tubbles

These experienced fanciers that you speak of are telling porkies cos everyone loses birds. It is very rare these days to keep all you have bred right up until the first training toss. You will hear all sorts of stories about "I sorted some out that didn't come up to scratch" but this is sometimes bull****, people don't like to admit that they are just pigeon fanciers and they have no idea why they go missing. Ask these so called experienced flyers to show all their rings that they got from the club and you will see some missing.

Sean, Don't let them idiots get to you mate. Just try your best in the club. Come the end of the season anything could happen, It takes a long time for a pigeon fliers brain to kick into gear mate : ( no offence to anyone here ), when they realise that you will leave the club and tell everyone about them they may well have a rethink of the rule that is stopping you. If you are asked by any outsiders please tell them that ANY other club would have let you in but this brainless bunch that you applied to are stopping you. All we need is for someone to get the wrong end of the stick about the sport in general. We already have enough problems. Good luck in the season mate and plz try another club if there is one that you are in the boundary of. dunno if its worth it but i would report them to the union that you are in too. :-/

I know of people that use Baytril as preventative medicine. When they have sent droppings away to be tested they always come back with a touch of this or that and the vet ALWAYS prescribed Baytril. I was told that Baytril is a last ditch effort though so be careful and it is said to take the lining of good bacteria as well as the harmful stuff. After all bacteria is bacteria to a drug, good or bad. i believe you have to give all sorts of vitamin treatments afterwards. BE CAREFUL!!!

I do believe that the sport has to move forward at every opportunity to try and hook more members in but this, i feel could be too big a step. the system itself seems a great way of maybe getting some members back into the sport but As Frank says, the current members that will buy it, need to show some common sense about the amount of birds they time in. Not seen one in action but if members just clock everything in that will make top 20 (top 12 in my club) other members will see they're ar**s. Before anyone says it i know that it does not speed the birds up but on a fast race four in 4 seconds could be a bit annoying if you were leading up until that point. Because don't forget when someone comes in they only say what time they are in not that they have four at that time.

Well done m8. if you are passing the Wirral when going training let me know lol. That is if you are allowed to take anyone elses birds this year

All the best matey

Err not to put a spoiler in here but you DO realise that if the people are at your shop they will not see the birds get home. Just that if they are betting at your shop where YOU want them, they will not see the birds arriving and see their 'Bets' gong down the pan. Also if you are not an actual racepoint, distances and permissions need to be applied for. Sorry if this has spoilt your plan because anything to promote the sport is great. But we have lots of rules to contend with.

Just a quickie peeps Tubbles (was called tubby as a kid cant see why must have been the fat eh)=Phil Brown not worried about giving name it is just what i signed up as. Was told long time back not to use a real name on forums for some long time forgotten reason. LoL sorry for joining in to this debate if it upsets people but i fly pigeons and am entitled to opinion. I only come into this debate because i am secretary and was wanting to now first hand about ETS because it is me (sorry 'ME' now you see what i mean about your name) that will be expected to find out about it.

ME While i agree that the money from the lottery should pay for essential stuff like NHS and prescription charges lets just think of where the money goes if we don't apply for it. Brass bands and opera houses spring to mind and if they worry about a poxy 10 grand of lottery money then it's news to me. I have never been to an opera house in my life and i think that if i come into money it would still be low on my pecking order. the opera house got millions of pounds to support itself and the prices are out of normal peoples means, you worry about Alfs club getting 10 grand. come on now a bit of perspective is needed here. without insulting anyone of the pigeon flyers that i know, the opera is something that is very rarely even spoken of never mind planned for a night out. We all laughed (silently fuming) when we heard of that donation of 78 million or so. http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/9899404.htm link tells of some donations. As for for your username ME, it would be easier to talk to a fred, alf or bert than trying to put me in a sentence.

Thanks Fifer "me" as for the 30 member rule applying to clubs , would these clubs be taken as federations, as we have more than 30 members in the federation. Its all a bit up in the air still really isn't it. We need the RPRA to come out and tell us where we stand because I know a lot of the members in my club are against it and this will just cause more bad feeling towards the members who try using it. The sport is not in the position to take these problems in my opinion, because this could lose us even more members. :-/

Me again lads and lasses could the scottish flyers in here please tell me which ETS system that they are using? Unikon, Benzing or some other and if they are different how are the results worked out?

ALF.... I really don't think that I as just a club secretary should apply for a grant, and this is not just passing the buck in any way, but, i believe it should be Federations that should apply to the lottery for grants and that way the Whole federation would be on an equal footing. The federation secretaries have enough work to do but if just our club had them bought for us it would give our members an advantage in the federation. I don't want to get involved in the ...." it doesn't make them fly faster" argument because this, to me is obvious but why should one whole club have the advantage over the federation. I have been told ( don't know if its true or not so don't quote me ) but in Belgium, members can use ETS in some levels of racing but they still have to clock a rubber into a timing clock. ETS for clubs or opens maybe would be ok but Federation level perhaps rubbers....... just a thought.

How many times have you tried to shout everything in, from pigeons going over to starlings in the distance that look like pigeons diving down and at times even a fly too close to your face makes the shout almost escape. I live in Merseyside and the start of the youngbird season is a nightmare here because of the flying ants. If the saturday is sunny god help us because we have the ants in the foreground then there are starlings and other birds trying to eat them, if a pigeon comes amongst them it is almost invisible but great fun all the same, good luck to all of the new starters in here. :)

Roland, Don't forget that majority rule comes in at meetings and if the majority say we should buy such and such then that is what the club is supposed to do. You could object but, i'm not sure how far this would get you. I agree with your stance but the clever ones will use rules to bamboozle the club into buying because don't forget that it was smart a**e lawyers who have said that the RPRA MUST allow the use of the ETS. WE the fee payers did not really have an option as to whether we wanted it or not. I was sent a letter to read out from my region committee and that was from some sort of equal oportunities place and we were not expected to vote on it just to know what was going on. People who want such things to be let in always find a loophole and in the past people have given up the sport due to health concerns and these flyers were not bothered about their disabilities. To me it just sounds like "I want it so i'll find a way to get it". disappointing but thats pigeons.

Pigeonscout....Thanks for the link but that will still need the USB port on the computer and as our computer in the club runs on windows 95 it does not comply with USB. One of the systems, can't rmember which one, uses the serial port of a computer. I'll just leave it to the first idiot to buy the right/wrong one. Not bothered myself as i am not getting ETS for at least two years when hopefully the prices come down substantially.

Tell your mum to buy you a hoodie and a knife and you'll hang around with all your school friends on a corner spitting at passers by. Then we'll see what she thinks is wasting your life. There are choices in life and there are far worse choices than pigeon racing. I'm sure your mum just wants you to mix with people your own age and have their interests but your interest in pigeons is a lot safer than a life hanging out on street corners.

Lol at least someone can eat on raceday, I have raced for a number of years now and can't eat before the birds are home lol i still feel sick before they get there (and sometimes after they have finally got there :-/ ) But hey, youre right not long to go now, the countdown is on and of course it goes without saying that I'm gonna win the first race but if i didn't think that what would be the point. I can't remember the last race i won actually but i'm sure this is going to be my year ;D

To start with it may just be printed off and then manually entered i suppose but our club has old computer (no USB) so i would be interested to see if they supply a printer like the T3 clocks have. :

oops i posted in the other ETS thread about this Very poor ETS advertising i say.

LoL this will not go down well in my club because the computer we have is out of the Arc it is windows 95 and no USB. The first one in our club to get the ETS will have to make sure it runs on windows 95 because i'm sure that any connections now will be USB. Factor this into cost and then if it is £300, the first member to get it will have to supply a computer with XP or such. Somehow i can't see the members that will not pay out for ETS chipping in for a new computer and probably another race working out system. As secretary i could bring the details home and do a result but this defeats the point of the club having a computer AT the club. Of course i am taking for granted that this ETS uses a computer connection. has anyone got any web links to see about system requirements as I think it has been very poorly advertised, I have seen pictures of it with a bird standing on the mat thing but nothing in detail. English detail anyway. if anyone could scan documents and send them to me i would be greatful. or post them in here would be better because i'm sure a few people need to know.

Long time coming but worth the wait. Looking at the young ones it's a good job you didn't have to wait much longer or you would have had to break them in. and by the way where does the ETS fit onto it or didn't you buy it with a 25 year plan in mind. It's not just computers that should be futureproofed. Upgradable for me everytime.

Lol, I can't believe you gave a link to comet there, I also went and had a look just in case and no they had none. Do you realise that a T3 Printer is not a computer printer but one that plugs into a pigeon clock? If ever you see one in comet plz let me know also. :-/

I really am neither for or against these ETS's but just a few seasons ago i bought a T3 clock because i thought it would be faster clocking and indeed it is but not so you would notice now we seem to be moving on again and this should really save me time in clocking in so who knows if it takes off (no pun intended) a few years down the line when i can justify the outlay i may get one myself. I love catching the birds when they come home but how many times can you grab your first bird home, if it is comfortably the best, without it getting a bit trap shy. ETS no probs. Yes i know ....... :'( the money, the trouble in the club but hey, its pigeons whats new. lol I just hope that the mob clockers don't get carried away because the other members who do not win so much (me included) will just put the clocks in the cupboard and not get their times read out if Fred Bloggs says oh just give me the first twelve please, i was out and i'm not sure how they come. It makes me laugh when people get 6 read out, i would not even consider clocking in 6 birds I don't know who these people think they are flying against because when they are down one week they moan about the bad racing conditions but nothing is said on their good days : My apologies to any Fred Bloggs's flying

North Wirral Federation & Birkdale & Southport AMAL We start at Hereford on 7th April racing to merseyside. Where is your first race from invincible_spirit so i can prepare my now famous at the club "They clashed with them bl***y Welsh birds" cry lol Good luck all. At least we are talking about racing now and not just talking turkey lol

Lol i have heard some lousy rules in my time but this takes the biscuit. I am not a fan of having kids at the club but to set a rule in stone about it is something else. Surely the club realised that you had to bring him to the club when you applied. I would check that it is the pigeon society that is against you and not the pub/club itself, if it is the pub/club then ask them for (big word coming up) special dispensation playing on disability. WE all seem to think it is your pigeon club but they could be abiding by headquarters rules. Make sure that you point out that he would not be in bar area and would be gone by whatever time marking is over. I know that our headquarters says children out at 8pm, it is worded better than that but that is the rule, we are at a Liberal club. In all honesty if you could get in another club that allows him in, I would join and let it slip what a lousy club that you were in. Of course apologies to anyone from this so called society that maybe reading this lol NOT