Blue Tooner

25th April, Brechin, 62 mls, roll on

We also need better PR which could also help our case. Most members of the public think pigeon racing is a Mickey Mouse Operation, how many of us have tried to explain to Joe Public what is involved in racing pigeons and get the what a load of sh*t look in return. We should appoint a PR man, get an advertising campaign going to attract people in to the sport or at least let the public know what a highly organized and competitive sport Pigeon Racing is as well as a campaign against raptors. Another problem we have is that we can't even get along within our own sport, with too many people in it that are only out for themselves and to make money so how can we expect to be taken seriously in our battle against raptors. :-/

Just had a sparrowhawk take a pigeon off the loft roof 45 mins ago > >. I was in the loft calling them in when I heard a thump on the roof, one pigeon came through the sputnik in such a panic that I thought he was going to go through the back wall of the loft, on going outside, the hawk had a 2yo dark cheq cock pinned to the ground at the side of the loft. The hawk didn't come off the bird until I was only 4 or 5 feet away. The pigeon took off and flew for another 15 minutes and then hardly hit the landing board and was inside the loft in a flash, luckily the bird was okay with just puncture wounds on his back and side. I know it has been said before but why can't the proceeds from the Blackpool show be used to fight our corner against the likes of the RSPB. Let's face it charity begins at home and the way that fanciers are having their flocks decimated by raptors there aren't going to be many left in this sport to justify a show of the year and then the money for charity will dry up anyway. It's time to stand on our own feet.

As I said in another post about ets trapping, if the rules were "the pigeon must be captive before it can be recorded on an ets sensor" Their could be no arguments, just my opinion. I use ets and my birds must drop inside the sputnik before going over the sensor pad. If everyone was using ets then it wouldn't matter so much. cheers

Hi Patty Bhoy, my birds drop through a sputnik and then walk over the pad, I have no dividers, just a gap the width of the entire pad with bobs to slow them down, I.ve never missed a bird from a race yet although when the come in from exercise and are all jumping into the sputnik it does miss one or two. cheers

Hi Homer49, we use Unikon Professional and run the clocks with ECS Fed sec system. I wasn't sure how the upgrades would affect us so I emailed Bill Pearson at East Coast Software and he assured me that we didn't need to take the Unikon club manager 2009 and we just needed to take the clock firmware upgrade (v3.00). He said when we upgrade our clocks that it would clear their memory but all we would have to do is synchronise them with FSS and it would put all the data back into the clock again. He also told me that the new upgrades would even be compatible with last years FSS (there have been a few upgrades to FSS since then) So it should be no problem at all (hopefully ) cheers

Don't know if my heart will cope, thought I would be doing a homer on myself after Alencon last year :o ;D

Good doo Robbie, exciting times for you this year.

Yep, your right, some are only happy when they're moaning about something. My sister-in-law was reported to customer services at Morrisons last week for giving her 2 year old daughter a biscuit that hadn't been purchased in store whilst having a coffee in the coffee shop :-/ unbeleivable or what, it goes to show that it's not only pigeon fanciers that like to moan ;D ;D

4 Year old blue cock, 4th section, 204th open SNFC Eastbourne 475 mls 2007, 12th section, 60th open SNFC Alencon 632mls 2008 and in his last prep race before Alencon he was 2nd club, 12th fed Rotherham, 280mls has also bred a fed winner for us.

Same rules Pigeon Man, the problem is "within the confines of the loft or trapping system" . If the bird can turn round and fly off AFTER being clocked, how can it be called a trapping system? As I said before it doesn't matter to me one bit, but I know that this is whats causing a lot of moaning from a lot of fanciers. If the rules stated that the pigeon must be captive before being timed it would have saved a lot of arguments. When is a trap not a trap? Hope you see my point? cheers.

To me it doesn't matter where the pads are, but if the rules were black and white all the hassle and arguments about ets traps wouldn't exist. The way the rule is worded at present just gives fuel to the anti-ets brigade. My birds have to drop into a sputnik and then go over the pad unlike a lot of lofts in the fed but when I've been beat it's because they had a better bird in the race than me and not because of the trapping system . ETS is here to stay regardless of any doubters. Robbie you'll know as much as I do how many anti-ets fanciers there were in our fed, but now every club is using it and as far as I know they all think it's fantastic. The sooner everyone is on ets the better and more up to date our sport will be. It's time to move out of the dark ages :-/

Agree with the fifer here, if the rules contained the first six words of what he says above it would have saved a lot of arguments. Once everyone is on ets it won't matter as much, the pads could be on the landing board, just my opinion.

We use eastcoast software to manage our unikon professional clocks, so was wandering if we have to take the Unikon club manager 2009 update?

Jim Donaldson's Reims Girl, 2 x 1st North section Reims, 1st North section Tours, 2 x 2nd North section Tours, Gold award winner. The times she was 2nd section, she was beaten by loft mates, in other words no loft in the north section has beaten Reims Girl when she was sent to the national, fantastic pigeon in my eyes.

I agree and a genuine person also, would be a credit to any club.

Tell the wife you will book next years holiday, BLACKPOOL IN JANUARY ;D ;D ;D

Kevin has already done that on your behalf ;)

40, 2 weeks ago, still recovering 8) 8)

A birthday card or a business card?? ;D ;D

Thanks guys, just got up, sare heed, party was last night and went on till 5am this morning 8) :X

Wasn't in hotel bar at all the whole weekend, it was dead, did look for you on the sat morn. at breakfast, but rest of weekend was a blur ;D

Never noticed you, would've stopped if I had, will make a point next year

Irvine is at the top of the snoring charts too ;D ;D

Made a purchase at Chris Gordon Sale and I'm now on Fidel Castros christmas card list because of the amount of Bacardi I bought 8)