Dromore. A top loft for as long as I can remember are Spence Bros who in 2010 achieved the Sect D Fancier of the Year. Locally in Lisburn & Dist the loft won 10 x 1sts and this in a club sending up to 750 pigeons weekly. Remember as well this club have a 35 bird limit racing inland and 25 bird limit cross channel. Most racing is done on the natural system, young birds are paired up for the longer races. Spence Bros also race a team each week in the Ulster Federation, competing with the Lagan Valley RPC in Lisburn. It takes a bit of doing operating race teams in two organisations, and with success at that. The main race team are Soontjen with a few Van Loon, and some very good direct Belgium stock among the race team which themselves have won a fair bit over the years.

The Lisburn & Dist prize presentation was held at the start of the year, the Big Club night of the year got underway with the Sect D Fanciers of the Year Spence Bros once again first to the table to collect 19 different awards including Old Bird Ave, Combined OB & YB Ave, Channel Average and Old Bird Knock-Out. Winning the NIPA Sec D Fancier of the Year was achieved with an inland and channel bird limit as a rule in the club, up against other Sec D clubs who race with open limits throughout the season. Next up was L Magee and son who raced well in the y/birds and won the YB Average amongst their awards and also a Bronze Diploma out of the French NIPA OB National. Their 2yo Black cock won 3rd Sect D & 90th Open NIPA St Malo 2009 and 10th Sect D & 149th Open NIPA St Malo in 2010. Third top was Mark Laffin and next up was Sam Briggs who topped the Sec D out of Bude in a difficult race. Other lofts to make the Top 10 in the prize list were H Browne & Son, A Hanna, A T & J Houston, C Coates, R Topping & Son, D Ferguson and W Joss. Other good results were had in the NIPA, including from France. We note A Hughes & Sons with Bronze Diploma winning 192nd Open NIPA St Malo 2009 and 6th Sect D & 77th Open NIPA St Malo in 2010. This bird was a 4yo Blue hen. Also J Waring & Son who won the Hall of Fame Diploma in the INFC also out of France. His 7yo Blue Cheq cock was placed in the Kings Cup, 24th Open in 2005, 53rd Open in 2006 and 25th Open in 2010.

For the first time this season the INFC presented Merit Awards for birds timed twice in the Kings Cup and Friendship Nat prizes. The members done INFC Secretary Trevor Topping proud by winning no less than five in the Kings Cup race, 2 each to A Hughes & Sons and J Waring & Son and one for Sammy Briggs. Again for the record the winners were. A Hughes & Sons 25th Open Vannes 2009 and 66th Open Vannes in 2010, a 5yo Blue Cheq hen. A Hughes & Sons 68th Open Vannes 2009 and 113th Open Vannes in 2010 with a 3yo Blue Cheq cock. S G Briggs 118th Open Vannes 2009 and 90th Open Vannes in 2010 with 3yo Smokey 79 Blue hen. J Waring & Son 114th Open Vannes 2006 and 196th Open Vannes in 2010 with a 7yo Blue Cheq w/f cock. J Waring & Son 53rd Open Vannes 2006 and 25th Open Vannes in 2010 with a 7yo Blue Cheq cock. In all 30 members made the prize list and a great night was had by all, well into the wee small hours .

Jackie Waring has a long list of achievements especially at the distance, winning his first Hall of Fame Diploma in 1995 racing from Rennes in France at 482 miles. All very hard races, just look at the details. 1992 – 83rd Open Kings Cup Rennes 1052/2442 on velocity 476. 1994 – 134th Open Kings Cup Rennes 1032/2420 on velocity 945. 1995 – 149th Open Kings Cup Rennes 1195/3259 on velocity 509.

F Black & Son – Downpatrick

Roy Connor sent me some details and photos of a top racing loft in County Down, F Black & Son who race with East Down Combine, NIPA and INFC have recorded a top performance list going right through to France.

6th NIPA Sect F St Malo OB Derby, 2nd NIPA Sect F Skibbereen OB Derby, 1st NIPA Sect F Penzance Old Birds, 4th Open EDC Skibbereen OB Derby, 1st & 2nd Open EDC Talbenny YB Derby, 5th Open NIPA Skibbereen OB Derby, 1st Open East Down Combine Fermoy, 1st NIPA Sect F Portland OB Nat, 3rd & 5th Open Skibbereen YB Derby, 21st Open NIPA Dinard OB Derby, 21st Open NIPA Talbenny YB Derby, 17th Open INFC Kings Cup Rennes, 32nd Open INFC Kings Cup Redon (16 hours on wing), 37th Open INFC Kings Cup Rennes, 1st Sect & 2nd Open Nenagh (26,000 birds), 3rd Open East Down Combine Skibbereen, 2nd Sect & 5th Open NIPA Skibbereen, 21st North Sect & 97th Open INFC Skibbereen YB Nat this year.

The family of birds are the old Walkingshaw and Busschaerts and more recently stock from Crombie & Mechan proved to be top class. These are mainly Blue Grizzle’s. F Black & Son are one of the most consistent lofts in this area. Roy said they never seem to fail, but somehow haven’t been noticed. Sorry it took me some time to have this covered.