Stour Print Carentan Young Bird & Old Hens Race

Young Bird Winner Old Hens Winner 1st Open 1st SE Section 1st Open 1st NE Section Mr & Mrs Tony Welch from Chichester Roger Lowe from Reading with “Little Blue” with “Diamond Delight” The Classic’s racing season has now drawn to a close. The Young Bird and Old hen’s race from Carentan being our last race flown on Sunday 26th August. 209 members sent 1946 youngsters with 87 members supporting the old hen’s race with 392 birds. Bad weather conditions on the Saturday meant another hold over but Sunday proved to be the better day all round and what a good race it turned out to be with the birds being liberated at 8.30am in to a light westerly wind becoming north westerly in parts. For many organisations this season racing has been tough, from the start of the old bird programme right the way through to the young birds and some tough decisions have had to be made by our Convoyer and Race Advisor. I would like to thank Nigel Rigiani and Anner Smith for all their hard work. Also all the I/C’s and marking station helpers who have worked tirelessly for the Classic this year. Robbie Jones and Bill Norman for collecting the crates from Frome to Southampton, Merv at Boxhill for looking after us so well and supplying us with drivers Mike and Mark who work their socks off all weekend for the Classic and finally I would like to say thank you to someone who doesn’t normally get a mention, my husband Martin for all his support on race day supplying me with mugs of tea, lunch and dinner. Winners of the Carentan young bird race are Mr & Mrs Tony Welch from Chichester. Tony first raced pigeons in 1968 flying on the North road. In the late 70s or early 80s he decided to turn the birds South to fly National racing. His most recent success was in 2010 winning first section A in the NFC from St Malo and first section G with the BBC from Messac flown on the same day. Tony’ s Winning pigeon in CSCFC is a blue hen (now named Little Blue). It was kept on the darkness and was allowed to pair with an old cock, she went to the race sitting about 10 days. The youngsters are flown with the South Coast Fed along the coast to get them fit and trained in the view of Classic and National racing across the water. The birds are trained 2 or 3 times a week about 20 to 30 miles with Tony’ s good friends Crammond & Langstaff. The birds are fed a regular racing mix and conditioner

once a week and he uses Orego - Stim product once weekly for two days. On the day of the race an old pigeon fancier Gordon Bennett rang and asked if he could come and visit. As they talked over old times a pigeon dropped on the landing board but Tony had not opened the trap, it flew onto the garage then onto the roof of the house, he lost about two minutes before it came in. The pigeon has not got a great pedigree. It’ s bred from Janssen and crossed with an old family of pigeons originally given to him by Doug Ginman who first started him off in racing pigeons in 1968. None of this could happen without Wonder women, his wife Carol.

Tony Welch. Runner up position and also 3rd, 4th and 5th Open, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th North East Section goes to our 2011 Classic Young Bird winner Roger Lowe of Reading. I nearly never sent but as I had a breeder buyer I decided to send 15 young birds and 5 old hens after having a touch of young bird sickness four weeks a go. They have only had two races. I had 5 birds come together 4 young birds and 1 old hen. They came in the middle of my other birds from the BICC and Fed races so I didn’ t see them arrive. My 1st young bird is a De Raw Sablon cock bred from my direct Freddy & Jacque Vandenheede. 2nd a Lou Wouters Janssen full sister to last years BBC winner by 25minutes. 3rd bird is of Mark Gilbert's blood bred by Neville Spracklen and 4th bird is a full sister to my 2nd bird. All my birds are raced on the A to Z system. The next race for the birds is the young bird National .

Roger Lowe with his 2nd Open Young Bird and 1st Open Old Hen Pip Hughes from Chichester is 2nd SE Section, 6th Open. Pip’ s pigeon is a light chequer hen from his old stock. This being her first race of the season and after having only one training toss from Salisbury. As Pip works away a lot all of his pigeons are allowed an open door constantly which enables them to keep their fitness up. 7th Open, 2nd NE Section goes to James and Peter Parker from Beenham. Our first bird is a Grizzle out of a Jos Thone cock when paired to a hen out of Primus Blue Prince. We sent a whole team to this race and had great returns considering this was their first race this year. We had 6 within a minute of our first bird. Most are raced on darkness with some racing roundabout and others paired up. Mr & Mrs Norman Smith from Havant are probable 8th Open, 3rd SE Section with their Micheal Van Lint Blue cock bred from parents purchased from Masserella Lofts. This cock bird was having his second race with his only other race being from Newton Abbot the previous week.

Norman Smith. Probable 9th Open is Roy Oldfield of Clanfield Roy would like to congratulate Mr & Mrs Welch of Chichester for winning the Classic race. Roy has been racing pigeons since he was a young lad and has been formally known as a distance flyer with the ’Cattrysse family’. His claim to fame is winning the Pau National with ’Clanfield Expected’. Over the years Roy has changed his method of racing and now enjoys having a bash at most Classic and National races. This Classic race was Roy’ s very first young bird race of the season. It was a fantastic race with Roy getting 11 out of 15 in race time with another 2 arriving early next morning. Roy’ s next race is the young bird National with the N.F.C. Roy uses Gems corn and only treats his pigeons when absolutely necessary. Roy has cultivated his bloodline over the last few years mainly from the Delbar and Leo Van Rijn families. (thank you to Dawn and Les Cross for the write up)

Roy’ s hen. Roy Oldfield. Paul Kenny & Ven Segesdy from Wantage clocked a M&D Evans Gaby Vandenabeele X Van Trieste Janssen blue chequer cock to take probable 10th Open. This cock bird was showing up to a hen prior to basketing. All birds are fed Gerry Plus and are trained twice a week between 30-50 miles. We sent 29 birds to the race and had 21 birds back on the day. All birds arrived back home in perfect condition. Well done to Nigel for an excellent job.

Paul Kenny & Ven Segesdy’ s chequer cock.

With their second South West Section win of the season is Mark and Julie Gower of Fordingbridge. The pigeon is a blue Vandenabeele cock raced on the darkness system and just starting to look at a young hen. The birds are left together all the time and a few nest bowls scattered about to encourage them to pair up. The blue cock is bred from my best Vandenabeele National racing hen that is now retired to stock but in her time was 3 x 1st Section and 2nd, 6th & 18th Open NFC. She is half M & D Evans (Shadow & Sissi 264) blood and was paired to a M & D Evans cock from Eisenhower. The young bird has had 2 races, Seaton & Exeter before Carentan and will have his last race of the year from BBC Fougeres. Congratulations to the winners Mr & Mrs Welch and to Nigel Rigiani who did a great job looking after the birds which enabled me to get 20 out of my 23 home on the night.

Mark and Julie Gower. 2nd and 3rd SW Section goes to “The Japanese Sniper” Andy Parsons from Salisbury. My 2nd Section winner is from my old distance family. He is from a 4 times Tarbes prize winner which was sadly lost at Barcelona this year. The Mother has also scored from Tarbes 3 times and is a half sister to my 5th BBC Palamos 2011. My 3rd Section winner is a red hen. Her Sire is a half brother to 3rd Open Palamos cock which was paired to a direct Deweerdt hen.

Andy Parsons. Flying almost 197 miles taking 1st and 2nd NW Section is Martin Williams of Hereford I would like to start by congratulating Mr & Mrs T Welch on their win and also Roger Lowe on his team’s performance. My section winner is a Jan Huybregt x Roodhooft blue cock. The sire of which has produced me 27 1st prize winners. He is a full brother to the Breeder/Buyer winner last year in the CSCFC bred by myself and raced by Dave Hawthorne. Another full brother topped the Hereford Fed two weeks ago for me. This bird is also a CSCFC Breeder/Buyer, so it was good to see him arrive first. He was my favourite for this race having been very consistent this year. He has been sent with the Severn Valley Fed for the last four weeks with my fingers crossed. The losses can be high for me with this Fed as I am situated 10 miles west of the line of flight. I can quite often get 1 bird on line whilst the rest can take 4-5 hours. I think this educates them for the bigger races. I had 8 out of 8 birds by 3pm even though the wind was not in our favour. Most of the birds I sent to Carentan will hopefully be going to Vire with the NFC.

Martin Williams. Martin Williams’ blue cock. Next up in the North West Section is Graham Clift of Tirley. I made the decision to introduce direct children from some of the countries top distance pigeons and over the last two years have purchased birds from Brian Denney, Crowley and Green, Geoff and Catherine Cooper and rejoined the CSCFC after a few years absence to compete in the longer distance races. Although the new team of race birds are mainly yearlings and young birds I have been really pleased with their performances winning good Open and Section positions this year in the Classic, BBC and NFC. I also obtained several birds from Matt Rakes of Paulton near Bristol. The young bird who is provisionally 3rd Section is bred from a son of "Indy" (who was 1st & 8th Open NFC from Tarbes) when paired to a full sister to "Indy".

Graham Clift. The 2012 Old Hens race winner and 1st NE Section is Roger Lowe from Reading with a double Grand Daughter to “My little diamond” winner of 1st NFC National. She has Janssen De Klak x De Raw Sablon blood lines and her full sister was given to the Classic young bird sale last season. 2nd Open old hens are James and Peter Parker from Beenham. Firstly well done to Roger! We were second last year in the same race. She came just after our first young bird racing on a method loosely based on the roundabout system. She was bred out of our own stock and has been well placed in most Channel races this year with the Classics and Nationals. Once again many thanks to the Convoyer and the CSCFC for keeping the birds in good conditions and insuring that we had brilliant returns. 1st SE Section Old Hens is Jimmy Wearn (Wearn Bros 1) from Ramsdean. My pigeon is a Vandenabeele x Louis Cooremen, she has been a very consistent pigeon and was our pool bird in this race. Her last result was 2nd Solent Federation beaten by her loft mate. I would like to say a big thank you to Erik Nielson for all the help and he deserves as much credit for this win. I would also like to congratulate Roger and Tony on their respective wins.

Erik Nielson with Jimmy Wearn’ s hen. Pete Hollard from Lytchett Matravers is the old hens South West Section winner. Pete’ s yearling old hen was a later bred young bird bred by Ivan Mills from Winterborne Stickland and only had one race as a young bird. She has been in the young bird section all season and has been raced unpaired through to Saintes 350 miles. She recently paired to a young cock and was sent sitting to Carentan. She has had very little training since the old bird season finished. The Sire is a Belgian rung Franz Verheyen Janssen from Keegan & Son (Hollywood Lofts) purchased at the CSCFC late bred sale in 2010. The Dam is from Mel & Sue King’ s Vandenabeele x Klak blood lines. Her Sire and Dam were both multiple card winners. The Sire's wins include 3 x 1st Club plus Classic & National positions and the Dam was 3rd Section CSCFC YB and 1st Section NFC OH's plus other positions.

Pete Hollard.

The old hens winners of the NW Section are Rob and Maureen Kerr from Gloucester. Maureen is holding our 1st Section old hen. She is a 2 year old Vandenabeele hen which has taken 2 or 3 minor Club prizes as a young bird and yearling. She has flown Messac twice this year and has come today feeding a 12 day old youngster. Rob is holding our 4th Section young hen. Her mother was second section in the same race last year. Her grandmother which was purchased from Paul Arnold has bred a 1st Section, 2nd Section and 7th Section Classic place.

Rob and Maureen Kerr. Convoyer’s report Marking for the final race of the 2012 season went very well and with all the birds loaded we made our way to the docks, arriving at 4:30 pm, after signing in all the birds were fed and watered. Departed Portsmouth at 11:00 pm and arrived Caen at 06:00. The crossing was smooth and the sun was just showing as we left the docks arriving at Carentan by 07:30 in brilliant sun shine with very little wind which lasted till mid afternoon. The birds were all fed and fresh water added by 5:00 pm just as the skies opened up with torrential rain with thunder and lightening lasting well into the night. Saturday dawned to very heavy rain and the wind increasing all the time from a south westerly direction as the forecast had predicted for some days so it was no surprise that I decided to hold after talking with our race advisor. As the day progressed the wind increased so much that I had to close the doors on the west side because the rain was horizontal and penetrating the crates. The birds were all fed by 4:30 pm and settled for the night. The agent stated that the wind at the lib site had reached 70 kph in the afternoon but due to decrease through the night and dropping to 15 kph by the morning with clear skies. Sunday morning started bright and sunny with very little wind to speak of at first and after speaking to Trevor the convoyer for the BICC who was at Guernsey telling me that the conditions were the same there with a moderate WNW wind and he was looking to go at 08:00 am so with that in mind and not wanting our birds to cross flight paths mid channel I made the decision to lib at 08:30 after talking to Anner our race advisor.

The birds were liberated at 08:30 into clear blue skies and a light Westerly and apart from half a dozen birds that hung around the rest cleared immediately to the North, the best lib I have ever had at Carentan. With this being my last report for this season I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the markers, the Committee, Mike, Mark,and Merv from Boxhill, Christine the Classic pastie Queen and finally to Clare Norman our Secretary, one of the most conscientiousness Secretary’s you could wish to meet, my sincere thanks to you all it makes my job so much easier and enjoyable. Nigel Rigiani. Classic Dinner and presentation. Saturday 20th October. If you would like to order tickets, please let me know. Don’ t leave it until the last minute as the Hotel is filling up quickly. We have a smashing weekend in Bournemouth, so why not come and let your hair down and join us! Price per ticket is £32.50. Rooms can be booked at the Carrington House Hotel, Knyveton Road, Bournemouth on 01202 369988. Clare Norman. Tel: 023 8057 3919 Email: secretary@cscfc.com