Pompey Mick

Like I said ,Strapper, delegate. Many hands make light work, as long as everything is in place most fanciers will assist. If they want to race pigeons then they must realise that Secretaries are not slaves. The most important job is the adminstration, once that is done any fancier should be capable of marking the birds and helping with the clocks on a weekly basis and taking on a bit of responsibility (a nasty word) I am lucky with the members in my Club, they are capable of basketting, marking, checking and compiling a result in my abscence. Which is how it should be, in their interests as well as mine.

What are you saying Mark, is it that your YBs are wary of flying down to the loft after they have landed on the roof. If thats what your saying, keeping them off your roof will only make them land further down the road, the problem is the loft landing area. Is it the top of the loft or a sputnik/ landing board on the front. If you have allowed them to spend time on the roof then that becomes home as much as the loft itself. If not, then you are right it is a problem within the loft area.

I 've been a Secretary for several years now and you can end up being the mainstay around which the Club revolves. Most fanciers will always help out but the number who will commit themselves to a duty are harder to find. I have found the best way to combat this is to delegate responsibility. I have become the General Secretary and Treasurer and my job is the background administration , subs, rings, distances and loading the computer programme making sure that everything is in place for Racing to take place. Every year before I take this job I make sure that there is a basket comittee and clock committee with I/C in place to do the weekly racing duties, we also have a Race Secretary who collects the birdage and compiles and posts the Fed result. Due to work commitments I am normally one of the last to arrive on marking nights and everything is running smoothly, likewise strike off, I usually get there when most of the clocks have been printed off and I normally do the result. I have shown other members how to use the programme in my abscence (holidays) and the result has been calculated OK. They can do it if they have to. I successfully applied for a grant for the Club for ETS which has given me a lot of extra work primarily, mainly ring registration with 25 competing members, but now the members have overcome their initial 'fear' of the system I am getting offers of assistance to do the ring registration next season. If you still wish to be the Secretary, put a few ground rules down, delegate jobs and stop being a 'one man band'. That's no good to you or the Club. If no-one wants to assist then leave the lazy b*******s to their own devices.

It would seem that the BBC have liberated from Lamballe at 08.45 not 07.45 as previously reported. Rose, Kingsdown is approx 92/93 miles from Portsmouth.

Here in Portsmouth its warm and sunny but no news yet of the Solent Fed at Exeter. Here is a Bournemouth webcam: http://www.bournemouth-surfing.co.uk/ Plenty of people in the sea , the Air Festival kicks off at 12.00 with a Red Arrow display followed by air displays all afternoon.

BBC up at Lamballe 7.45

Portsmouth 07.30, Thin cloud, sun starting to burn through, Lt Easterly wind.

Portsmouth 07.30, Fine start to the day, cloudfree sky, Lt NW wind, no warmth yet.

Solent Fed away at 7.00 from Guernsey, Lt SW wind

Portsmouth 06.30, Glorious start to the day, forecast is wind and rain from the West. Hopefully we've a long enough window to get the Guernsey birds away.

Thanks for all your help in securing our Awards for All grant, without it I am sure we would not have been successful, best of luck for the future.

Portsmouth 08.00, Plenty of sun, lt NW wind, Clear

As previously mentioned, Alf Baker's WINNING NATURALLY is an excellent book for Natural flyers, with a lot of info on how he motivated his birds.

We had a comeback race from Lessay 110mls, lib at 9.30 Sat, leading birds were doing well over 1800. I sent 9 had them all within 30mins.(bit off the pace). Weather here in Portsmouth was broken cloud, plenty of sun and a strong SW wind.

Portsmouth 09.00, Bright & breezy, broken cloud with some early rain but dry since 06.30.

Its Jill Lockyer jilllockyer@btinternet.com

Spoke to Bomber Mellis, he timed at 10.16, the same pigeon that was 4th Sec. last year.

Just a modification to my earlier post, Danny was 1st & 2nd from Lessay,116mls, just shows what a versatile pigeon he has.

I visited Danny Staddon this morning to do a report on his recent 1st & 2nd Hants 2B Ch. Club from Falaise, the pigeon that was 2nd is his Palamos timing, looking very well too. It is 100% Lenny Painter bloodlines.

Portsmouth 10.00, Blue skies with patches of cloud, strong sunshine, breezy SW wind. Checkout webcam below

Portsmouth 07.00, overcast sky starting to break up now with glimpses of sunshine, recent drizzle but dry now, SW breeze. Local forecast good.

Channel 5, 7.30 tonight, Extraordinary Animals, features the homing ability of a pigeon

High Cloud , Sun at times, fresh SW wind, My Club winner was in excess of 1800 ypm yesterday from Lessay in similar conditions, be prepared.

It's Sunday 22nd June, the birds at Alencon have been liberated at 6.45 am in a very, very light South West wind and cleared instantly.

It was clearing on the coast by 12.00, brighter, sunny breaks , its been rain free since 7.00am, the CSCFC went from Tarbes at 5.30. My Fed went at 12.50 from Lessay. Still overcast now at 2.30 but bright, sun not visble but trying to break through at times. SW breezy. Central France is shown to be good weatherwise, not so good for us on the NW corner. If they've have a good start there is nothing to stop them in Southern England. The Pau international birds are getting across this morning from 9.30am onwards. I think longer flying organisations must have held because of weather conditions in England rather than France and the Channel.