THE FIFER Posted July 12, 2019 Report Share Posted July 12, 2019 The Joe Murphy Column The ‘biggest’ and ‘greatest’ race into Scotland is the SNFC Gold Cup racewhich every member of the club wants to win. This year the race was fromBurdinne in Belgium (which is near Liege) with the convoy of 1251 birds sentby 358 members liberated at 05-30 hours into a light east to south east windwith the convoy leaving the site in one batch in a north west direction. Onceagain this turned out to be a ‘fantastic’ race with the winner timed into theEdinburgh area under the 10 hour mark for the 505 miles recording a velocityof 1525 and the last open position of 126 th open pigeon was doing a velocity of1253. So the race was all over in the space of under 300 yards velocity. Thefurthest flying pigeon in the result was to John Thompson of Spey Bay flying adistance of 590 miles and was timed at 08-45 the next morning. Socongratulations to the race control team and to the conveyers on a wonderfulrace. There are some obvious facts we need to look into; for example the racewas flown on one of the hottest days of the year, the national officials took thisinto consideration and put 18 birds into each basket (which I have advocatedfor years) so this helped. Then we have to look at the where the race point wasi.e. Belgium were we also race from Ypres. The latter has always been a goodrace and it looks like the birds cross over the English Channel and head upthe east coastline for home. You will see from my article that we had a betterrace than the NFC did from Tarbes as their birds would have to fly throughthe whole of France in 40+ degrees. So do we the Scottish national continuewith these Belgium race points as we are experiencing better races and goodreturns? Kevin has 6 out of 6 with his last bird being picked up in the Blytharea and my thanks to David Power and Mick Brennan for getting the bird upto me. The race was a bit too quick for Kevin’s birds but we had 3 back on theday with our yearling Maidstone winner homing at 21-50 hours, so he will beput by till next year. However 6 out of 6 are good returns from a 500 milerace. One of the items that stuck me while studding the Burdinne opennational result was the distances fanciers birds are credited with flying totheir loft from this race point. For example our near neighbours Charlie &Glen Cameron of Arbroath were flying 519 miles to win 3 rd section C 22 nd openwhile the distance from Crossgates in Fife (not far over the Forth RoadBridge) is 516 miles a distance of 3 miles overfly (it’s crazy as it is about 20miles or more to the Tay Road Bridge never mind the 15 miles to Arbroathfrom Dundee) Then you look at the D Young of Falkirk is flying the same 519mile distance as Arbroath. It would take up to an hour to fly from Falkirk toArbroath. It is the same with the 2 nd open pigeon that was flying 466 miles intoEcclefechan and yet looking at the result the 10 th open pigeon flying into Aytonhas only a 4 miles overfly. Believe me it is a lot longer distance wise from theSolway area to Ayton on the east coast. A Nelson of Hamilton is flying 521 2 miles while G Briggs of Dundee is flying 526 miles. I don’t honestly think thisis a fair race point in the DISTACE respect but this is only my observationsafter looking at the result and I would like to hear other fancier’s feedback onthis race point and from racing from Belgium? Don’t get me wrong it was agreat race on the day and well done to all the fanciers who made the nationalresult. The outright winner of the race is the Pentlandhill federation and NewLothian press officer who forward me his weekly results for YEARS. Noneother than Andy Miller of Sighthill won the Gold Cup with a 3 year old bluehen who recorded a velocity of 1525 ypm for the 505 miles home, she has hadan exceptional season as she previously won 137 th open from the inlandnational from Buckingham; 2 weeks later she then won 18 th open fromMaidstone flying a distance of 363 miles recording a velocity of 1681 and nowwins 1 st section B 1 st east section 1 st open Burdinne flown on Friday 28 th June.Last year she won 130 th open Maidstone Andy has kindly attached aphotograph of the Gold Cup winner to me. His 2 nd section B 2 nd east region 3 rdopen winner doing a velocity of 1506 velocity is an Irish rung blue hen whowon 323 rd open from the Buckingham race prior to this Gold Cup race.Andy’s 3 rd pigeon winning 4 th section B 12 th open is a 2 year old chequer whiteflight hen doing a 1432 velocity and his 4 th pigeon winning 14 th section B 32 ndopen is a 2 year old blue chequer hen doing 1374 velocity. Andy has also givenme a photograph of his blue pied hen who won 12 th open from Maidstone thisyear she is his main candidate for the Ypres national and is now sitting eggs, butshe has been on widowhood for the early part of the season and went to Maidstonein this condition. Once again I send my congratulations to Andy Miller on his‘Dream come true’ and for the help and assistance he has given me over theyears keeping my column going and lastly for the pigeons of his winning GoldCup team. Believe me it could not have gone to a harder working deservingfancier. The first yearling timed in the race with a velocity of 1447 winning 3 rdsection B 10 th open is to the loft of Billy Bilsland of Ayton who needs nointroduction to the pigeon fancy. 1 st section A 1 st south region 2 nd open doing avelocity of 1515 is J Gilmour of Ecclefechan who won the Gold Cup fromAlencon in 2017 so near to pulling off the double congratulations on afantastic achievement. 1 st & 2 nd section C 9 th & 13 th east region 14 th & 18 th openis Jocky Scott of Kennoway who timed in a chequer cock and chequer hen.The section winner won 3 rd section C 97 th open from Buckingham in 2018 whilethe chequer hen won 14 th section C 24 th open Ypres last year. 1 st section E 1 stwest region 4 th open is W Smart of Allanton with his blue bar cock doing avelocity of 1484 ypm this cock won 81 st section E from Buckingham in 2017and again from the same race point in 2018 won 70 th section E also proving tobe an excellent pigeon so well done to Mr Smart. 1 st section D 3 rd east region 5 thopen on a velocity of 1464 is David Jamieson of East Calder with a blue barcock who has now on 4 times in the SNFC he previously won 176 th open Ypresin 2017 and last year he won 7 th section D 152 nd open from Buckingham beforewinning 1 st section D 11 th open from Liege proving once again what a good Graham Rann with his 2nd open NFC Tarbes winner Jock Scott of Kennoway 1st & 2nd section C see text Andy Milelr 3rd open Gold Cup Joe Murphy and Andy Miller SNFC Gold Cup winner 2019 12th open Maidstone for Andy Miller. 3 quality pigeon he is. 1 st section F 52 nd open on a velocity of 1335 ypm is TSmith of West Kilbride with his blue chequer hen who won 3 rd section F fromMaidstone last year. 1 st section G 1 st north section 115 th open with the onlynorth section bird on the open result are Dave & Callum McDougal ofPeterhead with their chequer hen flying 555 miles and recording a velocity of1260. Once again congratulations to the above winners and to everyone whomade the national result. Guy Reed Update Received an email from my dear friend Guy who wrote ‘Hi Joe, thanks for yourrecent call checking up on my health again this week, and I have to say this recentheart attack has slowed me down considerably, but I’m relatively sure that it willall repair in due course. I would like to express my gratitude to all the well-wisherswho know me and have contact me, I’m overwhelmed and humbled by all the loveand kindness shown to me. My thanks and love goes out to you all. I had a goodchat with our friend Bernard DeWeerdt this week, and he informed me that theseason so far out there, has been experiencing difficult racing similar to our own.With the ongoing changing weather conditions and of course the ongoing predationwhich he felt was on the increase! On the bright side the birds were respondingwell now and his returns from the Pau International were good, getting 11 out of13 sent, Filip once again getting the 1st arrival and scoring 17 th national Pau. Asyou know there are many fanciers that do not put their arrivals on PIPA, but youcan go on to https://www.kbdb-online.be this link is in Dutch but from the frontpage you can see the word archief (archive) which will send you to the resultsavailable. Guy continues ‘What a Joy it is to be able to write about a friend andfellow competitor, who has had a great track record in distance racing. Thisdedicated Isle of Wight fancier, has this year 2019 in the Tarbes Grand National,achieved an all-time personal best, and done it with classic style. Graham Rann &Daughters timed 3 of their 8 entries on the winning day. Grahams old schoolapproach to the distance has paid off, when he looked up to discover his 1 st arrivalhad landed, after 15 hours 21 minutes 14 seconds of flying time to take(provisionally) 1 st section B 2 nd Open NFC. This dark hen had been lightly racednorth as a young bird, and again as a yearling. As a 2 year old she was tried atSigogne a distance of 342 miles with the NFC. Finally in 2019 to prepare forTarbes, she had Carentan with the Solent federation, Fougeres and Cholet with theNFC. Her sire is a stock bird from Brockamp ‘George’ x Daughter of ‘Armstrong’.Her dam is from Grahams ‘Faithful’ a dark Shuman x DeWeerdt cock who scored7 th International Agen when paired to T J Hazel's ‘Jackie’s Pride’ winner of 6 thopen NFC Tarbes and a daughter of TJ Hazel's ‘Olivia Rose’ winner of 1 st openNFC Tarbes. ‘Faithful’ and the 2 TJ Hazel hens feature in all three ofGrahams arrivals from this Tarbes race. Graham’s 2 nd arrival taking 4 th section B32 nd open is a dark white flight hen, her sire is a son of ‘Faithful’ when paired to‘Jackie's Pride’ winner of 6 th NFC Tarbes, and the dam is an Andy Gregson bredDeWeerdt. The 3 rd arrival is a dark cock who achieved 7 th section B 43 rd open: his 4 sire is Graham’s multiple prize winners and good breeder, ‘Faithful’ who was 7 thInternational Agen when paired to ‘Olivia Rose’ 1 st National Tarbes. These 2 nd &3 rd arrivals also had only been raced north as young birds and as yearlings. Thisyear Graham gave them their first races across the channel, each were sent toCarentan, Fougeres and Cholet. Only having my loft a few hundred yards from Graham, I excitedly went over tocongratulate Graham, and look at the arrivals. They were in superb condition, andtypical of the type that Graham has bred to achieve this much deserved andcreditable performance. Graham’s achievements should be uplifting to anydistance enthusiasts, who aspire to achieve results from over 500 miles, as he onlyhas a small loft set up, with no fancy methods, just very good birds that are of amedium to small size and mostly dark chequers. The birds are fed 3 well knownVersele Laga mixes blended together, without adding fats mixes. Joe it wouldplease me no end to attempt a more in depth article on Graham Rann for you as hehas had many good positions from National, Classic and International events. (Noproblem Guy just send it up when you have time JM) Guy continues ‘Onceagain this race has been fraught with difficult weather conditions, and with aholdover, the race was inevitably going to be very tough indeed’. (Yet on lookingat the result Guy some people have had good races and just like up here it is thesame old name that appear year after year, good pigeons and good fanciers JoeMurphy) Thank You Received another email from Pat O’Sullivan whom I highlighted in my report onthe Macaulay Ferguson & Curran partnership who won 2 nd open SNFC MaidstonePat wrote ‘Hi Joe, I hope this email finds you and Margaret in good health. I’vejust received my BHW and saw your article. The lads did really well to win 2 ndopen and after being unwell recently it gave me a tonic to read that my birds aredoing well with other fanciers. The photo in the article (taken in Blackpool) is alsoin my scrapbook! Keep up the good work Joe kindest regards Pat O’Sullivan. I alsopassed on Pat’s good wishes to Gavin Ferguson who could not thank me enoughand Jimmy Curran had spoken to Pat. Gavin also thanked me for the write upon his 2 nd open SNFC Maidstone winner.Bereavement Sale A reminder that all the birds of the late Joe Hunt of Dundee will go under thehammer this Sunday 14 th July with all the proceeds going to his widow andfamily. Race Results Almond Valleys Federation 5 News from Lynne Stewart who wrote ‘Hi Joe from our race from Billericay on 22 ndof June the convoy of 188 birds were liberated at 06-15 hrs 1 st 8 th 9 th 14 th & 19 th isColin Ross of Balerno with J Fairley of the same club in 2 nd place with another clubmember Dougie Bald in 3 rd 13 th & 16 th open. Jimmy McGinty of West Calder is 4 thopen with Freddie Jamieson & son of East Calder in 5 th 11 th & 17 th open. BrotherJohn Jamieson is 6 th & 20 th with John Bird of West Calder in 7 th open. Mr & MrsFleming of East Calder are 10 th & 12 th with G Young of West Calder club in 15 thopen and Robert Anderson of East Calder makes up the top 20 by winning 18 thopen. Summary list of money winners; John Bird of West Calder wins £68.80.Freddie Jamieson & Son of East Calder wins £58.00: Jimmy McGinty of WestCalder wins £27.70; Colin Ross of Balerno wins £25.00; J Fairley of Balerno wins£15.00; Douglas Bald of Balerno wins £10.00; G Young of West Calder wins£10.00 Mr & Mrs Fleming of East Calder wins £7.60; A Robb of West Calder wins£3.90 and John Jamieson of East Calder wins £1.50.Bo’ness RPCNews from Bernie Britton who writes ‘Hi Joe, hope your all well in Bonny Fife;Can I give you the 3 bird club result for our club member’s from the Billericayrace flown on 22 nd June. 1 st club 1 st open is John McNeill with a mealy cock flyingroundabout he is a Lambert. His sire was bred by John’s good mate Terry Rigney.The dam was bred by his good mate Gary Gibson from Northern Ireland this birdhas previously won,1 st club 19 th federation Leicester; 11 th section 18 th open SCCyearling derby. 1 st club 6 th federation Ripon then 8 th federation open MaidstoneSNFC winning 8 th section D 43 rd open; Other member’s on the national result are asfollows; Pat Rafferty & sons 8 th ; J Ferguson 6 th 11 th & 20th. John McNeill was also12 th , 13th as you can see Joe not a bad pigeon. Thanks once again Joe for all yourhelp. The club members are grateful for your help and the publicity they receive inthe pigeon press. PS can you also say well done to Andy & Liz Miller on a greatperformance from the Gold Cup race yours Bernie’.TraprainThe members keep on marching on with some fantastic results in the national racesthis season. The week after the Scottish National Flying Club Maidstone race,some members sent their birds with the SNRPC to Billericay. Sinclair Thomson &Son ended up winning 4 th open with their good cock who had previously wonSNFC Maidstone 2018. Sinclair was also 9 th open with Newcombe & Blackwinning 7 th open. The club had another 23 positions in the top 10% of the result.Next we had Newcombe & Black sending 1 bird to finish 3 rd open from ReimsGold Medal Race with the SNRPC. Now onto the Gold Cup race with the SNFCfrom Burdinne in Belgium. The best position in the club was for John Bosworth,who was 15th Open, followed by Willie McCormack and Son in 16 th open, withJohn B again in 17th open position. The club had 19 open positions from theavailable 126 open positions for the whole of Scotland. Winning 21 st section B and 6 51 st open is that great pigeon of the Sinclair's, ‘Mr Consistent’ he will now win hisGold Award, to go along with his Silver and Bronze Awards. Another bird worth amention is Jimmy Marks hen called ‘Princess Cara’, who now wins her silveraward she is a winner of 8 th section B 19 th open Burdinne, 4 th section 16 th openLiege 2018 and she won 8 th section B 14 th open Ypres in 2017. I must congratulatebig Freddie Robertson with his 1 st open Billericay with the SNRPC and AndyMiller with his fantastic performances from Burdinne. All these fantasticperformances have all come from the majority of national races using the wickerbaskets with plenty of shavings to let the birds relax. I have to say Joe the birdsthat arrived home from Burdinne race were in great condition. (There was only 18birds in a basket makes a lot of difference Joe M).North of Scotland FederationNews from George Duthie who writes ‘Hi Joe we were at Sedgefield 2 old birds onthe 29 th June with 56 members sending convoy of 497 birds these were liberatedinto a light east wind. With the east section having 30 members sending 214 birdsand the West section had 26 members sending 283 birds. Topping the federationand west section is Keith member R Wilson with a yearling doing a velocity of1434. J S Robertson of Inverurie wins 1 st 7 th & 8 th east section 2 nd 14 th & 16 th openHis club mates Eric & Nicky Yule are 2 nd east section 3 rd open. Colin McRae ofFraserburgh & District is 3 rd & 4 th east section 4 th & 10 th open. A Mair (John) ofDevern Valley is 2 nd west section 5 th open, G R Duncan of Keith club is 3 rd westsection 6 th open with J Thomson of Elgin & District winning 4 th 5 th & 7 th westsection 7 th 8 th & 13 th open. A J Reid of Keith club is 6 th 8 th & 9 th west section 9 th 15 th& 30 th open. S Glew of Peterhead & District club is 5 th & 12 th east section 11 th &20 th open club mates Jim & Ann Donaldson are 6 th east section 12 th open withanother Peterhead partnership in 9 th east section 17 th open Walter Masson ofFraserburgh & District is 10 th east section 18 th open with A Foster of Inveruriewinning 11 th east section 19 th open A Milne of Devern Valley is 10 th west section34 th open.Clubs First BirdKeith winner R Wilson; Inverurie J S Robertson; Fraserburgh & District C McRaeDevern Valley A Mair (John); Elgin & District winner J Thomson; Peterhead &District S Glew; Fraserburgh West End won by R Higgins; Buckie & Districtwinner R Bain. Well done to R Wilson on topping the fed also well-done to JRobertson on winning the east section, cheers Joe yours George Duthie.Northern ClassicAllan Curran the secretary of the above classic forwarded me news of their Poitiersrace from France flown on the 29 th June with 35 members sending 231 pigeons;these were liberated at 06-00 into a light east wind. We had phenomenal flying byour member Steve Allen from Ashfield in Derbyshire. His 1 st open winner awidowhood hen was bred from a Jeff Kirkland crossed Geoff and Catherin Cooper 7 birds. This pigeon has won 10 prizes from over the water and was flying 469 miles.Steve’s 2 nd bird is bred from the same people mentioned above and is a cock flownon widowhood once again he has had several positions from over water. Steve won£816-20p in prize and pool money. 3rd position is S Gill from Castleford WestYorkshire; this pigeon is bred off birds from Tom Gilbertson from Cumbria andwas flown on the roundabout. This pigeon has scored a few times over 500 milesand from Poitiers he was flying 510 miles to his loft picking up prize money andpool of £201-20 pence. 4 th place went to T Dale of Castleford and his pigeon isbred from Mike Parkin from Goole and was flown on the roundabout system, hisnest mate from the same race last year won 2 nd federation and picked up a prize of£80. In 5th place is S Allen his bird is bred from Geoff and Cath Coopers and is awidowhood cock, another bird which has excelled a number of times from over theEnglish Channel. The 6 th place is won by H Jackson of Selby, who flies on thenatural system and has had much success flying this system. We paid out £100 inprize money with the total pay-out with pool money was £1696.12p. Theconditions that these pigeons had to fly in extreme temperatures and an easterlywind, made for a trying race, so well done to all the brave birds who did well,Thanks once again for adding us into your column Joe yours sincerely Allan.’ ForScottish fanciers reading the above result it is interesting to note that the NorthernClassic, 8 eight clocking stations, They are as follows, Kinsley, then Goldthorpe,Leeds ,Selby, Snaith, Worksop in Nottinghamshire and Paisley in Derbyshire. Thesouth boundary goes from Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, Chesterfield, andWorksop and onto Sutton in Ashfield in Derbyshire. The North boundary runsfrom, south Kirkby, Pontefract, Wakefield, Leeds, Selby, Goole, Snaith, York andRipon. My thanks to Allan and Diane for the news and good luck to all themembers of the Classic: Joe’s Joke In the morning Tom calls to his boss: - Good morning, boss, unfortunately I'm notcoming to work today. I'm really sick. I got a headache, stomach ache, and my bothhands and legs hurt, so I'm not coming into work."The boss replies: - You know Tom, I really need you today. When I feel like this Igo to my wife, and tell her to give me sex. That makes me feel better, and I can goto work. You should try that.2 hours later Bob calls: - Boss, I followed your advice, and I feel great! I'll be atwork soon. By the way, you’ve got a nice house’. Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 orEmail to joejmurphy1@gmail.com REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE oryou can also view online editions on: www.elimarpigeons.comwww.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk - www.Pigeonbasics.com - Pigeon 8 Racing the Basics! - thecanadianpigeoninternational.comwww.internationalracingpigeon.com orhttps://sites.google...alracingpigeon/Who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland© Compiled by Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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