The Robin Duddy Challenge is a 3 bird Nom within the Irish National Flying club over two of its National races - the Yearling National from Sennen Cove and the Young Bird National from Penzance. While only in its second year it attracts a lot of interest and is a worthy challenge for both fancier and pigeon.
D Croskery & Son Annsborough
The winners of the Robin Duddy Challenge Trophy for 2010 and collecting a cheque for £1,000 are the partnership of D Croskery & Son of the Annsborough club in Co Down. The partnership is Dominic and Dolen but they inform me that they would be lost without the help given by Dominic’s wife Josie who keeps the birds in tip-top condition.
This has been an excellent year for the Croskerys at National level having won a Hall of Fame in the King’s Cup, they were also 32nd North section, 39th Open Friendship National from St Malo. They ended the season by taking 2nd and 9th North section, 49th and 79th Open in the Skibbereen Young Bird National. Add to this their open positions in the two races we are looking at here and you can see it was a most successful season for them at National level.
The pigeon they timed in the Yearling National was a 83rd North section, 127th Open. This bird was 10th North section 11th Open in the Young Bird National from Penzance in 2009 in race in which they were 11th, 18th and 60th Open.
The sire of the bird timed here was 3rd Open in the Friendship National from Portsmouth in 2007 while the dam was 7th Open in the East Down Combine’s Old Bird Derby from Lamballe also in 2007, in a race where only eight birds were timed on the day. The sire is a direct De Klak from John Jobey of Dunstan while the dam was picked up at Rodney and Jason Walker from Killyleagh’s clearance sale.
The pigeon timed in the Young Bird National for the Croskerys was 87th North section, 103rd Open having been 10th club, 15th section and 40th Open East Down Combine from Talbenny a couple of weeks previously. The dam of this bird was 60th Open in the Young Bird National last year and is a half sister of their Hall of Fame winner. The dam is a De Klak from their racing loft, which has won from Tullamore.
S & K Duke Crossgar.
Sam and Karen Duke are runners up in the Robin Duddy Challenge this year having been 90th North section, 134th Open in the Yearling National and 88th North section, 104th Open in the Young Bird National.
The Yearling National pigeon has a great racing record having been 8th section 11th Open East Down Combine Young Bird Talbenny 2009, 21st North section, 25th Open Young Bird National Penzance 2009, 73rd North section, 100th Open Skibbereen Old Bird National 2010, and 90th North Section, 134th Open Yearling National Sennen Cove 2010.
The sire is down from a pigeon from Burns Bros, Comber Social which Sam and Karen bought at a Charity Sale. The grand dam on the sire’s side is a Soontjens hen from Joe McGreevy Crossgar. Her sister was 1st club, 20th Open East Down Combine Penzance.
The dam is a Soontjens whose sire was 9th Open in the East Down Combine’s Skibbereen Old Bird Classic and 8th Open in Irish National Flying Club Old Bird Skibbereen National. His grand dam was 66th and 61st in the King’s Cup. The grand dam on the other side is down off ‘Brigid’s Hen’, a hen that bred winners to 6 different cocks including an open winner for Sam and Karen from Dungarvan and for Joe McGreevy from Penzance. Most of the Dukes’ main pigeons go back to ‘Brigid’s Hen’.
Their Challenge pigeon in the Young Bird National was 13th section, 17th Open East Down Combine Young Bird Talbenny, 88th North section, 104th Open Penzance and 93rd North section, 196th Open Skibbereen Young Bird National.
The sire of this young hen was 12th Open East Down Combine Old Bird Derby from St Malo this year and 20th section from the same race point last year. He is out of a red Busschaert cock, which was a super racer, with the breeding coming from the late Ted McCoy Ards and the late Miney Bridges Killyleagh.
The dam was 39th Open Young Bird National Wadebridge and her grand sire was from Chris Gordon through Fountainhead Lofts while her grand dam was 35th Open Young Bird National Penzance and is out of the Red Busschaert mentioned above.
The nestmate of the young bird timed in the Challenge was 4th section, 11th Open East Down Combine Skibbereen Derby (1), 17th section, 19th Open Fermoy and 50th Open in Skibbereen Derby (2).
Winner of the Robin Duddy Challenge, Donal Croskery from Annsborough.
Sammy Duke from Crossgar was runner-up in the Robin Duddy Challenge,
he is also Secretary of the East Down Combine.