NRCC Dunbar race report
By George Wheatman
Dunbar, the historians tell us, is a small town steeped in the stormy history of Scotland’s turbulent past.
Now, far removed from those times of incident and strife, it will be embedded firmly, in the folklore of pigeon racing in tranquil Norfolk, many miles from the spot, 28 miles from the English border, from where the 109 year old North Road Championship Club held their first race of 2010.
Why? Simply because Norwich fanciers annihilated the opposition, aided by a strong North, sometimes veering to the west, wind, and produced a sensational winning pigeon now named Bolt – whether that is because it was like a bolt from the blue, or because it is compared with the fastest athlete in the world, by the same name, I know not.
But what we do know is that this three-year-old dark chequer widowhood cock bird raced away from the opposition to such good effect that provisional results show that it is the winner by an impressive 40 yards a minute.
The father and son partnership of Mike and Mark Barrett are, understandably, thrilled to bits by the performance of their pigeon which was timed at 12-18 (after an 8am liberation), recording a velocity of 1874ypm for the 270 miles to its loft four miles from Norwich on what Mike described as a good racing day.
And he added: “It has not really sunk in yet. But this is the best result we have ever had.”
Breeding of the winner is Krauth, established in the loft a long time ago after purchases from the Louella stud, and a line which has served them well.
The Barretts are members of the 15-strong Norfolk and Suffolk club, having bucked the trend by turning from south road racing to north, mainly because that became more convenient for 48-year-old Mark whose workload is heavy as a self-employed carpenter and kitchen fitter. It is easier to train from the north, because they don’t have to endure the time-consuming journey through Norwich, as they had to do when competing from the south.
“Bolt”, however, started life as a south road racer, but was converted successfully to complete the club programme from the north for the past couple of years, and competed from Thurso with the NRCC last year.
He has always been a steady, reliable bird, but has now added another dimension to his qualities – speed.
Mike, a 76-year-old retired farm worker, does the day-to-day chores around the loft, rising at 5-30 every morning to start the exercise regime, twice a day for the widowhood cocks, then the team of widowhood hens, plus the young birds. Keeps him busy, he says. His wife Vera also helps out when necessary.
Mark looks after the admin side, record keeping, training and pairing.
Mike said the whole team looked well at basketting time, and this was proved to be an accurate assessment by a 100 per cent return of the 12-strong team, on a day when, despite the fast returns, a number of fanciers were reporting birds missing at the end of the day, no doubt as a result of overflying the loft.
Pigeon racing for the Barretts started when Mark was about 15 years old, and he began to collect a variety of pigeons, but he was advised by his dad: “If you are going to have some birds, get some racing pigeons and don’t keep that old rubbish.”
Mike’s uncle was the late Percy Barrett, a well-known south road racer at the time, and gifts from him and other local fanciers started the ball rolling.
Mark developed a love for the challenge of channel racing, and they had some encouraging results with BICC before deciding on the change of direction.
The turnaround, apparently, prompted the loss of one or two good birds, but they are now established on the north road.
In addition to the Krauths, and various other birds they have introduced over the years, they now have some Vandenabaeles to strengthen their team.
Mike thinks Saturday’s winner will be sent to the next NRCC race from Perth, because, he says, Mark is not one for keeping pigeons in the loft. He likes to race them.
Mind you, if “Bolt” should happen to do well from Perth, that may be another matter!
Eight of the first 12 names on the provisional result are from Norwich, which just shows how they dominated the race after early verifications suggested that honours could be heading for Section Two, where the Louth partnership of Wagstaff and Pickering were top of the website leader board for a long time, only to eventually finish third.
Other Lincolnshire heavyweights such as Albert Sayers (of Dales and Sayers), Geoff Clare, Frank Tasker and the Mamwell Brothers were prominent, but all eventually had to given second best to the lads from Norwich.
But, as ever, there were good performances in the various sections.
In Section One, the Mr and Mrs Brian Taylor partnership, of Newark, had a good lead over second-placed Hind and Clark, of Nottingham.
Retired miner Brian revealed that his section winner was a two-year-old blue pied Van Reet widowhood cock which had been a consistent bird, winning minor cards.
Dunbar, it seems, is a lucky racepoint for 72-year-old Brian, who has 43 years experience of pigeon racing, because he won the section in the NRCC young bird race from there last year.
He has also been seventh open from Perth in the “good old days” when the entry topped 6,000.
Dam of the section winner was a successful racer which he lost at Thurso last year, and which he bred himself, and the sire was of Mark Caudwell/Terry Route lines.
Section Two winners, Wagstaff and Pickering, of Louth, on a velocity of 1822ypm, had some illustrious names in their wake, and Section Three winner, Arnold Bennett, of Crowland, is a 77-year-old veteran of many pigeon racing battles.
His section winner was an experienced four-year-old dark chequer widowhood cock bird of Noppens (via Rex Doe) and Wegen lines. This success was a welcome boost for Arnold who has not been in the best of health in recent times.
A long-time NRCC competitor, he does his weekly racing with the Deepings club.
Section Four was, of course, a clean sweep for the Men of Norfolk, and there was a hefty win by 88 yards a minute for P Longland, of Denton, in Section Five.
Father and two sons make up the partnership of E Aldred and sons, of Lowestoft, who, flying nearly 300 miles, won Section Six on a velocity of 1766.
They sent 25 birds, and their first timer was a three-year-old red widowhood cock of 500-mile lines bred for them by friends in Ashdown, Kent.
This pigeon has won a few cards before.
The partnership is made up of Ernie, and his two sons Paul and John.
The increasing, and welcome, interest in NRCC racing by fanciers in London is reflected in the Section Seven results, and delighted by his 15-minute win over a collection of top-class fanciers was Brian Woodhouse with a two-year-old blue widowhood cock of Staf Van ReetxJames Bond lines, which is likely now to be aimed at Thurso later in the year while the hen birds take up the challenge of Perth next week.
Record for the longest partnership name in the NRCC could well go to Fred Duff-Godfrey and Shirley Whyte-Davidson, of Martlesham, in Suffolk, but it was no handicap to their pigeon which won Section Eight.
It was also proof that big money does not necessarily have to be paid for winning pigeons because this consistent three-year-old chequer Van Reet widowhood cock was a birthday gift to Shirley, from Derek Upson, of Ipswich, who, says Fred, has been a good friend and great help to the partnership.
The partners sent ten to the race and had seven in the clock, but the 65-year-old pensioner Fred, who has had pigeons on and off for many years, felt he had not necessarily sent his best team.
They had a good race, however, both in club and section, with a winning velocity of 1720ypm. The section winner will probably be put to the test again at Perth.
The race, with an entry of 3,859 from 360 members, showed an increase of 250 birds from the corresponding race from last year, and there was a convoy of 4,500 released when taking into consideration Federation-only birds.
It was something of a baptism of fire for new race secretary, Ian Bellamy, as pretty well every member verified, and he was fighting a battle to keep results up to date on the website.
He will now, however, be well prepared for the next race, from Perth, on May 29th. Will you? Early entries would be appreciated.
NRCC Dunbar – 15 May 2010
Convoyers Report
This was my first race acting as the club’s “official” Convoyer, but I did take the young birds and old hens to Dunbar in 2008 when Phil Ringe was unavailable to convoy.
The race started for me on the Wednesday, with cleaning crates on the “feeder” vehicle with my son, then off to Stickney on the Thursday to get both vehicles prepared with the correct number of crates for the marking stations, including George Watts with his feeder vehicle that services the Nottingham marking station, then off delivering crates to the Grantham marking station before coming back to Peterborough to prepare and basket our own birds for the race, that on the Thursday night! I had to do this, as I needed to leave Peterborough at 4.00am on the marking day to deliver crates to the Cambridge station, then on to Ipswich for 7.00am. Thanks to the guys at Boston, who cleaned all the crates on the trailer earlier in the week.
President, Bob Preston rallied his troops at Ipswich, and all birds were race marked to enable me to leave for Cambridge at 9.20am. Arriving at Cambridge, Jack Shelley and his marking committee were just finishing the last few entries, which enabled the intake of a cup of tea and a cheese roll freshly prepared and served by Jack’s wife, Gwen. Thanks Gwen.
John Saunders and his helpers loaded the Cambridge birds on the vehicle, and we were soon off to Grantham to meet the other feeder services. Arrived at 12.30pm, after stopping for some diesel, and George was there being unloaded by the guys at Grantham. We had to wait until 2.30pm for Mervyn to arrive with the Norwich, Clenchwarton and Boston birds. The marking station at Boston suffered with reduced numbers of helpers, and completion of race marking was severely hampered. Brian Garnham, our Chairman, apologizes to all those members affected by the delays, and appeals to any “able” bodied volunteers to come forward to help at the next race. Give Brian a call on 01205 760696 if you can lend a hand please. We had already worked out that all crates would go on the trailer (4 spaces to spare!), so we unloaded the feeder vehicles and waited for Merv to arrive. We eventually hit the A1 at 3.20pm, and had a really good trip to Dunbar, stopping for a coffee and an evening meal north of Newcastle, before arriving at the racepoint at 9.45pm, with a little daylight left in a clear sky, we levelled the trailer ready for watering in the early morning. Brian Garnham had telephoned to give us the rundown on the weather forecast for the raceday, and all appeared fine for an early liberation.A well deserved bottle was enjoyed before going to bed at just past midnight.
Both alarms woke us just before 6.00am, and the birds were watered immediately, with most drinking as soon as the troughs were filled. The crates were then corrected for liberation against the release gear before we had a cuppa and our muesli for breakfast. It was only 6°Cat 6.00am, so a wait for something a little warmer was on the cards. Following calls to Brian and contacts en-route, it was decided to go for an 8.00am liberation if the temperature increased. This did happen, and the 4500 birds in the convoy were liberated when the temperature had reached 11°C at 8.00am in a South West Wind, with clear blue sky and unlimited visibility. Yes, it was south west at the racepoint, as we are adjacent to a weather station which clearly indicated the direction of the wind. By the time we left the racepoint at 9.10am, the wind had moved around to due west, and this appeared to us to be the direction of the wind almost all the way home, but we think there were sea influences at the coast, and north in the wind must have been the case there.
The liberation was fantastic, as all birds cleared in one huge batch without turning, and were out of sight in a couple of minutes. Job done!
I arrived home at 6.00pm, to find 15 out of 20 birds home! (the others had gone by and homed ok on Sunday, thank goodness! Blame the convoyer! J)
We look forward to Perth when Phil Ringe comes out of retirement to be in charge of the convoy as yours truly has a family wedding to attend in Surrey – how could Beverley’s nephew pick such an important date in our racing calendar to get married?
Stephen Spinks
NRCC Dunbar race report
By George Wheatman
Dunbar, the historians tell us, is a small town steeped in the stormy history of Scotland’s turbulent past.
Now, far removed from those times of incident and strife, it will be embedded firmly, in the folklore of pigeon racing in tranquil Norfolk, many miles from the spot, 28 miles from the English border, from where the 109 year old North Road Championship Club held their first race of 2010.
Why? Simply because Norwich fanciers annihilated the opposition, aided by a strong North, sometimes veering to the west, wind, and produced a sensational winning pigeon now named Bolt – whether that is because it was like a bolt from the blue, or because it is compared with the fastest athlete in the world, by the same name, I know not.
But what we do know is that this three-year-old dark chequer widowhood cock bird raced away from the opposition to such good effect that provisional results show that it is the winner by an impressive 40 yards a minute.
The father and son partnership of Mike and Mark Barrett are, understandably, thrilled to bits by the performance of their pigeon which was timed at 12-18 (after an 8am liberation), recording a velocity of 1874ypm for the 270 miles to its loft four miles from Norwich on what Mike described as a good racing day.
And he added: “It has not really sunk in yet. But this is the best result we have ever had.”
Breeding of the winner is Krauth, established in the loft a long time ago after purchases from the Louella stud, and a line which has served them well.
The Barretts are members of the 15-strong Norfolk and Suffolk club, having bucked the trend by turning from south road racing to north, mainly because that became more convenient for 48-year-old Mark whose workload is heavy as a self-employed carpenter and kitchen fitter. It is easier to train from the north, because they don’t have to endure the time-consuming journey through Norwich, as they had to do when competing from the south.
“Bolt”, however, started life as a south road racer, but was converted successfully to complete the club programme from the north for the past couple of years, and competed from Thurso with the NRCC last year.
He has always been a steady, reliable bird, but has now added another dimension to his qualities – speed.
Mike, a 76-year-old retired farm worker, does the day-to-day chores around the loft, rising at 5-30 every morning to start the exercise regime, twice a day for the widowhood cocks, then the team of widowhood hens, plus the young birds. Keeps him busy, he says. His wife Vera also helps out when necessary.
Mark looks after the admin side, record keeping, training and pairing.
Mike said the whole team looked well at basketting time, and this was proved to be an accurate assessment by a 100 per cent return of the 12-strong team, on a day when, despite the fast returns, a number of fanciers were reporting birds missing at the end of the day, no doubt as a result of overflying the loft.
Pigeon racing for the Barretts started when Mark was about 15 years old, and he began to collect a variety of pigeons, but he was advised by his dad: “If you are going to have some birds, get some racing pigeons and don’t keep that old rubbish.”
Mike’s uncle was the late Percy Barrett, a well-known south road racer at the time, and gifts from him and other local fanciers started the ball rolling.
Mark developed a love for the challenge of channel racing, and they had some encouraging results with BICC before deciding on the change of direction.
The turnaround, apparently, prompted the loss of one or two good birds, but they are now established on the north road.
In addition to the Krauths, and various other birds they have introduced over the years, they now have some Vandenabaeles to strengthen their team.
Mike thinks Saturday’s winner will be sent to the next NRCC race from Perth, because, he says, Mark is not one for keeping pigeons in the loft. He likes to race them.
Mind you, if “Bolt” should happen to do well from Perth, that may be another matter!
Eight of the first 12 names on the provisional result are from Norwich, which just shows how they dominated the race after early verifications suggested that honours could be heading for Section Two, where the Louth partnership of Wagstaff and Pickering were top of the website leader board for a long time, only to eventually finish third.
Other Lincolnshire heavyweights such as Albert Sayers (of Dales and Sayers), Geoff Clare, Frank Tasker and the Mamwell Brothers were prominent, but all eventually had to given second best to the lads from Norwich.
But, as ever, there were good performances in the various sections.
In Section One, the Mr and Mrs Brian Taylor partnership, of Newark, had a good lead over second-placed Hind and Clark, of Nottingham.
Retired miner Brian revealed that his section winner was a two-year-old blue pied Van Reet widowhood cock which had been a consistent bird, winning minor cards.
Dunbar, it seems, is a lucky racepoint for 72-year-old Brian, who has 43 years experience of pigeon racing, because he won the section in the NRCC young bird race from there last year.
He has also been seventh open from Perth in the “good old days” when the entry topped 6,000.
Dam of the section winner was a successful racer which he lost at Thurso last year, and which he bred himself, and the sire was of Mark Caudwell/Terry Route lines.
Section Two winners, Wagstaff and Pickering, of Louth, on a velocity of 1822ypm, had some illustrious names in their wake, and Section Three winner, Arnold Bennett, of Crowland, is a 77-year-old veteran of many pigeon racing battles.
His section winner was an experienced four-year-old dark chequer widowhood cock bird of Noppens (via Rex Doe) and Wegen lines. This success was a welcome boost for Arnold who has not been in the best of health in recent times.
A long-time NRCC competitor, he does his weekly racing with the Deepings club.
Section Four was, of course, a clean sweep for the Men of Norfolk, and there was a hefty win by 88 yards a minute for P Longland, of Denton, in Section Five.
Father and two sons make up the partnership of E Aldred and sons, of Lowestoft, who, flying nearly 300 miles, won Section Six on a velocity of 1766.
They sent 25 birds, and their first timer was a three-year-old red widowhood cock of 500-mile lines bred for them by friends in Ashdown, Kent.
This pigeon has won a few cards before.
The partnership is made up of Ernie, and his two sons Paul and John.
The increasing, and welcome, interest in NRCC racing by fanciers in London is reflected in the Section Seven results, and delighted by his 15-minute win over a collection of top-class fanciers was Brian Woodhouse with a two-year-old blue widowhood cock of Staf Van ReetxJames Bond lines, which is likely now to be aimed at Thurso later in the year while the hen birds take up the challenge of Perth next week.
Record for the longest partnership name in the NRCC could well go to Fred Duff-Godfrey and Shirley Whyte-Davidson, of Martlesham, in Suffolk, but it was no handicap to their pigeon which won Section Eight.
It was also proof that big money does not necessarily have to be paid for winning pigeons because this consistent three-year-old chequer Van Reet widowhood cock was a birthday gift to Shirley, from Derek Upson, of Ipswich, who, says Fred, has been a good friend and great help to the partnership.
The partners sent ten to the race and had seven in the clock, but the 65-year-old pensioner Fred, who has had pigeons on and off for many years, felt he had not necessarily sent his best team.
They had a good race, however, both in club and section, with a winning velocity of 1720ypm. The section winner will probably be put to the test again at Perth.
The race, with an entry of 3,859 from 360 members, showed an increase of 250 birds from the corresponding race from last year, and there was a convoy of 4,500 released when taking into consideration Federation-only birds.
It was something of a baptism of fire for new race secretary, Ian Bellamy, as pretty well every member verified, and he was fighting a battle to keep results up to date on the website.
He will now, however, be well prepared for the next race, from Perth, on May 29th. Will you? Early entries would be appreciated.
NRCC Dunbar – 15 May 2010
Convoyers Report
This was my first race acting as the club’s “official” Convoyer, but I did take the young birds and old hens to Dunbar in 2008 when Phil Ringe was unavailable to convoy.
The race started for me on the Wednesday, with cleaning crates on the “feeder” vehicle with my son, then off to Stickney on the Thursday to get both vehicles prepared with the correct number of crates for the marking stations, including George Watts with his feeder vehicle that services the Nottingham marking station, then off delivering crates to the Grantham marking station before coming back to Peterborough to prepare and basket our own birds for the race, that on the Thursday night! I had to do this, as I needed to leave Peterborough at 4.00am on the marking day to deliver crates to the Cambridge station, then on to Ipswich for 7.00am. Thanks to the guys at Boston, who cleaned all the crates on the trailer earlier in the week.
President, Bob Preston rallied his troops at Ipswich, and all birds were race marked to enable me to leave for Cambridge at 9.20am. Arriving at Cambridge, Jack Shelley and his marking committee were just finishing the last few entries, which enabled the intake of a cup of tea and a cheese roll freshly prepared and served by Jack’s wife, Gwen. Thanks Gwen.
John Saunders and his helpers loaded the Cambridge birds on the vehicle, and we were soon off to Grantham to meet the other feeder services. Arrived at 12.30pm, after stopping for some diesel, and George was there being unloaded by the guys at Grantham. We had to wait until 2.30pm for Mervyn to arrive with the Norwich, Clenchwarton and Boston birds. The marking station at Boston suffered with reduced numbers of helpers, and completion of race marking was severely hampered. Brian Garnham, our Chairman, apologizes to all those members affected by the delays, and appeals to any “able” bodied volunteers to come forward to help at the next race. Give Brian a call on 01205 760696 if you can lend a hand please. We had already worked out that all crates would go on the trailer (4 spaces to spare!), so we unloaded the feeder vehicles and waited for Merv to arrive. We eventually hit the A1 at 3.20pm, and had a really good trip to Dunbar, stopping for a coffee and an evening meal north of Newcastle, before arriving at the racepoint at 9.45pm, with a little daylight left in a clear sky, we levelled the trailer ready for watering in the early morning. Brian Garnham had telephoned to give us the rundown on the weather forecast for the raceday, and all appeared fine for an early liberation.A well deserved bottle was enjoyed before going to bed at just past midnight.
Both alarms woke us just before 6.00am, and the birds were watered immediately, with most drinking as soon as the troughs were filled. The crates were then corrected for liberation against the release gear before we had a cuppa and our muesli for breakfast. It was only 6°Cat 6.00am, so a wait for something a little warmer was on the cards. Following calls to Brian and contacts en-route, it was decided to go for an 8.00am liberation if the temperature increased. This did happen, and the 4500 birds in the convoy were liberated when the temperature had reached 11°C at 8.00am in a South West Wind, with clear blue sky and unlimited visibility. Yes, it was south west at the racepoint, as we are adjacent to a weather station which clearly indicated the direction of the wind. By the time we left the racepoint at 9.10am, the wind had moved around to due west, and this appeared to us to be the direction of the wind almost all the way home, but we think there were sea influences at the coast, and north in the wind must have been the case there.
The liberation was fantastic, as all birds cleared in one huge batch without turning, and were out of sight in a couple of minutes. Job done!
I arrived home at 6.00pm, to find 15 out of 20 birds home! (the others had gone by and homed ok on Sunday, thank goodness! Blame the convoyer! J)
We look forward to Perth when Phil Ringe comes out of retirement to be in charge of the convoy as yours truly has a family wedding to attend in Surrey – how could Beverley’s nephew pick such an important date in our racing calendar to get married?
Stephen Spinks