Pompey Mick

I am looking for an Alf Baker hen to pair to my last remainng Alf Baker X cock, preferably from a racing loft. If anyone still races them.

According to Pipa they raced from Irun on Sunday 15th , so much for the 45 days notice we require. http://www.pipa.be/

Roland, Can you please tell me where 'fair' starts., Is it the size of you loft,should big lofts be penalised 10 secs a foot to keep us on a fairer footing? Should we put constraints on the number of pigeons kept and the size of the stock loft say an extra 5 secs for every pigeon entered over 10 birds How much should we be allowed to buy pigeons for, the phrase 'not afraid to put his hand in his pocket' springs to mind, 10 secs for every £500 spent. How about training, 20 secs for every toss a week perhaps. What about the workers, I am away from my birds for up to twelve hours a day, I am up against flyers with unlimited time and fat wallets, I reckon I should get 10 mins a race. ETS is just another facet of pigeon racing which can depend on your financial ability as do an awful lot of the others. No-one is disputing that birds will be clocked quicker with ETS, but they are still only getting what they are entitled to, it does not make your birds fly faster. It has been stated time and time again that pigeon racing is not 'fair' and fairness is just not an issue when you talk of these systems.

Well done cass04, your birds had a tough day with the wind, plus they would have encountered an awful lot of racers on their way home. The birds had a flying start, but that wind was very strong, my club was doing 1815 from Truro that morning. Your convoyers were happy with the racepoint, but hopefully,if you see what I mean, you will not have to race here again.

When I talk of financial clout Rose, I am talking about the value of Pigeon Racing to the National economy. Compared to the poultry industry we have got to realise that pigeon racing is insignificant. DEFRA is more concerned about getting the poultry industry back up and running than it is about us, we are viewed as a possible threat to this industry, therefore we will always be in the firing line when a perceived threat from Avian Flu occurs. I am hoping that Dr Ortrud Werners publication will help show that the role of Racing Pigeons in Avian Flu spread is miniscule, and can be discounted in a Risk Assessment, but, personally, I do believe that the 7 day Isolation rule is unfortunately here to stay.

The only argument which will hold sway with DEFRA as far as pigeon racing is concerned is a scientific one. Even that is not enough, this is part of an Email I received from Dr Timm Harder. 'your mail has been forwarded to me. I am head of the OIE and German National Reference Laboratory. My colleague, Dr. Werner, now retired, has performed challenge experiments with pigeons using a (then) recent HPAIV H5N1 strain from SE Asia. Her results will be published and a manuscript is currently under review. Therefore, I can not give details of this study: The overall outcome was that pigeons can be infected by a natural route with HPAIV H5N1 albeit high doses are required. Some pigeons will then develop central nervous signs. Virus is replicating predominantly in the CNS but can be found at lower loads also in other tissues. Some virus excretion can be detected but in the experimental setting no transmission to sentinel chickens kept in the same cage had occured. This leads to the assumption that pigeons are unlikely to play a role in the spread of this virus. However, these results may be subject to virus strain-specific characteristics and it can not be excluded that results may differ when using other strains, e.g. isolates from the Qinghai lineage. So, I think a general "amnesty" for pigeons should not be proclaimed on basis of these data. Best regards, Timm Harder As you can see, with a mutating virus such as H5N1 no scientist yet will give pigeons the 'All Clear', and I am afraid Pigeon Racing does not have enough financial clout to force DEFRA to disregard this conclusion. To Joe Public , pigeons are birds and if DFERA restricts pigeon racing to stop bird flu coming to our shores then they are doing a wonderful job in their eyes. Hopefully, Dr Ortrud Werner's forthcoming paper may help in getting DEFRA to commision a new risk assessment, but dont hold your breath.

The RPRA should have stopped this argument in its tracks if they had acted as soon as it became known that Organisations were imposing illegal time penalties. It is enshrined in their rule book on how you must work out velocities and no RPRA affiliated organisation can vote in any rules which contradict RPRA ruling however democratic that may seem. The RPRA were quick enough to remind Organisations that ETS has been passed as an approved clocking method but painfully slow to point out Appendix E of the RPRA rules.

Try again, it should be titled 'Gone in 60 seconds'

Here's a short video, it's more to show weather conditions than the birds ,they didn't hang around long enough. http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q156/PompeyMick/?action=view&current=371b094d.flv

09063 656 844

I,ve been at the Portsmouth lib site since 5.45, watching the libs, Northampton away at 06.30, INFC up at 07.00, Plenty of other Feds waiting to lib when I left. The weather is bright & breezy with perfect visibility, overnight rain but dry now broken cloud.

We're right behind you Rory, Solent Fed Truro, 8.00, west wind

and more

More photos:

Birds liberated this morning, 7.00a.m. in bright & breezy conditions, 100% visibility. Fresh SW wind, the birds cleared in seconds punching into the wind in a Northwesterly direction, dead on line of flight. Good luck to all fanciers involved, your birds have had a good start. Here are some photos of the lib site with local fanciers looking on.

The Saga goes on, having just re-arranged our Fed YB programme it looks as if there is a chink of light on the horizon. Dear All Just spoken to DEFRA. They have a further meeting on Monday with some kind of decision/review probably on Tuesday. My French contact with an ear to the French Government has indicated that the French government may review the situation Tuesday next week so watch this space. Belgium has indicated that we can race from there but of course this is dependant on DEFRA changing their ban. I have advised DEFRA that Belgium is an option for us if France continue their ban. Spain it would seem is out of the question whilst they insist on 45 days notice of liberations and anyway this will be far too far for YBs. Further update next week as and when. Regards Peter Bryant General Manager

Does anyone or any Club use this system? Any feedback appreciated.

What's your proposed lib time, Andy?

Trying to keep members at the Clubhouse to unload the returned crates is always a problem and ETS unfortunately will highlight this problem. As there is no clock strike , anyone is free to leave once his birds are basketted. It has to be impressed to every member that their prescence is required at least until all the birds are through and ready for the transporter and if necessary a Club Rota set up to unload the returned crates.There are too many members in a lot of clubs who slide off as soon as they can, leaving the remainder to make sure the birds are successfully loaded, this can be understandable in some cases as some lads have to get their birds away before they can have any dinner due to time constraints, I know, I'm one of them.

When I started racing in 1963 it was programmed to suit the working man, many trades had Saturday morning as part of their working week. When we used rail transport the birds were liberated to arrive home in the early afternoon. With the advent of road transport it was very hard to keep convoyers sat at the lib sites and so the libs became earlier and earlier and we lost an awful lot of fanciers due to 'work commitments'. It's a damning reflection of the selfish 'I'm all right Jack' attitude of pigeon fanciers to allow this situation to develop and it cost the Fancy a lot of members. Up until 3 years ago I had to work Saturdays to keep my financial income up, if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to afford to keep pigeons. My Wife, happily, was able to clock for me, though she didn't like the responsibility she nevertheless helped me keep racing. I don't think any committed fancier would be away from his loft on race days if it could be helped, and the BEST feature of ETS is the backup it gives to fanciers in these circumstances. With the increase of shift working in this country ETS could well help us keep fanciers who would otherwise leave the Sport.

I understand the INFC Friendship race is held over. Weather conditions here are poor with a better day forecast for tomorrow. Here are some views across the Solent to the Isle of Wight taken next to the liberation site. 08.30 Total overcast with reduced visbility. I hope to be on site tomorrow to witness the liberation and take a few photos to post.

The Solent Fed only started to use this racepoint last season, we've had 4 races and I have dropped one. We have three YB races scheduled this year so I will let you know how we get on. It's 93 miles to me in Portsmouth.

At least we can keep them going Rose, The previous programme with alternate Guernseys (7 day rule) was very severe. A lot of local flyers are considering North Road racing in the future. The Hampshire 2B Old Bird race will switch to Truro.

'Winning Naturally ' by Alf Baker is an excellent read.

The Solent Fed will be at Truro for the last O.B race New YB race programme: Kingsdown1, Exeter 1, Yelverton 1, Kingsdown 2, Exeter 2, Yelverton 2, Kingsdown 3, Truro