expat1

Rose The Marseille International is now going to be Portbou in Spain. It is right on the coast about 40kms more than Perpignan, To our Loft about 620 miles I hope the pigeons will be up to it, they have had a 300miler and a 400miler plus a near 500 to 580 miles race this year hopefully they will be ready on tuesday Steve

Roland , You are the one who does not know what you are talkng about. Iam sixty seven years old and in all my life i have never heard anyone Moan and Whing like you, You have a one track mind , But be careful it does not join up, because if it does you will have some trouble with yourself No point in amswering any more letters from you. the only point of view Roland has, I'S Rolands' and that is just a long Whine Expat1

Peter Pau You are right, the choice should be yours and you have the right attitude Steve

Rose, I have sent Peter Bryant an E Mail this morning explaining to him about the International Races, permits and Licences etc and why the BICC should be able to compete in the rest of the International Races, if Defra lifts the Ban. I do not know if he will reply but i hope so Steve The International Race drom Marseille will now take place from PORT BOU i have not yet looked it up on the map

That is what i am saying Rose, I will send Peter Bryant an Email and explain to him He will probably tell me to keep out of it or ignore me, If defra lift the ban, there is no reason why you cannot send international, You too should ask him the reason why It maybe that he simply does not know, and the way he mentions young birds flying from Spain he does not Steve

Hello Debbie I think you can buy a product which you put on a piece of board, what it does is as soon as a mouse walks on it he is stuck and thats it, It is a special glue It works very well Steve

Hi Does anyone know what Peter Bryant means, He says that Spain will not allow the English there unless given 45 days notice and that Spain is too far for young birds, that last statement is a bit unusual to say the least A strange thing to say regards the young Birdsof course they are too young it does not even apply Now if you fanciers are racing in the International Races, You are racing under the rules of the Organisation who sponsers it, ie. Belgium So there fore you should not need to have this 45 day thing when you are racing with another country i am sure this is correct and you should point this out to Peter Bryant right away Of course this applies only if Defra lift the ban but if it does all you should be able to race in the International races from Spain, your pigeons will go over to Belgium and join up there as usual Steve

Roland I thought England was supposed to be a free country, where if it was avaliable you could choose to have something or not, But you do not think that way at all. If you were Prime Minister of England, I reckon it would be a Country in an iron Grip, Do as Roland says or thats it, more than likely the neck would get the Chop ;D Everyone should have the right to choose for them selves Not only on ETS but on most Material things but you seem to think the opposite In my Club i would think 85% use the ETS, Now i could choose to go your way and say no' i will not use it under any circumstances, But there are about 70 Members in my Club alone, so i would be doing my pigeons a dis service by thinking that way. Personally those you do not want to see it bought into England must be frighened Fanciers, Scared of Being Beaten, First you have to get the pigeon Home and in the position to clock it its not going to be that a fancier gets a load of pigeons drop together every week, In our club the prizes go around, and it is unlikely you will see a fancier take 1st =2nd =3rd Steve

Peter Pau You say all run to the Club and time in, Well when i was a Lad Dad raced Pigeons as he had done before the War, He could not afford a clock so we had to time in on an old fellows clock One Mile away. Now a fellow by the name of Ted Fowler lived only four doors away from us He had a Runner for him, Name of Tony I was the runner for Dad, We raced on the North road then Well This lad Tony was three years older than me i was about 11 years old He had a bike and i had to run, Dad used to get a pigeon come and off i would go , The Race Rubber in my teeth and i always had a small stick in my hand It seemed to help me with the run, Time and time again i would here the swish of Bike tyres and this tony go by me giving me an inPolite two finger salute as he raced down a long hill to the old fellows house Len Booker to clock in, Now after a time i got fed up with being beat which i thought was unfair as dads pigeon arrived most times first. One day i tooka longer stick. The Pigeon of Dads came home and i started running, Half way down the hill with only a quater of a mile to go i here the Swish of Bike tyres, My temper got the better of me, As he came level i stuck the Stick in his front wheel, and i never looked back just kept running, He did not beat us that day, He had a lot of Gravel Rash, But being young i did not think it could do him real harm but although he was sore for a week or so he was okay. Competitive i was then and still am today, but not to those lenghs Steve

BlackJack its about 20kms more than Perpignan At the club tonight i heard that the French lot and the Belgians had a meeting in France two days ago, Not a lot came from it and they are meeting again on the 1st August which is too late for Perpignan or anywhere else long Distance They are at Irun this week in place of Tarbes Next week the Marseille International it will come on Television on Monday night where the race will be from Not good news for you people its a great shame when you look forewards to these races and set up the pigeons which is hard enough in itsself, Lets hope Defra sees sense and you can at least get in the Sub Races for Narbonne and Perpignan, Fingers X Steve

Bring in a time penalty with the ETS and England would be the laughing stock of the Pigeon World, and thats a fact. i told some belgiums what was said on this forum, they replied, Tyipical English, frightened to compete unless they get there own way, Steve

Slug Monkey The Maize you call Horsetooth Maize is known over in England as American No 2 maize, I agree it is a brilliant maize to my mind far better than French Maize, My old Pigeon Tutor the Late great A.R .Hill of St Just, Cornwall swore by it but i have never seen it here over in Belgium a great shame but the way corn dealers think. Small grains are better, Not my way of thinking again but you get what you can get Steve

Hi Just for interest. i had a pigeon come down from Holland earlier this year about 200miles from our place in Belgium, I was charged £81.50 for delivering it That is extortion, once caught twice shy, and it grieves me to be caught once Steve ;D

Hi Wiley You think a chip can be removed from a ring without it showing it has been tampered with, You would be chucked out of the sport for doing that Plus think a bit, Ring Manufactures at the start we have to compete on Price, So the lowest tender will get the lions share of making the rings, The next year again they will have to compete for price, the one who had the lions share the first year will be able to cut costs because he is in a strong postition to do so, after a few years he will be the only one selling them, THEN' watch the price of the rings go up. No' ETS is still in its infancy in England 95% of you do not know the ins and outs of it yet, Its only been useable in England 13 days, Scotland a lot more as you know. Get to know the system first before you start thinking of another dual purpose ring. What you say is not new, the ETS bods already know how to do it but are not sure as to yet it is viable or workable Plus Give the RPRA and yourselves a chance to get used to the system remember nothing can be chaged or used unless passed by the unions and i cannot see the RPRA passing it if it was on the market until they had testesd it but they too do not know the ins and outs of the ETS yet it is new to them also Steve

I heard that the International Perpignan Race will be moved to 'La Jonquera' in Spain Steve

Me' Your not so bad yourself at it, And it takes one to know one ;D

Roland If you lived over here With your attitude of wanting to be given time on a race you would be told in no uncertain terms to take up another hobby and laughed out of the club, There has never been any complaint from a non ETS user that i have heard over here, they get on with the job of racing pigeons You want time given to you, then i say pack the sport and take up tiddle winks or perhaps that will not be fair you may want a distance allowance on the table or board, If you think this post is Scathing it was meant to be, I have never heard such whinging in all my years in the sport. Ramble on about your misgivings against ETS and i will not race bit, i have said my piece and i will not be replying again to the rubbish you put in

I agree with Rose. It is a completely different Ball Game when you have several Countries competing in the one race, The Long Distance Fancier is a Rare Species these days, It is not only the Pigeons that are different in temperment but i also believe that the Long Distance Fancier has a Different makeup to those fanciers who race Short distances, Just My Thoughts ;D

A lot of Rubbish is said about ETS and that if you do not have it you will not beat the ones that do. COMPLETE RUBBISH, when we moved over to Belgium we had no ETS Our first season racing late bred yearlings we won the Federal Three times from over 340 miles, we sent 12 of these latebreds to St Vincent distance 584 miles, and got 11 on the winning day winning i think 7 prizes, Was Top Prize Winner in the Local Club, and we were using an T3 clock against the ETS users DO' not make excuses for not winning pigeon races of any kind, there is no excuse from any one of us its the pigeons that fly not the fancier, but i had better modify that statement, Some pigeon fanciers do 'FLY' but off the handle ;D You are etheir better than your apponents or worse nothing else counts in my book Steve

Rose and Co The International Tarbes, marking tonight , The Race has been moved to Arun in Spain about 10kms from San Sebastian, So at least they are trying not to disrupt the International Program too much, Full credit for the efforts Not that it will Help yoy good People this week. Some of you need to phone Peter Bryant to let him know what isgoing on over here, He can then contact defra It probably will do no good but anything is worth trying, and tell Bryant it looks as if the rest of the International Races will go ahead but from Spanish liberations We unfortunatly must give this one a miss,, I think we will be in for a long wait if we send and my eyes are tired enough now, see how they are for Marseille all being well next week Steve

First things first Blackjack You know my name and it seems you come from the same neck of the woods from where i left england so how about letting me know who i am posting to Read my coming article in the BHW it will tell you what i think can be done if they want to, it was sent in yesterday. It is difficult to overcome the Defra, but how about you at least giving it a try and write to them , When we had no racing over here in France the other year i wrote twice to the Powers to be over here asking them to give a valid and proven explantion as to why racing was stopped. Like all govenments they have an answer for everything but at least i did have a go, And remember, it was an Engels telling the Belgiums a few home truths, probably more than there own countrymen did

Blackjack I will tell you the reasons why i did not compete from Barcelona and some of the other Long Races with the BICC, Now i always talk straight forewards so my reasons may upset a few, but it is not intended to just my own thoughts on Racing pigeons AND more so the time of preparation that goes into it So please people do not take this the wrong way, we would not compete soley because at times there was less than 200 pigeons going to an international race from england and my thoughts were this now here it is I said to myself, If i win one, what real satifaction will i get from it with so few birds competing and unless by some real chance of getting up with the first 10% International, very little and my reasons for this is that not enough pigeons go to the races of this Sort. It is nothing to do with the class of Fancier or the Pigeons, I have said and i still maintain that the English Fanciers and there Stock is equal to any in the World, and It is also true that i am guilty of not supporting it, But my reasons were my own and i have told you here, By the way, when i sent Oniview Queen to Perpignan we lived in Shropshire, It was the time when you did not have to belong to the BICC but for Perpignan anyone could send, i am sure i have this right, Anyhow it was a hold over, When they let the pigeons go a few timed in down the south and the west on the second day. Now i had like most put in a huge amount of work to get her fit She having won 73rd National Pau some three weeks earlier 636 miles so i did not have a great amount of time, She arrived home from Perpignan at 10.0clock on the third Morning. I was so Dissapointed that she had let me down i did something which i had never done before or since in 53 years of racing, I did not time her in because i had been let down so i thought. On the friday night i was laying in bed and i went Cold, She had not let me down at all she had done great, It came to me that the pigeons who timed in the day before were flying 100 miles shorter than she was or there abouts, She was flying 726 miles on that race, I was the one who let her down and i have never ever forgot what i did, but i vowed it would never happen again So here we are a full Sermon, but that is how i felt about competing Steve Now we come to that word Water the Channel, Yes, the Channel can be a barrier a lot of the time very difficult, But the English Fanciers cannot use it as an excuse for not getting there pigeons home A great amount of the time the channel is fine and pigeons take it in there stride, Now i do know what is like to Race From France For the last 12 years i raced in England, Our pigeons were jumped straight from the loft training across the water, The first Race for our old birds was Messac 244 miles or Nantes 286 miles, or when we ,lived in Shropshire Nantes 361 miles. now in Shropshire there private traing by car with only there loft mates was 60 miles then jumped to Nantes, In Somerset we trained 50miles then Jumped them over, and every race they ever flew in was the Races from France Young Birds They were treated the same In shropshire trained 60miles there first race St Malo National 262 miles, Somerset was the same, On the rare occasion we put a few in the club for a tone up only but not often We never used to lose a lot of pigeons doing this The Channel was bad at times but when the weather was good it made no difference Now over here in Belgium we are racing the same pigeons as those two places in England the same Family, but over here they do not cross the Water, but on the normal races in France say from Nantes and Up to Saintes there are no real Hazards in France to stop them on the west side of France there it is pretty flat country, Its the other side where you get the hilly areas and of course down below all sorts of Hazards, We live where we live all of us, If you send to a race and you fail, then forget about the faliure, once you have thought out the reasons why you failed and get on with the next race

I heard that they may combine the last four Long Races into two, and possibly Barcelona and San Sebastian may be the race points, But it may also be heresay, If i do here anything i will let you know right away. We had Four booked for this weeks Tarbes International had it gone ahead, But i handled them this morning and i was not 100% happy with there condition, so even if there was a race we will not be sending. all our other Pigeons have Flown Barcelona, or Bordeaux near 500 miles the Saturday before, they need a little more time before they go again, So we will have a Slack week end Steve

I can understand how you feel, there is a huge amount of work that goes in the Preparation for such a race, But there will be another one next year and it may then be your turn. If you do not mind me asking Rose, are you a relation to Ron Wills Steve

Hi Slugmonkey When you say corn i suppose you mean Maize, On the buildup for a Long Race the Last Five to seven days we use Hulled Sunflower seed and have done for over 20 years, they still get some Racing Mixture which has a fair percentage of Maize in it but we give Sunflower Seed and Hemp seed in the buildup to a long race, NO' extra maize at all, we do if think it needed give them a few Soya Beans and of course they get a few Peanuts broken up. Its stood us in good stead for many years Pigeons is about trying different things, when you find one that gives you results you do not change it Steve Added this bit on, The racing Mixture itself contains Sunflower seed and safflower seed in its natural state with hulls on, the De Hulled Seed is an extra on the buildup