disaster of 97

[PATTY BHOY]

On Sunday, June 29, 1997, a great race was held to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. More than 60,000 homing pigeons were released at 6:30 AM in the morning from a field in Nantes (southern France), flying to lofts all over southern England 400 to 500 miles away. By 11:00 AM the majority of the racing birds had made it out of France and were over the English Channel. They should have arrived at their lofts by early afternoon. They didn't.

 

A few thousand of the birds straggled in over the next few days. Most were never seen again. In pigeon racing terms, the loss of so many birds was practically unheard of, a disaster. Any one bird could get lost, but tens of thousands?

 

Hagstrum, in studying this event, noticed an odd fact. At the very same time the racing pigeons were crossing the Channel, 11:00 AM, the Concorde supersonic transport (SST) airliner was flying along the Channel on its morning flight from Paris to New York. In flight the SST generates a shock wave that pounds down toward the earth, a carpet of sound almost a hundred miles wide. The racing pigeons flying below the Concorde could not have escaped the intense wave of sound. The birds that did eventually arrive at their lofts were lucky enough to be very slow racers -- they were still south of the Channel when the SST passed over, ahead of them.

 

[fletch]

I google this about two years ago and it quiet intresting to see what came up there was a newspaper report and i also found a theory of what happend in another link but just looking cant find that link anyware but all mentioned about the airliner so must of been correct..

[Guest]

was that the same day the snfc liberated at renns and only 21 birds made it in race time

[Guest strapper]

well didnt they have birds landing on fishing boats and ships etc.

i remember it well because i started keeping pigeons then.

but wasnt there extreme weather conditons over the channel?

 

[PATTY BHOY]

the slip stream from a aircraft that size could cause some damage.

[Guest Gareth Rankin]

was that the same day the snfc liberated at renns and only 21 birds made it in race time

 

You could well be right Frank and what a stinker it was, John Boswoth's graduate was the winner with Davie Donaldson in the west section 2nd open. Has to go down as the worst SNFC race in the clubs history.

 

 

[greenlands]

Hi Gareth,yuo said,"You could well be right Frank and what a stinker it was, John Boswoth's graduate was the winner with Davie Donaldson in the west section 2nd open. Has to go down as the worst SNFC race in the clubs history."

I would go as far as saying worst race in the history of pigeon racing,if the camera's etc.hadn't been involved the birds would not have been liberated,fishermens nets full was one report.Bloody disgusting that's what i thought at the time and still do now.Anything done about it. NO.Lindsay.

[Chris Little]

I remember that race well, have never so p*ssed off in my life, lost some good hens that day

[jimmy white]

 

You could well be right Frank and what a stinker it was, John Boswoth's graduate was the winner with Davie Donaldson in the west section 2nd open. Has to go down as the worst SNFC race in the clubs history.

 

 

yes, i remember this very well , my mate lewis mitchel was 8th  open with a pigeon that had scored both in snfc 4 times and fife fed 4 times from over 500 miles,, just goes to show , exceptional pigeons can make it against all odds [in that race , i lost 3 cocks 2 of them scoring in snfc b4 ],,

 

makes you wonder at times whats in the air  sometimes,,??and  what makes some days , good race days others , with seemingly the same weather conditions , bad race days [allthough maybe obvious     in this race] but the same happened when j, williams and son gilmerton, won the tours race, only a handfull back in 3 days,,, luckily, the likes of  these two races mentioned  are  very, very  rare indeed ,and  in the space of many many years !!

[Guest asha]

patty bouy,total rubbish as usual,thebirds were screwed simply because sky tv were pulling out so the convoyers liberated ,simpe as that,sky got there 15 second clip,british fanciers were destroyed

[BANDIT]

WE WERE RACING FROM FRANCE THAT DAY, WE WERE 1ST CLUB 10 OPEN  VERY FEW BIRDS TIMED IN RACE TIME . I AGREE THE SLOW ONES MISSED THE SONIC BOOM AS IVE HEARD IT CALLED. WE GOT OUR BIRD ON THE 3RD DAY IN A RACE OF 371 MILES TOTAL DISASTER. MY HEN ARRIVED AS I WAS EATING MY BREAKFAST HENCE HEN NAME THE CORNFLAKES HEN.  BANDIT

[Guest]

On Sunday, June 29, 1997, a great race was held to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. More than 60,000 homing pigeons were released at 6:30 AM in the morning from a field in Nantes (southern France), flying to lofts all over southern England 400 to 500 miles away. By 11:00 AM the majority of the racing birds had made it out of France and were over the English Channel. They should have arrived at their lofts by early afternoon. They didn't.

 

A few thousand of the birds straggled in over the next few days. Most were never seen again. In pigeon racing terms, the loss of so many birds was practically unheard of, a disaster. Any one bird could get lost, but tens of thousands?

 

Hagstrum, in studying this event, noticed an odd fact. At the very same time the racing pigeons were crossing the Channel, 11:00 AM, the Concorde supersonic transport (SST) airliner was flying along the Channel on its morning flight from Paris to New York. In flight the SST generates a shock wave that pounds down toward the earth, a carpet of sound almost a hundred miles wide. The racing pigeons flying below the Concorde could not have escaped the intense wave of sound. The birds that did eventually arrive at their lofts were lucky enough to be very slow racers -- they were still south of the Channel when the SST passed over, ahead of them.

 

And what about all the other race days that concorde went over??? Sonic booms were rarely heard until concorde was going out over West Wales, if it was coming into Paris or going out, it would have not been going at supersonic over the English Channel, Irish sea yes. We could occasionally hear concorde in the valleys depending on wind etc

 

[W.D.]

Was living and working in France at the time and remember it well.My dad called me on the sat aft and I asked him what he was up to and he said "getting ready to go to the dookit to look for birds" I couldn't believe it???!!! The rain had been non stop nearly all day in the north of France,and I mean Rain!

We had 3 races on that weekend,sprint and middle dist due for lib on the sunday,and a distance 1 from 300+ miles,Angouleme or Bergerac I think, which should been lib that morning,ALL the French and Belgian races were heldover except one French fed from the mines- Lens which was liberated earlier because they thought they would miss the weather coming in,they didn't and got a hammering!

On the sunday the sprint birds got brought back to 5 miles from the town and let go,the middle dist got brought back to club for collection. The dist birds got lib on the monday or tuesday morn and had a good race.

For days and weeks after the Nantes race I was getting guys asking me to report English birds they had got in to the RPRA for them,one of them that I remember was one of the Woods brothers who live near the south coast who I had a good chat with,think the bird I reported had scored from Pau the previous year for him.

My dad never got any of his birds back inc.1 that had been in the top 100 the year previous, the SNFC only let them up I think because of the NFC lib further down at Nantes.Dont think my dad renewed his membership for the SNFC until a couple of years ago he was that angry, and even then it was bought as a birthday present for him!

I remember the Canadian vet Gorden Chalmers did an article on bad races and mentioned this race and thought it was due to some other cause.I e-mailed him and he  replied askingme to find out the exact date so he could update his records. I contacted the NFC but got no reply from them,can't say I blame them for wanting to forget all about it.

Talking about the Concorde though, when I was a student in Ayr we rented a house in Monkton right on the end of the runway,you can see it when going to Ayr on the by-pass, and when they were doing training there for the Concorde pilots the whole house used to shake and the telly lost all sound and picture.There was a guy who lived in the village though who had racers but I dont know how he did as when they were training as the planes were taking off and landing all day,often wondered if it did affect them,maybe someone on here knows/knew who it was?

[Delboy]

Got a 2 yr old cock just out of race time. He went on to win section by an hour at 340 miles as well as score in races from 60 mls to 570.I still have him at 14 years.

[Guest]

 

You could well be right Frank and what a stinker it was, John Boswoth's graduate was the winner with Davie Donaldson in the west section 2nd open. Has to go down as the worst SNFC race in the clubs history.

 

 

i think it was gareth i seem to remember the bbc was covering the rpra centenary and some felt that thats why the birds went up which ever there were lot of bloody good doo,s lost

[Delboy]

Got one from Centenary race also at 10 am, second morning. Was bird I gave to guy in Wales, it flew right past him and came back to me adding 300 miles onto its trip. It would have been in top 16 open

[alec guinness]

Got a 2 yr old cock just out of race time. He went on to win section by an hour at 340 miles as well as score in races from 60 mls to 570.I still have him at 14 years.

 

got one just out of race time myself,he took a position the following year,ended up 2 from 3 with a 7yr old hen turning up months later,terrible race,the national winner the" graduate " was the only bird lost the following year from a team of 12 entered by john bosworth. ;)

[Guest]

 

You could well be right Frank and what a stinker it was, John Boswoth's graduate was the winner with Davie Donaldson in the west section 2nd open. Has to go down as the worst SNFC race in the clubs history.

 

 

I have 2 birds off John Bosworths Graduate,and they seem to be prominent within my best pigeons so far.Maybe testament to just how good that pigeon actually was.

[Guest]

going along the same lines the berwick/hexam area is famous for the raf fighters and have heard some saying the birds fell out the sky when one came too close never seen that myself but used to train fro hexam for the nats. and found it very hard to get a clear 30mins to liberate it defenatly frightened the sh-- out of them that maybe the reason the racing is so bad from that area