Racing North road and South road

[Guest]

I wondered if anyone had any advice regarding racing North road. I have raced the last 4 years south road and have a nice distance team coming together. As obviously our fed etc will only be racing inland there is an option to race North with the London and Southeast Classic Club for the longer races. It is not clear what the NFC and the BICC will do yet. Should I keep a separate team for north road, trained different from the rest and only raced north. Does it really matter what direction I send them, if they are fit and motivated will they come from anywhere. i have heard alot of people saying that the losses will be horrendous. I must admit there are good pigeons I have been getting from Pau that I wouldn't want to lose but i also don't want to have them just sit there for a 94mile portland either. I am in a 2 and 8 about it. Any advice I will be grateful.

[peter edwards]

i have raced both roads found it hard for  south road birds, to change, but found you can turn a norh road a round very easy.    

[jimmy white]

am i right in saying that jed jackson "blind flier"  raced the pau national winner ",genista"from a good distance north, before sending it to pau, south ,and winning the race.

[THE FIFER]

what is it going to be like re clashing if half the uk is flying north and half flying south

[Guest]

I think the question in our minds that north road birds can't fly south road and vice versa arises because of our main training method - strict adherence to the line-of-flight religion.

 

When you think of it, homing pigeons should be able to home from anywhere, given reasonable conditions to do so ... wind, weather, clear sky / no clashing etc.

 

Perhaps the reason they don't (or can't?) is because their homing instinct isn't as fully exercised / challenged as it would be if the birds were trained say to 50 miles around the compass, direction determined by the wind for the day, preferably into a 10/15mph headwind??

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

what is it going to be like re clashing if half the uk is flying north and half flying south

 

Raised the subject in BHW letters page autumn 2005. Asked that all organisations should take a long look at our race methods during the current close season. The Confed are doing just that (see BHW 10th Feb, p82).  The race map for one Saturday's racing in August 2003 was also re-published in this week's mag, p65. Worth a look - appalling conditions for any bird no matter where its going when you factor in wind & rain to the equation ... and supports my argument that our training & racing methods are the main causes for the big losses, not mobile phones or sun spots or all the other exotic excuses we would like to shift the blame onto.

 

Big change is that when the map was originally published in 2004, RPRA called for a meeting of all Orgs. Not one attended. In 2006 they're all there, including representatives from Ireland.

 

Hope that in 2006, we will try one route Saturday, and the other Sunday; swap about 2007 and so on. First thing that could happen is better co-operation and race co-ordination. Second thing: one transporter, same two journeys but BOTH carrying pigeons (needs two sets of crates) half the transport cost; quarter and less if more than two feds / orgs are joint convoying etc.

[T_T]

I remember when I was a boy of 15yrs of age my dad flying North Road and that was the last year our club flew North.  Reason ? Lost too many pigeons.  I put it to our club that in view of the bird flu scenario, we should suggest the Fed flying North to get the distance, ( if we fly at all. )  This fell on deaf ears and now it looks as though we'll be stuck.  One thing I do think, is that in the summer months with the winds, in the main, being Southerly, South Westerly, there would be a lot of stiff racing.  I know we don't keep pigeons just to look at but I feel it would be a different challenge for a lot of us. On the other hand, they do say that once you get pigeons coming from the North Road, it's difficult to lose em'.

[aarden]

i changed to north road when i raced before (due to paramyxo i think).many good flyers lost a lot of bids,its a hard route to fly

[mark]

perhaps you could race north up to 250 miles its takes a good pigeon to get out of thurso 530miles. the only problem i could see is there would be alot of bids in the sky on a saturday afternoon perhaps you could split the liberations sat and sunday.

[THE FIFER]

I THINK SOMETHING WOULD HAVE TO BE WORKED OUT AS WE COULD NOT JUST CHANGE TO NORTH WITHOUT SOME ORGANISATION, IT WOULD BE A DISASTER,

[zetlandlad999]

Unless some agreement is sorted out between the North Road and South Road Organizations, there will be a great deal of losses due to clashing etc, these Organizations should be prepared to discuss alternate Sat Sun liberations and reach an amicable desision, the only sticking point will be with Holdovers.

[Guest]

the only sticking point will be with Holdovers.

 

If there is a bad weather forecast for raceday, some of the Scottish Feds delay basketing. For example, if Saturday looked bad, they'd go for a Sunday race instead, cancel usual basketting on Friday night, and do it on the Saturday night.

 

Think part of the 'new' Sat / Sun arrangement would need to be based on reliable race day weather forecasts - if the weather doesn't look good for your particular race day - then its a straightforward race cancellation for your organisation that weekend.

[THE FIFER]

is there an answer to this problem if it comes off,

[Guest]

 

If there is a bad weather forecast for raceday, some of the Scottish Feds delay basketing. For example, if Saturday looked bad, they'd go for a Sunday race instead, cancel usual basketting on Friday night, and do it on the Saturday night.

 

Think part of the 'new' Sat / Sun arrangement would need to be based on reliable race day weather forecasts - if the weather doesn't look good for your particular race day - then its a straightforward race cancellation for your organisation that weekend.

 

CANCELLATION  FOR THE WEEKEND NEVER.SEE THE NORTH ROADERS GOING OVER EVERY WEEK NEVER STOPED OUR BIRDS.

[mark]

can someone tell me the differnce betwwen a 150 mile land race south and north wheather you live up north or in the south the land is still the same? or am i missing

something.  i was always led to believe a good pigeon will come from anywhere.

                                      good luck

                                          mark

[Guest]

 

CANCELLATION  FOR THE WEEKEND NEVER.SEE THE NORTH ROADERS GOING OVER EVERY WEEK NEVER STOPED OUR BIRDS.

 

Sorry, but the facts speak differently. Scottish North West Fed racing from Tow Law in August 2005 liberated 15 minutes after 3 x Norwich Feds liberated from Alnwick. NW birds ended up being reported in Norwich, and their birds ended up being reported in Central Scotland.

 

Refer also to BHW page 82,  2. Matters arising, 2nd para: "SHU report (accepted by the Confederation)" .... 'clashing was a major cause of losses and instances were quoted whereby strays reported indicated that this had occurred'.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

WELL IS THAT NOT THE CONTROLLERS FAULT  :-/

[Guest]

Mark, I think it depends on where you race, I fly in the UNC in teesside and we fly from the south. If we turned our birds north our birds would have to fly through the scottish highlands, terrain that they are not used to, so I think losses would be high. We would sill get some decent races if the channel is no no, with distances of 250miles every other week.

[mark]

if it comes to the worst, if you fly in a small club why cant you have a club race from say 100 miles surely its better than nothing.

[Tony C]

IF we race and thats a big IF, amals could cut the libs down by half

[frank-123]

england 10 liberations

scotland 3 liberations

wales 2 liberations

 

here in scotland

midlothian,east of scotland,dundee,fife,pentland north west--- one liberation

south lanarkshire,lanarkshire,glasgow,midland,ayrshire ----one liberation

aberdeen angus,north of scotland -----one liberation

south feds may race with cumbria or nehu

 

wales south wales one lib

north wales one lib

 

england

dont know the areas anyone fill in the blanks

[Guest slugmonkey]

We raced out of the west this year Our birds CROSSED many other clubs races as most here in our region fly north to south, or south to north most members lost a lot of birds with several stopping towards end so to have some left for old birds we also had several races of 30 mph+ winds I set my birds up like distance birds and treated all races like distance races I also bred diffrent, I bred more homers and less racers I think part of the problem might be that you have been flying a particular type of bird that works well on the south course but when you take him another direction it is not the type bird that excels on that course they are built for speed not durability.

[Guest]

Its a pity someone can't get that BHW race map up on the forum. You'll see from this Slugmonkey, that its not a simple North - South thing, for example the Welsh fly SE accross the N & S paths much as you describe, but there's other directions in there too, near the South coast of England, West to East and East to West. Its a right spider's web as Fifer says, or maybe 'a dug's breakfast' is a more apt description.

 

I'd also like to pick up on what goes through the birds minds as they approach or see another big batch going in another direction?? Have often wondered if that would spark the 'fight or flight' response in both batches?? Much the same if you and some friends were walking down the street and you were suddenly confronted by a large number of people running down the same street 'toward' you?? Would you take fright, perhaps thinking somethings chasing or frightening those folk and turn and run too, in any direction bar the one you were going in??

 

 

[Guest]

I think your idea makes good common sense, Bart.  

 

But can you recall the thread at the beginning of the 2005 Young bird racing when 7 Scottish Feds ended up at the same borders racepoint, Kelso? Or the fiasco and rumours flying around about what happened when the Glasgow and North West Fed birds liberated 15 minutes apart? The Glasgow birds were away first and CAME BACK TO THE RACEPOINT just as the NW birds were off.

 

Considering that there are at least 3 borders racepoints: Kelso, Coldstream and Berwick, the three amals could have liberated simulataneously out of each others way;

 

And in my earlier example Tow Law and Alnwick? Wouldn't it also make good common sense to have the Northbound birds up at Alnwick and the Southbound birds down at Tow Law, out of each others way??

[Tony C]

I dont know if this is the same map you see Bruno.