Ian McKay

Kenny was treated disgracefully at a time when he had problems he was stabbed in the back twice > > > > :o :o

Well done Kieran Hope your old man can take it on the chin and not spit out his dummy lol

Sent you a PM

Did but not telling how many

Your too old Have you won a race this year did you fly young birds You need to fly your birds to enter ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Wanstead Flats 6th June Eastbourne 20th June Rennes 26th June Ypres 3rd July Tours 4th July Falaise 17th July Leicester 12th September

Believe this has been resolve full amenities at new site 3mls north

Now I just have to catch up with them, This will be a priority at Blackpool if they are there

I to have been watching these lads Tried to meet them at Blackpool but failed would love to have a chat with them Brilliant post Cheers Ian

Harry eats them all ;) ;)

Colin remember to count your young ones before he leaves ;) ;) ;)

Michael under your name (top right ) you will see PM click on this and you will see Private Messages from members

WoW Portlethen is definately going up market Well done mike

AULD AGE ;D ;D ;D ;D

Phone him and tell him you have the pies ready that will get him up LOL

Should be open by now what's the hold up

WoW it's been two years ;D ;D ;D

And date of birth I thought you were only 19 last time we met ;D ;D ;D ;D

Sent you a PM

That's why I do not post Well said Roland

Our thoughts are with you Harry God Bless Marlene and Ian

Hi Folks this is the donation from Taylors Lofts cheque sent today. Many THANKS to Steve “Kingslea” Kingswells Aberdeen AB15 8SL Tel: 01224 741028 e-mail: ianmckaydoos@hotmail.co.uk 16/09/08 Mr Alisdair Maclean Machrie Longsdale Road OBAN ARGYLL PA34 5JU Dear Alisdair Please find enclosed your cheque (£125) for the prize in the Kingslea One Loft Race (£50) and the gold ring nomination (£75) run in conjunction with the Aberdeen Federation. I have been waiting for the federation to pay out. This is the prize money won by Steve Taylor (Taylor Lofts) who asked me to forward it to you for PHOEBE MACKASKILL I am half way to the first 40 syndicate already so things are looking well for 2009 Yours sincerely Ian McKay

Best of luck to you boomerang you deserve it Ian

More mis information (dizzy)(dizzy)(dizzy)

Let's see if this works Alf LOFT MANAGERS REPORT - FINAL RACE 2008 First of all let me say sorry for the delay in this report but I have had to think long and hard before I put pen to paper. Now in consultation with my family, partners, and local club I have our new direction set in my mind, but before we talk of the future let me recap on 2008. As you all know we had a great series of hot spot races and were bang on target with over 50% of the birds making it to the final race. All who attended the marking were in agreement that the birds were in great condition with over a thousand birds in perfect feather and just a hundred or so that were a bit loose in the body feather but none at all in a bad moult. Two of the birds were found to have small cuts from hawk strikes and I put a couple of stitches in these as they were not to bad and I know that Jim was not to keen on the idea of these birds going to the race but I spoke to the owners and as usual they wanted them sent! After the security marking attended by this years security observer who was Jim Dyer a lay preacher and pillar of his local community as well as a life long pigeon flyer and local reporter, the birds were then placed back in the loft and fed and watered Jim then sealed the loft up at 7pm and handed over to the night watchman and convoyer, who slept at the lofts.7am Saturday Jim arrived and broke the seal to the loft and the birds were then again fed and watered and at 11am the birds were loaded onto the transporter and then sealed into the crates by Jim. The journey north was totally uneventful and they arrived in Edinburgh at 8pm and the birds were watered next morning the birds were given more water and made ready to liberate. At the home end our race advisers were surfing all the weather web sites and consulting widely, the consensus was that the country was split by weather down the middle from Scotland to the south coast of England and the forecast was that from the middle of the country out to the west it would be dry good visibility with the odd rain shower however from the middle of the country over to the east coast there would low cloud mist and some heavy rain showers, winds in all areas of the north would generally easterly or north east and west or south west in the south. With this in mind our thoughts were that if we liberate in an east wind this should send them down the west side of the country into the decent weather and get home without to much trouble this decision was taken on a unanimous vote by the 6 people involved, and Jim was asked to cut the seals at 0720 ready for a 0730 liberation. All 20 of the guys that were attending Hopetoun house to watch the liberation were more than impressed with the condition of the birds and the liberation in which all 1176 birds cleared south in very short time, even though a batch of about 100 did come back over the site 10 minutes later. the whole thing was video taped as usual by the convoyer, and while Jim and the assistant convoyer/driver went home in the transporter the convoyer himself caught a plane from Edinburgh to Cardiff airport and the film of the liberation was being shown on the big screens to the assembled crowd of 450 waiting in the marquee just after noon and it was plain to see that it was a good liberation in good conditions. This obviously prompted the crowds to think this was going to be a very easy race as the guess the time competition was flooded by tickets guessing 5, 6 and 7 hours very few thinking it would be more than that, in fact less than ten people put down more than 10 hours, the eventual winning guess being 14 hours odd that was from a woman non fancier from the west country then one from Lee Jones a non fancier of 13 hours and Poor old Louise Draper from Cardiff who in fact wanted to guess 15 hours but her fancier husband told her not to be so daft and made her change it to less than ten hours, the reason I mention this is because of the hundreds of experienced flyers who were at the race had all seen the weather forecasts and just about every one of them was expecting conditions to be plenty good enough to provide a good race and were betting their money to say so with predictions of an easy race and even though 6 people made the decision to liberate this was endorsed by at least another 20 in Edinburgh and another 450 in Cardiff. However as we all now know what followed was a very bad race with no birds on the day it soon became clear to me that the birds for some crazy reason had gone down the eastern side of the country into the worst of the weather which by the way was a lot worse than what was forecast including flash floods in Northumberland from late morning just about the time the birds would have got there if they took the eastern route. Anyway we are all pigeon flyers and sometimes you just get a very bad one when you just never saw it coming, who will ever forget the RPRA Centenary race! And this was one of those days. The poor boys in Galway did not get a single bird in race time up at the same time as us. As I said at the dinner on the night this means that everyone is still a potential winner and the birds with true grit will come second day to win this race. The loft was attended by 20 people overnight including our own security I arrived at first light by the time we had got the bacon rolls tea and coffee sorted out we had got nearly a hundred people waiting for the birds, then just before a quarter to eleven a lone blue pigeon dropped from the dead north and trapped to make itself a true hero in a very hard race and nice to say the owners Bill and Beryl Lewis were there to see it and take the many congratulations from the gathered crowd as well as the famous winners jacket, crystal glassware and trophy. This lovely couple are well known one loft flyers that have been around the world at the best one loft races, The winning bird that is truly bred for the job both parents are big winners in previous Europa classics! Second bird arrived 24 minutes later this was one for our Kuwait friends namely Nabeel Albaker who is an officer in the Kuwait army this was bred for him by Elimar, and has a pedigree full of long distance national winners this runner up is also the car winner Ace bird for best average all races 2008.these were followed throughout the day by another 27 valiant birds that had obviously seen a great deal of rain, eventually we had just 48 birds in race time, and the clock will be left on for at least a week, While others drift home. Obviously the RPRA rules say we can not pay prizes to the birds outside race time however we will give a credit in next years race to all the birds up to the one hundredth home to the same value of the prize allocated for that position. As per the rules all prizes will be reduced by one third as the published prizes are based on the loft being full at 1000 paid birds and 2000 reserves and as we all know the loft only had 660 paid birds plus reserves this is a simple calculation, as the race was less than two thirds full, we pay two thirds of the projected prize money that is exactly what has happened in previous one loft races flown by the RPRA itself as well as this years Emerald Classic and South west one loft races. Apart from the winners £30,000.00 which will be paid in full twenty thousand from the race and ten thousand from our sponsors Europa Auctions like the rest of the prizes this was not guaranteed but I personally have always said the winner of this race will get thirty grand no matter what and I will make sure that happens. That is 2008 out the way now for the future, It has always been our intention for this race to be a true test of a pigeon to sometimes push them to the limit in an effort to find true champions this is why we have chosen a very difficult race point at 312 miles to be the final test of the birds we are sent by our loyal customers each year, and even though the race has never been full we have paid the prizes in full thinking if we do that the race will be full next year but this has never happened and it may never happen so perhaps it is now time to make some changes and these are my proposals. As from 2009 the Europa classic will not be considered the final test of the birds you send us but just a stepping stone to the Europa 500 which will be. Europa Classic will still have the same race rules and entry fees and prize money as previous years, but it will be flown from Carlisle 240 miles and it will be flown on August bank holiday weekend and will be preceded by 5 hot spot races from Brough 200 miles Leyland 160 miles twice Whitchurch 100 miles and Ludlow 60 miles. We anticipate getting a big percentage of the bird's home from Carlisle which is a much easier race. These young birds can then be entered by their owners into the Europa 500 to be flown as old birds from 500 miles and this will be our new ultimate challenge for the birds we are sent to race, giving our long distance men a chance to shine. Obviously flown as old birds fully motivated into widowhood boxes it will be much easier to get a classic long distance performance from the birds. Also giving our customers year long entertainment from short middle and long distance races. Finally I would like to thank the many people who have phoned and e mailed with messages of support, of course hundreds of people had a great day out eating and drinking all day with a super atmosphere at the loft even with no birds on the day. Bill Lewis thinks it was a great race of course Beryl was reduced to tears of joy and all the other big money winners are pleased, those that did not get a bird are disappointed this we understand, and most of the guys who are down at the moment are already saying or well better luck next year because we will be having another go then. Nobody is more disappointed than me and the team. I was 100% sure we were going to get 600 birds home however that's racing, and perhaps we are pushing them to hard that's why we are making the changes we have outlined, please be aware this is very serious for us it is full time jobs on the line here for people who work hard and try their best for you. Indeed we have had very few complaints from our loyal customers who have seen many good races here at the Europa Classic, however you get knockers who have never been to the race and these numptys who hide in a chat room where any Tom, Dick or Darren can say any old rubbish that is no where near the truth need to be treated like the scum they are. Why the hell would I want to throw away all the birds when the auction money alone could be up to a hundred thousand pounds!!!!!! Any way roll on next year for the dawn of a new era. Best of luck to you all Derek Nicholls and all the Europa Classic/Europa 500 Team