blucock

Jeez they could be race birds chased off-line by predators. There is a law against release within a certain distance i am sure

Well done to Ricky Young also, winner of Sect F not for the first time! An outstanding winner - beat the rest by 9 minutes plus

How many going and where are you from guys? Best of luck for this weekend Baz

prob our timer from Billericay thats about it - best of luck all

Well in Morris lads!

well in Superdoo nae luck Mick

well done Lawrences

15 minutes apart over half an hour seems daft Derek - Percy gets a short rest between strikes instaed of just hitting one batch....? But there you go

be rolling into Lanarkshire from Otterburn??

cheers guys nearly 200 responses - the link will be in both papers next week

Cheers boys I have near 100 responses so plenty of info coming in

Dear All I have used the survey company SurveyMonkey to create the following data collation survey on members' birds and their racing in relation to numbers injured by BOP. If you could take 2 minutes to answer the 6 multiple choice questions posed please follow the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q5CPPWX the results of this survey (I am trying for 1000+ responses) will shape my lobbying which will be to a number of authorities and individuals including at ministerial level. The more I collect the more weight I have. Please contact me with any info or words you may wish to share at kerelawlofts@gmail.com or by PM here - I am especially keen to hear of young fanciers or elderly members who have been affected by their birds injuries or loss. Baz Nicol

Won't need air brakes in the West they'll need muscles and lungs

We can only wait until the morning I suppose Derek, you never know it might blow through tonight ....

Club sec should be doing her flippin job - doesn't matter that it's not hers expletive remove

not so long back there was a heavy east wind but the conditions were otherwise raceable the SNFC held over. Let's see what happens tomorrow (gale force westerlies forecast)

Two chequer cocks back to us today in great nick, I can only assume collected and libbed in Scotland - both have first prizes (one would have two but for ETS failure) and will get another chance as both were for Ypres in the first instance! THANK YOU for looking after 'em. As an aside both were bred by good fanciers and raced from YBs (cheers to Para McKie and Ronnie Williamson) Baz

brilliant. Hope you got comms for all the Ayrshire birds (A) Baz

This is displayed in the Imperial War Museum - I submitted an article about my time here in Sierra Leone and thought I would dig for any info on pigeons. Sorry I couldn't tell you who contributed this article but like you say Dunc it is an awe-inspiring piece. Baz

Pigeons had been used as message carriers in many wars prior to 1914, and it is recorded notably that pigeons relayed the news of Caesar's conquest of Gaul; much later, the news of Wellington's victory at Waterloo was conveyed by pigeon, with the news arriving far ahead of the messenger. The British Army used a limited number of pigeons during the Boer War to communicate with the besieged garrison at Ladysmith, and the system proved so successful that a number of small Pigeon Lofts were established by the Army. During the early part of the First World War, the use of pigeons was controlled by the Intelligence Corps, and in the spring of 1915, pigeons were used successfully to bring back situation reports during the enemy attack on Ypres. As a result, the first Corps Pigeon Service was organised in the Second Corps during May, and from this date, the growth of the forward Carrier Pigeon Service was rapid. The carrier pigeon was recognised as being a trustworthy and speedy means of conveying messages over distances far greater than the newly-introduced wireless sets could reach. A pigeon station was established at each Brigade sector of the Front, and each had a basket containing four pigeons in the charge of a specially trained soldier. The Service was reorganised in 1915 and an establishment of ten pigeon stations with each army was authorised. As the War progressed, it became necessary to increase the Service even further, and the lessons learned during the Somme offensive showed that there was a need for a 'mobile' loft, which could be moved around as the need arose. The proposal for the mobile service was for six motor and sixty horsedrawn lofts, each containing fifty and seventy-five birds respectively. The Mobile Loft proved to be a success as by 1917, it was reported that the service was very efficient with several hundred messages were being passed by the pigeon service during each battle. In July 1917, the number of horsedrawn lofts was increased to 120. However, in later stages of the war, it was found that Mobile Lofts were not as 'mobile' as had been hoped, and during any rapid retreat, it was quite often difficult to find any horses, and many Lofts were either lost to the enemy, or destroyed by fire. At the end of the War, there were 22,000 pigeons in service, with 150 Mobile Lofts and 400 pigeoneers.

My cousin races vs Wal Zoontjens every week with the YB (only races YB)

One page three birds reported injuries to neck - peregrines have hit all of them. We know why there are many empty perches ....

Am hoping the wee cock gets a win on the board he had 2 2nds out to Eastbourne last year when our birds were just horrible all year took us to June to get them healthy - he won the wee midweek club last week so hoping he can pick up a Saturday win now. Just had back won the club race by 2 hours 20 odd minutes - jesus that's hard to quantify. I can only say he's had now 2 1sts & 2 2nds... Hows everyones returns? We got 2/4 second cock slashed right down the neck!

Think we are 242 from Newark up at 645 got our first at 2.07 - 3 still to come

14.07 Ayrshire