National Flying Club

St Malo

Yet another success and rave reviews on the new transporter for the National FC what more could a pigeon fancier want. That has been the case with the St Malo race when more members were happy with the way their pigeons returned on what was a hard day’s racing. Not only that we even have members who have said that they should have sent their birds to St Nazaire instead of listening to the rumours about the new Hi Tech transporter. At the end of the day we all live and learn and let’s face it there were always going to be teething problems with such a Hi Tech piece of equipment but the one problem was soon resolved with a trip to the owners to see what was required. We are aware that the prize money is not what we would like but when you take into account there is around £19,000 paid out at St Nazaire we cannot complain there is plenty to go round. Now back to this race where over 4,000 birds were liberated at 6am in a very light North East wind. The day was never going to be easy with all the heat but with the early start they did have a chance to get some miles under their wings before the full heat of the day was hitting them. The East wind was again going to keep the birds up the west side of the country and the result reflects this with the section winners to the west putting up the better velocities. With National racing I think most fanciers accept that this is always going to be the case so are happy to compete against the best in the country in the premier club.   

1st Section D 1st open goes to Mr & Mrs Elliott of Barnstaple. Lightning really does strike twice. The last time a National race was won in North Devon was way back in 1944 which shows that flying to this part of the country is by no means an easy task and over the years the birds have struggled against a prevailing wind on race days, usually from the south west but for this race all changed and they were in with a shout. Maurice and Pam Elliott from Barnstaple fly to a small back garden loft some 18ft.x 8ft plus aviary for the stock birds. They have enjoyed a wonderful season so far this year when Lightning has really struck twice for them, winning 1st section 14th open from Sennen Cove and now 1st Section 1st Open NFC St.Malo National. Their winner is a 2 year old dark chequer cock now named The Dark Destroyer and his breeding is Pure Janssen x Van Wanroy with both sets of parents being purchased from the Ponderosa Stud at Weymouth. This is Destroyers ninth time across the channel, and this year in preparation for National racing he was entered with the Devon & Cornwall Continental FC with three races from Chale on the Isles Of White when he was the first bird to the loft on each occasion. He was then sent to Sennen Cove (16th Sec.) St.Nazaire (57th Sec.) and then St. Malo with the NFC and winning 1st Open against over 4000 birds. Maurice decided to change onto a standard widowhood system quite late in the season and it has certainly paid off, his birds have performed outstandingly and I feel he has adopted the system for the future. Vernon Morrish his great friend was on lookout and spotted the bird flying at speed on line and very high in the sky a quick trap through open doors and into the clock on to the leader board and then the long wait while birds were being clocked further up through the country. Maurice & Pam fly their birds with our local North Sector of the Devon & Cornwall Continental FC and have been most prominent in all our local training races this year and agree that this type of preparation is the only way forward if you wish to compete against the very best fanciers in the country.

Mr & Mrs Elliott

Leading Section "A" is the very much in-form loft of Crammond & Langstaff of Fontwell West Sussex. This section win follows on from their 1st, 2nd and 3rd London & S.E.Classic, 1st and 2nd BICC Exeter, 15th and 16th BICC Yelverton, 5th 13th and 14th BICC Wadebridge from 2698 birds. They were also 1st. 2nd, 4th and 6th in the mighty Solent Fed from 2407 birds on 17th June. Ian said "With a fresh East to North East wind we knew we had little prospect of a good open position, so we just hoped for a decent section result. We knew the birds would make a landfall well down into the West Country and our birds would need to punch back into a North East head wind, so Nigel and I thought that anything around 11.00aam would be a decent pigeon on the day. We were therefore very pleased to see out section winner arrive battling into the head wind, flying low to the ground and hugging the terrains to be clocked at 11.04am after 5 hours on the wing to record a velocity of 971 Y.P.M." "This yearling widowhood cock is from our good Dickie and Mark Evans Vandenabeele lines being bred from a son of Jester and Carrie when paired to a daughter of Eisenhower. He won the local club last week and was our first bird in the clock in the Y.B National last year."

1st section C goes to Mike Staddon who is no stranger to winning top National positions. On this occasion Mike clocked a super yearling cock that has always been very consistent to the loft flown on the north road as far as Hexham in 2006 covering a distance of 283mls. He has also flown from Wetherby 219mls north before being switched back south to Messac 2 weeks ago when he was the 5th Pigeon clocked. After that he was sent to St Malo on a 7 day old YB. Who is a grandson of Mike’s 1st open N.F.C. Sartilly Y.B National “Perrott Nadia” Mike was saying that he is very proud of his record in the section from N.F.C. races this will be the 22nd time of winning 1st section C which is believed to be a record for the N.F.C. Mike went on to say “After all the rumours going around about the new transportation I decided not to send to St Nazaire (big mistake) I wasn’t interested in Sennen Cove so St Malo was my 1st race with N.F.C. 2006 I must say all the rumour mongers were totally wrong and the pigeons arrived home in wonderful condition I sent is mainly yearlings and had them all home on the day well done N.F.C”

Mike Staddon

1st section e is won by the father & son partnership of S & P. Kulpa from Reading with a yearling blue hen, who is a direct daughter of ‘Champion Sophia’ winner of 1st section E 1st Open NFC 2004 young bird national bred from the lines of Hans Eijerkamps Bartoli. The sire is one of 5 direct sons of Bartoli that the partnership purchased from the Greenfield Stud in Holland, all of which have bred winners for them. This hen is a 5th generation of winners from club, fed, combine and NFC level. She was 1 of 20 sent, 17 of which were home on the day, everyone in excellent condition, even with the hard race that they had flown. They had another good team performance; following on from the Sennen Cove race earlier this year with 6 birds in 40 minutes, in a race that was going to be hard due to the North Easterly wind on the day. All 20 birds sent were hens and raced on their own system that has brought a great deal of success over the past few years, including 3x1st sections in the CSCFC and 4th, 6th & 7th section E NFC Sennen cove this year. They have had an excellent old bird season winning 16x1st clubs and 2x1st feds. The previous best NFC performance in recent years has been 2004 young birds when the partnership finished 2nd section E 2nd open beaten by the mother of this hen, who then moved back to the stock loft to breed this section winner.

S & P Kulpa

1st section F. One partnership whose pigeons have been coming well this season initially racing North and now turned South is the partnership of Crowley and Green of Compton Bassett. This season in major races they have won: 20th May - 8th, 9th, 36th,37th, 91st, 102nd, 106th,122nd,127th and 146th Open BBC Ingleton. 10th June - 9th, 13th, 18th, 32nd, 45th, 72nd, 73rd and 75th Open BBC Carlisle. 1st July - 13th, 16th, 29th, 44th, 57th, 73rd, 86th, 97th, 117th, 120th and 139th BBC Messac. And now in their first NFC race of the season they record their 10th Section win taking first section F probable 44th Open with a yearling blue Van Rijn widowhood cock called "Renegade". This pigeonbred down from the Merckx-line from Janssen Bros is closely related to "The Boomerang" bred for the Herbot brothers by Leo. "Renegade" has been one of their star performers this year having been 37th Open BBC Ingleton, 13th Open BBC Carlisle, 139th Open BBC Messac and 27th Open WESRC Hexham Open race. As you can see from the results this is not just a one bird loft as their whole team has been performing well with this race no exception as they timed two other decent pigeons which should finish 4th and 6th in the section.With two races to go their plan is now to send all their older pigeons next week to Bordeaux with the BBC and their team of yearlings 10 in total to Saintes with the NFC in a fortnight.

Anna Crowley & Richard Green

1st section G is won by Les Nicholls of Bristol flying around 200mls to record a vel of 1142ypm with a 2y red cock. Les has been in a rich vein of form in recent weeks having taken 2nd & 6th section 20th & 30th open in the first National FC race from Sennen Cove and 6th section from St Nazaire. Just for good measure Les won 1st open from Tours with the BICC in fact the section winner now named Triple X is a full brother to the Tours winner. These pigeons are bred from their very good Geert & Clara Phillips of Dendamonde in Belgium stock from their multiple winning National family. Triple X was sent feeding a ten day old youngster and had a previous channel race from Tours in the BICC where he finished 7th section. Les started the season on widowhood but being away working most of the day at his haulage business he only had time to let the birds out once each day in the late evening and consequently the birds showed little form. However with the restrictions on channel arcing lifted Les decided to pair the birds back up and leave the birds on an open hole with almost instant success. Just to fine tone them he also takes them for a training toss three evenings a week to about 15mls directly due south to Glastonbury Tor and spends an hour or so reflecting on life and has a sandwich while he single tosses them. A heavy mixture is in front of the birds all the time and supplied by his good friend Mike Bidwell of Cog Mill Bristol and as a result in club racing Les can rarely trap quick enough to score. In fact Triple X held the sheet up in the club race from Portland a distance of 60mls the previous week. Although Les has put up with plenty of chipping from his fellow club members he only laughs as he knows that it is with similar methods that he won the NFC from Nantes and a car in 1992. Theonly medicines used are the De Weedt products supplied by fellow club member Nigel Templer.

Les Nicholls & daughter Jodie

In the St Nazaire race I (Les) had the job of putting my own notes together for 1st section L so with Russell being a scribe I thought I would let him put his own words to the report. Mr & Mrs Russell Bradford. “I seem to have had a good weekend with 1st Sect “H” in the NFC from St. Malo and today 13th, Open (provisional) in the BICC from Bergerac 514 miles. 21 hours AFT. St Malo is 261 to me and with the warm mainly due Easterly airflow throughout the weekend; the birds have really had to work to reach this side of the Country. My NFC bird is a yearling cock racing natural and starting to drive his hen again. He had just three races as a YB to the Coast, and this year one Channel race, again in very warm East winds and was sixth bird to the loft with a quite low velocity plus four races with the local Harrowden Fed. His dam is a five-year-old Jan Aarden who is a full sister to my MNFC SE Section winner in the 13,000 bird race from Picauville in 2002, and she was paired to a 10 year old stock cock via Jim Biss, whose blood goes back along ‘Natrix’ and ‘Son of Barcelona’ lines. The bird on return was still fresh given eight hours on the wing in hot and drying winds and barely took a drink, which despite my earlier reservations about the NFC transport, must be down to being well looked after by the convoyers. It makes a pleasant change to be “reported on”, rather than “report on others” as a BHW scribe, (The Cobbler) and as I noted in your column it is always difficult to write about oneself for fear of being perceived as self promoting”

Russell Bradford

1st section I goes to B Hyden & Son with son Andy sending us the following information. “I, Andy carried on flying as B.Hyden & Son after my dad, Bert passed away 5 years ago. For 20 years we flew pigeons with success in Club, Fed, Combines and Nationals. I havestruggled to race competitively since his death through working continental shifts but with the help of Dave(Hos) Hyden, Richard (Dick) Potts, my mum Joyce and my other half Jenny weare getting back on track. Bird timed in was a yearling blue white flighted cock of Janssen bloodlines. The Janssen’s are Wim Geboers originating from Derek Smith Great Ayton, crossed with birds gifted from Bill Lewis of Standeford, Bill Hocking of Stirchley and Stewart Minchew of Tewkesbury blended into the present day family. Birds have performed well this season in the MNFC, MCCC and Burton & South Derbyshire Fed. Returns at the time of writing was 11 out of14 entered. Birds are raced on the roundabout system, fed on Verse-Laga corn, Aviform products used. Birds are exercised twice a day for 1 hour, very little training given after 1st race. I would like to thank Hos, Dick, my mum Joyce and Jenny for their help in looking after the pigeons when I am at work. Unfortunately Dick my mentor was admitted to hospital on the Wednesday before this race so we all wish him a speedy recovery and hope he will be back on the bench for the next race”

Andy Heyden with the section winner & Hos

1st section J sees a very well known name in the sport Glyn & Christine Machin of Telford. Their winner is a 2y chequer cock raced on the widowhood and is from their Busschaert sprinters that they became famous for back in the 70’s. Glyn was saying that he got to a part of the sport where his interest waned and after some thought decided to take up the challenge of the longer channel racing so his enthusiasm drove him forward. The grandsire of this pigeon was a winner of 5 times in the first 30 from Saintes with the NFC & MNFC. This is not the first time this chequer cock has been in the frame during the current racing season because he has won quite a few to date and has been very consistent. As I say the breeding goes back to the original Busschaert’s but to strengthen the pigeons Glyn brought in the Mathyjs lines that came good. What was more pleasing was that two dropped together as they raced each other through the doors. The other being a yearling that goes back to the 3rd open NFC Pau winner of 92 and a pigeon with a good future ahead. Glyn finished by saying that he was very pleased because they came back in wonderful condition.

Glyn & Christine Machin

1st section K is won by last years King of the distance Chris Gordon of Old Snydale Pontefract. Chris took the rubber off a blue hen raced on the widowhood that was 17th section 642nd open Fougeres NFC and 3rd section 33rd open BBC Lamballe as a young bird covering 733mls in consecutive weekends. The nest mate to this pigeons is also a good channel pigeon having a 1st & 2nd already in the bag. The breeding could be termed as a mistake because the sire paired to his own mother and were left to rear but Chris admitted that he did not pick it up at first. Chris classes this line as his middle distance team as they win to about 500mls but there best distance is around the 350ml mark. Chris is known for his excellent capabilities of racing at the distance but he can get them in the shorter races when he wants to.  This hen has been to every land race this year but this was her first channel race of the season. We went on to talk about feeding pigeons and Chris tells me that he feeds barley all winter and in the early part of building them up for a race because he believes it is the best feed that you can give to the pigeons. It cannot be that bad because he has used it as a main feed for the best part of 20yrs and there’s nothing wrong with his performances.

Chris Gordon at the NFC with Mr & Mrs Carlo Napolitano

The Harrison (Beryl)  & Hull (Dave & Janet) partnership are thrilled with their performance in this race being 1st Section L & 4th Open with a yearling widowhood cock flying 358 miles. This cock is now named Victors Dream in honour of Janet’s dad Vic Harrison who had only one unfulfilled performance to accomplish when he passed away in October 2005 that being winning section L in the NFC. At the end of the 2004 season Vic and Dave decided to invest in some distance stock pigeons in order to compete in the National and International races. After chatting to Les Parkinson about the Bifs and Taveriene Rigola pigeons it was decided that these would be looked at so one Sunday morning off we went to Middlewich. Vic and Dave selected five pairs of stock birds and these included the parents to Victors Dream, which are Dr Vandersanden Bifs guaranteed parentages. The sire of this yearling cock is Jonge Narbonne 44 bred from De Narbonne winner of 1st national Narbonne and Mooioogje dam of 1st National AS De Duvenkrant and provincial winners. The Dam is the Jimmy Hen who is a daughter off 1st National Limoges 16,945 birds when paired to a daughter of Gijs Peeters Jimmy winner of 6 x 1sts. As a young bird Victors dream was not to put on the pigeons on darkness and had three races 90, 112 & 160 miles he was then put to one side and left to mature for the 2006 season. This year he has flown a full race programme on the widowhood and has been in the clock when the velocities were lower being 8th club, 8th fed & 9th combine Yeovil 1 and 2nd club, 9th fed & 33rd combine Yeovil 2. The birds are fed a combination of Versela Laga diet and widowhood mixtures and are exercised round the loft twice a day for an hour. The partnership believe that the good health of the pigeon is optimal for a good performance so their birds are regularly checked by Gary Spavin for the common ailments canker, fungal, worms etc. and are treated individually if necessary using natural products where possible. No routine flock medication is given. The team sent 6 pigeons to the NFC race all of which homed by teatime and it has to be said in immaculate condition and they believe this is due to the new transporter, which they are extremely impressed with.   

Dave Hull with the section winner

Victor's Dream 1st section L

We would like to finish by thanking the various people around the country who have visited fanciers and sent in the information on the winners the help is very much appreciated.