By George Wheatman

 North Road Championship Club Old Hens National

 

 

There was a truly outstanding performance in the North Road Championship Club's old hens national, held in conjunction with the young bird race, from Dunbar on Saturday, when one of the club's vice-Presidents Geoff Clare and wife Bridget look set to take the first five positions.

This is the seond time they have won the race and this success takes their tally of NRCC wins to four. They have also been second no fewer than eight times and are best known for still being the only partnership to win a national with the same pigeon in successive seasons when the legendary Lucky won from Perth in 1981 and 1982.

The old hens race is a true test of ability in a fancier and many steer clear of it, more's the pity, because you need a special kind of dedication to keep hens that have raced the old bird programme in the right state of moult and bring them back into form so late in the season.

No-one can question Geoff's commitment and dedication, and there cannot be many fanciers in the country who are better at preparing pigeons for a specific task.

Only the week before he had done such a thing to take the first two places in the East Midlands North Road Championship Club's five-bird race from Dunbar with his young birds.

He and Bridget have lived in an idyllic spot in rural Lincolnshire at Sloothby for less than three years and have re-built their team during that time mainly around Simons Brothers Jansennes and Jan Theelens, with the recent introduction of Van Den Pasch birds as well as bringing back to England - so far mainly for other fanciers - the magnificent pigeons of Gerhard and Andre Schlepphorst from Germany. Geoff is convinced that more will be heard of these in the next few seasons.

The pigeon that won Saturday's race was a blue chequer yearling Simons Bros Jansenne, but it could have been any of five because this was the number that arrived together and it was a question of which got itself through the electronic timing system first.

There were also others to follow which will be prominent in the result.

Geoff worked hard at preparing the birds for this race, with loft lights on to extend the day, and training tosses aplenty. All the hens arrived home to babies just hatched. And they had a 100 per cent return.

During the week prior to the race he came across a bale of straw that had fallen off a trailer and took a chunk of this, spread it in the corridor of his loft so that the cocks could re-build the nests. The hens soon joined in - just to break the boredom that Geoff thought was setting in.

Top fanciers take advantage of such little things. And no-one can deny that Geoff Clare is not a top fancier. One of the best in the country.

There were times, this season, when he felt his birds were coming on the wrong line, but he has worked extremely hard to correct that and has been rewarded with a spectacular result in this race, and also in recent weeks, with one or two more races to come.

Spare a thought for another good Lincolnshire fancier, Paul Newbold, of PJ Lofts fame, at Friskney, who was resigned to being second again - only to find that he is likely to be sixth. But, not all that long in Lincolnshire, Paul has brought new intensity of competition to the area and can be well pleased with the way his pigeons have performed.

Convoyer Phil Ringe had three liberations to complete at Dunbar on Saturday - NRCC old hens, NRCC young birds and Peterborough and District Federation - and all were accomplished without problems, although Phil does think this procedure unsettles the waiting pigeons.

He is also concerned that, should there be only a small window of good weather, the wait necessary between liberations could jeopardise one of the releases and you could have a situation whereby, say, the old hens could be liberated but rain could arrive from behind in the next half hour and prevent a liberation of the main convoy. Unlikely, he admits, but possible, as it would have been in a recent race from Newton Aycliffe.

Thanks to his contacts along the line of flight, however, this time everything went smoothly and, despite some difficult weather conditions at times this season, Phil has given NRCC members good racing this year.

He goes along with the theory that many of the birds would have taken a course out to sea, especially as the high cliffs for much of the early part of the journey would have afforded some measure of protection from the quite strong west wind.

One concern the secretary has is completing the results as a postal strike may have a bearing on receiving necessary information, just as it hindered the arrival of some entries.

Chairman Brian Garnham thought it fitting that someone like Leroy King should share this success with his family for, not only is he a NRCC committee member, but he also puts a great deal into the sport.

"It was a fantastic race and we have had a good season, particularly thanks to the secretary and all the team. We need to build on this now and keep the NRCC to the forefront as the major north road pigeon racing organisation. There are a lot of outstanding fanciers racing with us and there have been many fine performances in the past season, not only by the outright winners but also the section winners. If you win anything in the NRCC you know you have done so by beating some of the best fanciers in the country."

 

 

By George Wheatman

 North Road Championship Club Old Hens National

 

 

There was a truly outstanding performance in the North Road Championship Club's old hens national, held in conjunction with the young bird race, from Dunbar on Saturday, when one of the club's vice-Presidents Geoff Clare and wife Bridget look set to take the first five positions.

This is the seond time they have won the race and this success takes their tally of NRCC wins to four. They have also been second no fewer than eight times and are best known for still being the only partnership to win a national with the same pigeon in successive seasons when the legendary Lucky won from Perth in 1981 and 1982.

The old hens race is a true test of ability in a fancier and many steer clear of it, more's the pity, because you need a special kind of dedication to keep hens that have raced the old bird programme in the right state of moult and bring them back into form so late in the season.

No-one can question Geoff's commitment and dedication, and there cannot be many fanciers in the country who are better at preparing pigeons for a specific task.

Only the week before he had done such a thing to take the first two places in the East Midlands North Road Championship Club's five-bird race from Dunbar with his young birds.

He and Bridget have lived in an idyllic spot in rural Lincolnshire at Sloothby for less than three years and have re-built their team during that time mainly around Simons Brothers Jansennes and Jan Theelens, with the recent introduction of Van Den Pasch birds as well as bringing back to England - so far mainly for other fanciers - the magnificent pigeons of Gerhard and Andre Schlepphorst from Germany. Geoff is convinced that more will be heard of these in the next few seasons.

The pigeon that won Saturday's race was a blue chequer yearling Simons Bros Jansenne, but it could have been any of five because this was the number that arrived together and it was a question of which got itself through the electronic timing system first.

There were also others to follow which will be prominent in the result.

Geoff worked hard at preparing the birds for this race, with loft lights on to extend the day, and training tosses aplenty. All the hens arrived home to babies just hatched. And they had a 100 per cent return.

During the week prior to the race he came across a bale of straw that had fallen off a trailer and took a chunk of this, spread it in the corridor of his loft so that the cocks could re-build the nests. The hens soon joined in - just to break the boredom that Geoff thought was setting in.

Top fanciers take advantage of such little things. And no-one can deny that Geoff Clare is not a top fancier. One of the best in the country.

There were times, this season, when he felt his birds were coming on the wrong line, but he has worked extremely hard to correct that and has been rewarded with a spectacular result in this race, and also in recent weeks, with one or two more races to come.

Spare a thought for another good Lincolnshire fancier, Paul Newbold, of PJ Lofts fame, at Friskney, who was resigned to being second again - only to find that he is likely to be sixth. But, not all that long in Lincolnshire, Paul has brought new intensity of competition to the area and can be well pleased with the way his pigeons have performed.

Convoyer Phil Ringe had three liberations to complete at Dunbar on Saturday - NRCC old hens, NRCC young birds and Peterborough and District Federation - and all were accomplished without problems, although Phil does think this procedure unsettles the waiting pigeons.

He is also concerned that, should there be only a small window of good weather, the wait necessary between liberations could jeopardise one of the releases and you could have a situation whereby, say, the old hens could be liberated but rain could arrive from behind in the next half hour and prevent a liberation of the main convoy. Unlikely, he admits, but possible, as it would have been in a recent race from Newton Aycliffe.

Thanks to his contacts along the line of flight, however, this time everything went smoothly and, despite some difficult weather conditions at times this season, Phil has given NRCC members good racing this year.

He goes along with the theory that many of the birds would have taken a course out to sea, especially as the high cliffs for much of the early part of the journey would have afforded some measure of protection from the quite strong west wind.

One concern the secretary has is completing the results as a postal strike may have a bearing on receiving necessary information, just as it hindered the arrival of some entries.

Chairman Brian Garnham thought it fitting that someone like Leroy King should share this success with his family for, not only is he a NRCC committee member, but he also puts a great deal into the sport.

"It was a fantastic race and we have had a good season, particularly thanks to the secretary and all the team. We need to build on this now and keep the NRCC to the forefront as the major north road pigeon racing organisation. There are a lot of outstanding fanciers racing with us and there have been many fine performances in the past season, not only by the outright winners but also the section winners. If you win anything in the NRCC you know you have done so by beating some of the best fanciers in the country."