the winner

[jimmy white]

is the winner of a national race    the best bird , in the race?? [ this will probably be unpopular ],, but i say ,    no,, not neccessary,, only to the owner..   it sometimes seems unfair to me, that sometimes the" winner of the national" is the be all  and end all ,,when there are better pigeons , further down the open result [not allways the  case i might add,  and with due respect to any national winner],, but there are many circumstances when the winner is not actually the best bird, [in my opinion] i,e any scottish national , just for an   instance ,,[could be any national] covers such a vast area to the far north of scot to the far south of scotland and also to the far west of  scotland to the far east of scotland ,, the first thing that comes to mind is the wind and the weather , this can be very different in many different parts of scotland at one time. i would say that if the wind was head on right up to the southern borders then changes to south for the rest of scotland ,in this case and ,if the winner was in the borders ,i would say this was the best bird,, but if the opposite were to happen i,e a south wind from the racepoint to the borders then a head wind for the rest of scotland and the winner was somewhere in the rest of scotland , i would say this was the best bird ,, i would say the same goes for the east ,,west old debate,, if the prevailing wind was west and the winner was in the west i would say this was the best bird, the same would go for an east wind ,if the winner was in the east , i would say this was the best bird,,,, but unfortunately this does not allways happen , and because of this,, i say the winner is not allways the best bird ,,, but the winner could be the best bird,,only depending on the circumstances of the race,[the lie of the land included],,i would say , any wise or expert fancier , by looking at the open result and taking all the circumstances of the race into  consideration  , would be able to pick out the best bird , whether it be the winner or the 20th bird in that  particular race, be it in the north the south the east or the west ,,,,,,,,but what i do say is ,,the best bird does not allways get the proper recognition ,if indeed it didnt win the race , so i would formerly like to  congratulate the fanciers  of the best pigeon in the forthcomming national  races and would certainly hope the best  bird  is  the winner. good luck to all competitors ,,,,,and may the best bird win

[pjc]

I used to go around the winning lofts of the LNRC with the pigeon sport paper to photograph the birds and there were a few occasions i wouldn't give the winner loft room but would happily take the 2nd, 3rd or 4th birds home.

That doesn't mean the winners were rubbish but often they happened to be in the right location and may have had a helping hand enroute.

 

Phil