Geraint Parry

starting around here on 12th April , bit early i think but there you go

broke the 500 mark well done all

1 minute!!

2 minutes!!!

Don't miss out on that lot, make sure you get your bids in!!! Well done to all bidders , buyers and donators!!! One last push for this great site!!

i think you need to have posted 'x' amount of posts before you can. thanks

499

Happy Birthday sapper756 have a good one!!

Just be careful when puting up the fence, (as i think) if you don't have any signs saying there is an electric fence there I am sure they could sue you if they were injured. I sell the anti vandal paint and the same applies to that you need to put the signs up. daft i know but thats the way the law is.

I know of a few near chester, but not in Chester. You have Davenport in Chirk, and Tilstons near Dobshill, Pen-Y-Fford, nr Wrexham.

VIEW FROM THE REDDINGS The RPRA AGM Friday 29th February saw the 112th annual general meeting of the RPRA. The top table for the RPRA at the AGM changed. It is congratulations to Les Blacklock from the Cumbria Region as he was voted in as President. This is quite an honour for Les as he is the first Cumbrian to serve as a President and also the first Region Secretary that has held the post too. It is fitting that Les has become President as he missed out by just one vote to Pat Mitchell 3 years ago. Pat remains as vice president along with Brian Mead and John Edwards, Brian a region secretary too and John a former region secretary so it has been something of a coup this year for these officers! Congratulations to them all. As far as voting on the propositions was concerned this time last year members voted not to accept ETS for racing but at the following Council meeting Councillors had to address the Disability Discrimination Act and ETS was introduced under rule 142. The voting this year then would be a test to see if the membership endorsed the actions of Council and they have done overwhelmingly. Several of the propositions were passed unanimously by all regions and so I hope now that we can draw a line under all the debate and get on racing our pigeons. There were several propositions to introduce time penalties for those users of ETS and these were all defeated. Council went further to make the case clear at their evening meeting – Rule 189 clearly states that results are based on actual flying time and so time penalties for anyone using any clock are in contravention of RPRA rules. There were some other key rule changes. One proposition that fell was that of the number of pads allowable at the loft. The current rule is 3 pads per loft and this will stand for 2008. The joining together of say 3 antennae pads by a cable to make a 6 antennae ‘pad’ is not acceptable; this is deemed as 3 pads. Council has been aware for some time that a minority of members abuse the membership payment rules and pay one membership every 2 years but still manage to obtain a supply of rings each year. Why anyone would want to defraud the RPRA out of a whacking £4.50 beats me but there we are. So in order to overcome this all RPRA members will now only be able to purchase rings for the same year as the rings they wish to purchase. So for example if you order rings between October 08 and the February 09 you will need to have paid the 2009 subscription before we will send you your rings. The rules passed at this AGM will be published in full as soon as possible for all to see. Council Meeting At the Future of the Sport Committee Council was advised that the subject of recognition as a sport for pigeon racing rumbles on. There is still a lot of media interest (and we hope a forthcoming BBC Newsnight article this month). Pat Mitchell however had received a letter from the Sports Council via Richard Ottaway MP. The FOS Committee will therefore review the application procedure to see if there is any scope to formally apply to be considered as a sport. You may recall from a recent VFTR that the Sports Council stated that they had never received an application from us before which patently was not true. This application procedure will be reconsidered at the next FOS meeting later this month. The Olympiad Committee heard that preparations for the selection show are well in hand. This will take place at Ray Knight’s show at the Doncaster Dome on Saturday 15th November 08. A letter had also been received from Mike Spear of Devon (winner of best cock in the Standard class in Ostend) who had complained that he had not received a gold medal. Mike also felt that he and others had not received recognition for the excellent result. This was a matter that the Olympiad committee took issue with. Whilst we accepted that there was no ‘gold medal’, the fact of the matter was that none had been issued by the FCI. Despite a written request to the FCI for these and also to replace the trophy we received which was the second place trophy, the Committee felt that all Olympiad entrants had received due credit with presentations at Regions of RPRA medallions and FCI certificates, good publicity after the Olympiad in the fancy press, a splendid colour article in the BHW over Christmas 2007 and a display of the all the winners and their birds at the Show of the Year. Nevertheless we will hasten the FCI once again to see if we can procure these medals. The Clock Committee received a presentation from Linells with the T3S Thimble drum. This is the T3 with the flapper cover which means it can be used without thimbles. RPRA rules however require a thimble to be used and a proposition to allow timing in without a thimble was defeated at the AGM earlier in the day. Therefore the T3S could not be approved. Council was reminded also that there are adverts already in the fancy press selling and servicing these T3S clocks and RPRA members should be aware that these clocks cannot be used in RPRA races and so they should not purchase the T3S clock. Progress on using GPS for loft locations was also defeated at the AGM so the use of GPS has again been put on the backburner. The Clock committee has however asked the Racing Support team to make some comparisons on Google Earth with existing loft locations. The Rules Committee had a busy day reviewing the new rules and putting them into context within the rule book. The 2008 rule book will be published after the March Council meeting and should be available in late April/early May but we will publish the ETS rules in order that you have them ready for the 2008 season. AI Update Well it has been something of a busy week or so on the AI front. Firstly Brian Tattersall was in Brussels at an FCI meeting where he heard that the western European countries were to meet with the French Minister of Agriculture as, he was told, the French Government intended to stop British racing for 3 months because of the AI outbreak in Dorset. The meeting was to be in Paris on 26th February and Brian felt that I was best placed to represent the RPRA. Before I travelled I spoke to my contact in DEFRA who told me that he thought this was over reaction by the French Government as the AI restrictions had been scaled down in Dorset and if there were no further outbreaks by 29th February then Britain would have been AI free for 30 days and all restrictions would be dropped. So off I went to Paris for the meeting at 5 pm with colleagues from the FCI. I have to say that the French Government had duly revised their views. It was a very fruitful meeting and the conclusion was that they were happy for the French Federation to police who went into France to liberate on the condition that no pigeons from infected areas travelled to France. This should be relatively easy to monitor as of course all organisations from each country must apply to the FCF for a permit to liberate. They would guarantee to the French Government that, with the co-operation of home countries, no pigeons from infected areas would be liberated. In this case it would not then necessarily rule out racing for all the UK if AI was contained in just one area of the UK. That said I am sure that DEFRA may have an opinion on this but in principle that is what the French Government were happy with. Also key at this meeting was the distribution of new research into HPAI on racing pigeons further strengthening our case. Significantly one of the researchers was probably the world expert in HPAI, a Professor Osterhaus of the Netherlands and it is hoped to get him to address the FCI. On my return to the UK I passed this latest research to DEFRA and the outcome of the French Min of Agriculture meeting. I understand that DEFRA are currently working on the response to our latest legal letter so I hope that these documents will help to convince the Secretary of State of our case. The one fly in the ointment was that on my return to the office from the Council meeting on Saturday last I cranked up my computer to check for urgent e mails and found one from DEFRA advising that a dead Canada goose with HPAI had been confirmed on Friday 29th February. So we will have to go another 30 days before we can be classed as AI free. I do not believe however that this will change any arrangements as yet with the French Government. Certainly DEFRA has taken a different view on the Portland outbreak and everything seems to have taken a much lower profile being that the infection was in wild birds rather than domestic poultry. I am also in regular contact with a French fancier who has the ear of officials in the French Min of Agriculture so that is another string to our bow. Just before I went to Paris I learnt that the Secretary of State has agreed to a meeting with the Confederation. Council were advised of this and are to send the President and General Manager. I would hope that such a meeting would not be necessary as we should have had a response from Mr Benn to our latest legal letter and, if it is more of the same from him and his department, it may not be prudent to meet with someone whom we intend to take to court! Stray Collection services I wrote a few weeks ago about a new service called Dafydd Hughes Ltd who were trying to find fanciers around the UK to assist in moving stray racing pigeons in some kind of network. Whilst the RPRA does not endorse any particular stray collection service you may recall I said that this company had been trying for several years to get a foot in the market and they were hoping to give a wider national coverage, similar to that covered by Amtrak. I have heard from the boss Roger Hughes recently and he is still looking for fanciers on the Cornish Peninsula, and in North Wales and Scotland to assist. If you think you might be interested please give Roger a ring on 07760 176205. And Finally!!!! I rather took some people by surprise at the AGM as I announced my resignation as your general manager. I intend to retire from this post in November this year and so have given Council a good timescale in which to recruit a replacement. I have lost count of the number of fanciers I have met over the last few years who have said they wouldn’t have my job for anything so it will be interesting to see if any applicants come from the fancy. As I told Council at the AGM I know there were some people who were very sceptical about a non pigeon fancier being appointed as your general manager including one who is now on Council! I hope I have proved them wrong. Anyway there is still another 9 months before I go and I will give you one promise. I fully appreciate that there is a lot at stake with DEFRA and AI restrictions and I will not shirk from the responsibilities I have been charged with until I go. I won’t take my foot off of the pedal. Of that you have my assurance. Peter Bryant General Manager

Cheers :-) I think you need to verify it via the e-mail they send you, so everyone just check that they have done this. Thanks

495 signatures to date, please get anyone you know who feels the same way as I do about this to sign this petition. thanks

True Merlin, but these idiot clubs should be clamped down on by the Unions which they fall under. This should not happen. But it does and is a complete disgrace. I have a online petition going on the Governments website at present. I have also been intouch with local Mp's , who to be fair to them, have responded to my e-mails and have given me advice on this matter. Only this morning did I have another letter back ''....it is the responsibility of the Sports Councils to decide which activities should be eligible for support from lottery and Exchequer funding, to ensure the most effective and efficient use of their resources. The sports councils have adopted a system of formal ''recognition'' of activities and organisations with which they wish to be involved. The critiria that the sports councils use to decide whether an activity should be recognised is derived from their Royal Charter, and ultimately from the Physical Training and Recreation Act 1937. Decisions on whether particular activities and pastimes should be recognised as sports for official and funding purposes are made by unanimous agreement between the home country sports councils. In the first instance, I would recommend a submission to the relevant sports council, outlining the case for pigeon racing. The sports council will be able to provide information on the criteria for recognition of an activity as a sport.'' He then goes onto state where I can obatin application forms and addresses etc. Worth ago??? Who knows.

North

Correct I know top fancier from wales who have had many many top bred pigeons from fainceirs in England who fly the south route (we fly the south east route) and the birds will just not have it. takes time to build a family to suit the route conditions etc. The majority of Germans fly from West to East, head winds most of the time and in the Summer the temps can be just as high as that is Spain, 30 deg been the norm. but they fly in these conditions no problems. Food for thought

try getting him through his site http://www.redstarlofts.co.uk/contact_us.asp

Happy Birthday! Have a great day!

last 10 mins - dont miss out!!!

Mostyn H.S club sale - Hi , just thought I would let members who might not have seen it know of the sale I am running for club funds. I don't have / race any birds at the moment, but am doing my bit for my former club. Page 119 of this weeks BHW. Ends 8pm tonight, some top pigeons, Including a top pigeon bred by our very own Stuart Wilcox. Plus a pair bred from P bates & Son. Dam is bred from 'Golden Gaby' paired to ''Gabrielle' . Sire is bred from 'Morning Star' Paired to ' Special One' . there are also 9 other top class birds , take a look. http://www.pigeonbasics.com/forum/blah/m-1202479275/ hope you dont mind me posting this, as there is no personal gain for me what so ever all money raised (less advert cost) will be pumped back into the Sport / Hobby.

they can be the truth but,,,,on the other hand they can be fiction. You have just got to trust the seller. You need to do a little bit of reasearch. Go with your instinct.

doh no where near me, lol

very good, was he from down Llandudno way?

could be from this neck of the woods, Llandudno that way as they used ets in young bird racing 2007. i will see if i can find out for you. if not best to get in touch with WHU.

depends what its out of i guess. average £200 per young bird??