Pompey Mick

Portsmouth, 06.30, Clear Blue Sky, Lt Easterly breeze.

Solent Fed at Messac 208mls, finishing the OB season on a come-back race. A great finale. Hope things get sorted out better next season. When you say you have finished completely, Shadow, is that just this season? Mick

I agree that winning the NFC is worth far more than money, but if they are offering prize money doesn't everyone agree it should be of an amount that befits a National. I mean £15,00 1st Prize just devalues the race in other peoples eyes, especially non-fanciers, and 75p for the lower prizes is just unbelievable, it costs more to send the cheque. If this is what the 'rules' dictate then the NFC need to change them PDQ.

I have just tried again and everything is loading OK, it's just cleared in the last 5mins.

I have just been reading the NFC St Nazaire result and I could not believe my eyes when I saw the amount of OPEN prize money on offer. £15.00 for FIRST OPEN, an insult if I ever saw one,an embarrassment to the sport when one of the sports oldest institutions offer such a paltry amount to the winner of one of their races. But it doesn't end there, for positions 16th to 20th they are paying out the staggering amount of 75 pence, that's £0.75, a derisory amount. How has this once great club allowed this to happen? In todays society everything has a value, whenever you talk to non-fanciers about winning prestigous races the first thing they want to know is ' How much have you won?' I feel really sorry for Messrs Prettejohn when they have to tell people that they won the princely amount of £15.00 prizemoney for what is an excellent performance. If the National Flying Club ever hopes to regain it's former glory it has to start by offering decent prizemoney for it's races not the pittance that is currently on offer, a rescue package is needed forthwith to restore confidence in the Club, starting as soon as possible.

Hi Richard, I cannot access the site through my original favorite setting, all I get is a Pigeonbasics.com logo. I am currently accessing through the velocity calculator page which I have in my favourites. When I am in the site the Home page(Index) only shows the pigeonbasics.com logo when accessed,and I cannot get any response on this page to get into the site.

Are any of the listed races from Portsmouth this week still on?

First toss about half a mile, then I have given them about six from about two Mls (by the Spinnaker tower ) they will have three from about ten mls, then as many as I can from 25mls. But it's all about confidence, you can't teach them to home, only to race.

Here is Kevin & John Zerafa's loft, fellow members in my Club, the Milton Homing Society (Portsmouth).

I see the CGI-limits is acting with a vengeance tonight, eventually came online and I'm the only member here.

I have just read Joe Murphy's report on the Tours race and I must congratulate him on producing such an in depth report which must have taken him a lot of effort to compile. I must also other my congratulations to the superb pigeons that competed in this race. I was competing from Cholet with the Solent Fed on the South Coast and our birds found it hard going getting out of France that day, taking 6 hrs for the winners for 260mls with big gaps and 50% returns at clock strike. To fly over 600mls with a difficult start and a terrible end to the day only emphasises the quality of these birds. Once again sincere congratulations to all concerned. I have printed the report and will take it to my club so they can see what real pigeon racing is.

Wht is DEFRA being so pedantic over the whole Avian Flu situation. We are the only EU country apart from Rumania that has such draconian restrictions on pigeon racing, even the Irish can race from France with no 7day Isolation rule or limit on distance as we have. ALL British Racing Pigeon organisations must band together and employ qualified Vetrinary specialists to fight DEFRA on their own level, Economic arguements alone are not enough. Organisations like DEFRA do not make decisions on their own, they rely on scientific argument from others so they can always blame some one else if it goes wrong.

There are fanciers who rely on other fanciers to tell them what is going on in the world. I know of fanciers who were totally unaware of this situation until they arrived at the Club with their birds, there are also fanciers out there who are totally selfish and only care about their own situation. In my Club we only fly short distances across the channel and members want to race their birds weekly, We can monitor this at Club level, but it is impossible to monitor when members are sending birds to Nationals & Classics. It is also difficult when we have no domestic ruling on this and have only the threat of legal action through DEFRA to to call upon, It would have been much easier if the RPRA had announced that any fancier who fails to comply with this DEFRA stipulation will have his entire loft isolated for 21 days as a biosecurity measure. To safeguard racing in these difficult times we MUST be seen to comply with DEFRA regulations and act as responsible livestock owners.

Solent Fed liberated 9.00 am from Cholet, lt SW wind. Plenty of sun here in Pompey at the moment with broken cloud & light westerly breeze. Best of luck everyone.

Portsmouth, 07.30 , broken cloud, sunny spells, Lt Westerly winds.

Solent Fed are at their longest! race of the year, Cholet 257mls to me, and we will be finishing off the OB season with a come-back race ! next week from Messac to end the Solent Fed (National Flying Club Training Organisation) Old Bird sprint season.

Look to the ones you have got back pigeonpete, 20 YB's a nice manageable team who have showed a lot of mettle, pigeons that you will have confidence in, and a lot easier to basket up.

Personally, I like to train early evening for the initial training stints and only move on to morning training when I feel the birds have got the right idea about coming home straight away. I always have the first flights after they have had their afternoon exercise feeding in with a light titbit feed and taking the birds about 6.30. I have found that should they get into trouble in the evening they have only about 2-3 hrs flying time and approaching darkness seems to focus their minds,plus if they are that far from home they still have plenty left in reserve for a fresh start in the morning.

Next Thursday according to the Wind Map on www.xcweather.co.uk

If they,re caught up in the rain pigeonpete it wil give you a better chance of getting them back because they will be forced to sit it out and will not venture too far, also they should be able to get some water, more a necessity than food. 14 of my youngsters went for a run 10 days ago, I had 5 after 5hrs another two after 7 hrs away, one the next morning and one more at midday, I had one reported in a non-fanciers garden some 60mls away a week later. Have some faith in your birds ability, all is not lost.

Do the Irish fanciers have a 7day isolation rule similar to the one imposed on us by DEFRA. I can see you have the 21 day isolation for late pigeons but I can't see any reference to a 7day isolation for Channel race birde in your bio security legislation.

We just have the slugs & snails eating ours, Hyacinth,

The Derby and Burton Fed ready for lib 7,00 am, and the South Yorkshire getting ready to leave after liberating earlier.

Portsmouth ,beautiful day, Lt breeze. Birds away early on the Common. Photos show the Isle of Wight and the early morning ferry passing the Lib site,

How about some photos of lofts in compact surroundings, especially backgarden city loft setups. Here's mine complete with washing line.