Last Race

[Guest Owen]

Well I am very glad that is over. I fly in the Welsh South Road Federation and we were at Salisbury for the last race of the season this weekend. We had the birds held over yesterday because we were told that there was bad weather at the liberation point. The weather here was lovely for most of the day with plenty of sunshine.

Then today they released the birds under overcast skies with slight misty rain on and off all day. The loses were very bad and tonight I had 5 missing including two winners. One had won from Chale and Carentan which were very hard races where the losses were high. I find it hard to understand how very good pigeons like that could fail from Salisbury.

At the Club tonight there were people very angry and disappointed about what had happened. Some had had no birds at all and there were two who had sent decent sized teams only had one each. Another chap, a very successful National Flyer, had sent 64 and only had 18.

I will not point the figure at anyone over this but I think it is about time that events like this were investigated properly. We should not accept things like this without trying to establish the likely causes of the problem. I hope we don't become tempted to speculate or shout and bawl at people but we really have to stop this business of accepting this sort of thing as normal. It seems to me that what we used to call pigeon racing has now become endurance tests. I often hear about Clubs disbanding and the Sport is losing members with sickening regularity. We have several members in my Club who have lost most if not all their birds and will not be able to compete until youngbirds next year at the earliest. The Federation will still expect them to pay their dues which seems very unfair because people who are asked to pay for something for nothing will soon become fed up.

[billt]

Certainly not the best race to finish the young bird season with Owen, I'm what, about 50 odd miles further West than you and we haven't seen a lot of sun over the week-end, my old mob on open loft have not been in the air at all which is very unusual, By coincidence my wife was talking on the 'phone to her sister this evening who lives near Salisbury and her weather seemed much like ours, I hope your club see more returns tomorrow.

[Guest IB]

Owen, couldn't agree more sick fed up with the theories, it's this that and the other, time we found out now what is going on between the strings being cut and the birds arriving (or not) at the home end.

 

IMO the issue of losses is too big for one Fed to handle on its own. It will need funding, it will need to cover several Feds, and many areas, so definitely a Union-level matter - even Confederation Level?

 

I was an SHU delegate, meant to bring it to the table but other issues stopped me - possibly the size & complexity of the task, which I thought would be viewed as getting us into yet another academic project (SHU were fresh from yet another let-down on the BoP front) involve several different professional disciplines, possibly universities, and certainly following the birds both through radio transmitters and visually, from a plane, videoing the convoy in flight and noting everything that happened to them on the journey home.

 

Following a recent conversation on losses, was also minded to put a letter into BHW asking for folk to put a motion for action on losses into their Fed and Union AGMs.

[andy Burgess]

sounds just like a normal youngbird race anywhere in the uk , at least once a season over the past few years .

[Guest Owen]

Andy

I think that if this type of thing was once now and again it might be bearable but not the way it is in this area.

Last Sunday at clocks the anger was so bad that you could almost taste it. People are fed up with the way their birds are being treated and never an explanation or a reason given. As someone said at the time the Sport has become so expensive now that surely we can expect more care and attention for our property.

I am not interested in having rows or insulting or disrespecting anyone but I think that it is time that we stopped and thought about what we are doing. There are only so many things to examine. We know that there are serious clashes for all sorts of reasons I will not go into here, we know that there are problems with Predators and I have heard it said that certain areas can have Falcons waiting for the birds to be released. We need evidence about this and when we know the truth of this decisions can be made. Then there is the situation regarding transport. Does the transporter heat up or not? This can be measured and again improvements can be made. Then there is the thorny situation of the drivers. Are they doing their jobs and who is responsible for their actions or do we leave things to them? Connected to that who is supposed to clean the vehicle? We need to decide who is responsible to report on the liberations because we have a right to know what has happened and the likely cause of things that go wrong as was the case last Sunday. I am firmly against the idea of criticising anyone who is trying to give us good races but it should be remembered that those expesive pigeons are our property and we have the right to ask questions and expect to be taken seriously.

Finally, for those that think we should keep quiet and accept that this is what pigeon racing is like in this day and age, I say that instead of talking behind the back of your hand, get off your bum and try to improve things. I am sure that if we do not accept responsibility for our livestock no-one else will.

And for the Sleeping Giants which form the Unions, I think you should become interested in our day to day problems rather than carry on as quietly dealing with the clerical side of things.

[Guest stb-]

Andy

I think that if this type of thing was once now and again it might be bearable but not the way it is in this area.

Last Sunday at clocks the anger was so bad that you could almost taste it. People are fed up with the way their birds are being treated and never an explanation or a reason given. As someone said at the time the Sport has become so expensive now that surely we can expect more care and attention for our property.

I am not interested in having rows or insulting or disrespecting anyone but I think that it is time that we stopped and thought about what we are doing. There are only so many things to examine. We know that there are serious clashes for all sorts of reasons I will not go into here, we know that there are problems with Predators and I have heard it said that certain areas can have Falcons waiting for the birds to be released. We need evidence about this and when we know the truth of this decisions can be made. Then there is the situation regarding transport. Does the transporter heat up or not? This can be measured and again improvements can be made. Then there is the thorny situation of the drivers. Are they doing their jobs and who is responsible for their actions or do we leave things to them? Connected to that who is supposed to clean the vehicle? We need to decide who is responsible to report on the liberations because we have a right to know what has happened and the likely cause of things that go wrong as was the case last Sunday. I am firmly against the idea of criticising anyone who is trying to give us good races but it should be remembered that those expesive pigeons are our property and we have the right to ask questions and expect to be taken seriously.

Finally, for those that think we should keep quiet and accept that this is what pigeon racing is like in this day and age, I say that instead of talking behind the back of your hand, get off your bum and try to improve things. I am sure that if we do not accept responsibility for our livestock no-one else will.

And for the Sleeping Giants which form the Unions, I think you should become interested in our day to day problems rather than carry on as quietly dealing with the clerical side of things.

i think that more or less thats all the unions are about nowadays as long as there paid they dont really care about external situations jmo

[andy Burgess]

Andy

I think that if this type of thing was once now and again it might be bearable but not the way it is in this area.

Last Sunday at clocks the anger was so bad that you could almost taste it. People are fed up with the way their birds are being treated and never an explanation or a reason given. As someone said at the time the Sport has become so expensive now that surely we can expect more care and attention for our property.

I am not interested in having rows or insulting or disrespecting anyone but I think that it is time that we stopped and thought about what we are doing. There are only so many things to examine. We know that there are serious clashes for all sorts of reasons I will not go into here, we know that there are problems with Predators and I have heard it said that certain areas can have Falcons waiting for the birds to be released. We need evidence about this and when we know the truth of this decisions can be made. Then there is the situation regarding transport. Does the transporter heat up or not? This can be measured and again improvements can be made. Then there is the thorny situation of the drivers. Are they doing their jobs and who is responsible for their actions or do we leave things to them? Connected to that who is supposed to clean the vehicle? We need to decide who is responsible to report on the liberations because we have a right to know what has happened and the likely cause of things that go wrong as was the case last Sunday. I am firmly against the idea of criticising anyone who is trying to give us good races but it should be remembered that those expesive pigeons are our property and we have the right to ask questions and expect to be taken seriously.

Finally, for those that think we should keep quiet and accept that this is what pigeon racing is like in this day and age, I say that instead of talking behind the back of your hand, get off your bum and try to improve things. I am sure that if we do not accept responsibility for our livestock no-one else will.

And for the Sleeping Giants which form the Unions, I think you should become interested in our day to day problems rather than carry on as quietly dealing with the clerical side of things.

thank you for your reply Owen. can you give guidance to a lesser read man like me. should we first try and identify which cause was relevant to each bad race ?? I am thinking of the "bad" races I have experienced .for me our 1st yb race had poor returns .I after asking discovered a North road fed had liberated just prior to us and North of us with an old bird race? there were no notifications I believe ,in the press ,or by contacting any other liberations due. again with "bad weather" when all appeared well ,bad weather hit them at a few locations ,and another bad race experienced. another case where many previous card winners were lost and yearling,s who hadn't seen that distance homed well ,if a little later . how do we deal with these issues ? I don't know ,do you maybe?

[Guest Owen]

Well Andy,

"A lesser read man than me"? What's that about? Surely you would accept that most of us don't always know what is going on. At least not the detail of it. Worse still there are plenty of us who accept that things will not change and we just have to accept what ever rubbish is served up to us. Meanwhile the sport is dying at an ever increasing rate. We have had a new chap join recently to fly youngsters. He was full of enthusiasm and really keen. That was before he lost his pigeons down to one. Now he will have to wait until young bird racing next year before he can compete. This situation must have been repeated many times this year. The plain fact is that if we don't stem the flow of bad results and tighten up on the way the sport is managed in all it's forms we will lose the whole thing.

My suggestion is that we should examine the possible problems one at a time to find the facts and deal with the issues raised. I think you know what I mean. Of course we can leave things carry on as they are but I think that if we do the whole thing will grind to a halt. As for me! I will do my best to try to get people interested in actually taking care of the birds and trying to promote pigeon racing rather than exposing pigeons to unfair endurance tests.

[andy Burgess]

Well Andy,

"A lesser read man than me"? What's that about? Surely you would accept that most of us don't always know what is going on. At least not the detail of it. Worse still there are plenty of us who accept that things will not change and we just have to accept what ever rubbish is served up to us. Meanwhile the sport is dying at an ever increasing rate. We have had a new chap join recently to fly youngsters. He was full of enthusiasm and really keen. That was before he lost his pigeons down to one. Now he will have to wait until young bird racing next year before he can compete. This situation must have been repeated many times this year. The plain fact is that if we don't stem the flow of bad results and tighten up on the way the sport is managed in all it's forms we will lose the whole thing.

My suggestion is that we should examine the possible problems one at a time to find the facts and deal with the issues raised. I think you know what I mean. Of course we can leave things carry on as they are but I think that if we do the whole thing will grind to a halt. As for me! I will do my best to try to get people interested in actually taking care of the birds and trying to promote pigeon racing rather than exposing pigeons to unfair endurance tests.

the quote was because you are far more knowledgeable than me Owen. I was hoping for some guidance as what to do. I agree fully ,we wont last very long at all if we don't sort it out. I have tried to make changes at the home end , but have no control over the birds when they are in the basket . cant even make suggestions as to what would be better once they are away to race , because personally I don't know .

[Guest Owen]

Andy

I reckon that the biggest problem we have is trying to get a civilised discussion going. A friend and myself tried to raise the subject of a transporter at a Meeting of the Federation. We had brought information pictures and the results of a study we had carried out but we failed to get a hearing. There are things that we can measure and record that might help or as the Police say "We can eliminate them". We can measure the temperature variations in the Transporter. We can count the drinkers available on the crates, (I think there must be two on each crate). We can make sure that the water is piped to the pigeons by means of a portable hose so that the birds can see the water as it fills the drinkers. We can ensure that the vehicles have levelling equipment so that the water stays in the drinkers rather than spilling out. We can come to an understanding with the Drivers regarding attendance of the vehicle when it is parked up. We can come to an understanding with the Drivers and Convoyer as to who will be responsible for storing the food in a clean dry place, rotating it and cleaning up the vehicle. We can come to an agreement as how the ventilation on the vehicle should work and how and when curtains will be brought into use. What I have written is about the vehicle and the way the Drivers and Convoyers operate it. There are other things to take account of such as accounting for the fuel used and control of expenses but this list could be a start.

The next thing to look at would be the role of the Race Controller and the decision making process when the birds are being controlled by the Federation. It is entirely wrong in my opinion to have this sort of responsibility over to, for example, one guy and ask him to be responsible for our property and blame him when things don't go right. We need a fall back position that allows decisions to be made in the best way rather than the messes and rows we see now. We can measure two important things about our races. The returns being the most important and the numbers of organisations at the liberation point and in the area. I think that all Clubs should automatically record the returns. These days these records would be easy to do because we have the ETS print outs to help us do that. In regard to the clashes, perhaps it is time that the Unions took a hand here and insisted that permission is given to allow liberations to be planned so that clashing is brought under control. They are actively involved in the situations around airports so this step seems to be a logical step forward. The Unions must step up and act as a Governing Body and regulate the Sport so that we can help it to survive.

I have written these few notes without much planning and forethought so I am sure that someone with experience could come up with a suitable checklist to help organise pigeon races in a much better way. At least I hope these notes will start the ball rolling.

[andy Burgess]

never easy to hold a decent conversation about any subject on the internet Owen. we cant see each other for facial expression or tone of voice etc. yes the points you have listed would be a good start ,if you can achieve them ?

[Tony C]

Andy

I reckon that the biggest problem we have is trying to get a civilised discussion going. A friend and myself tried to raise the subject of a transporter at a Meeting of the Federation. We had brought information pictures and the results of a study we had carried out but we failed to get a hearing. There are things that we can measure and record that might help or as the Police say "We can eliminate them". We can measure the temperature variations in the Transporter. We can count the drinkers available on the crates, (I think there must be two on each crate). We can make sure that the water is piped to the pigeons by means of a portable hose so that the birds can see the water as it fills the drinkers. We can ensure that the vehicles have levelling equipment so that the water stays in the drinkers rather than spilling out. We can come to an understanding with the Drivers regarding attendance of the vehicle when it is parked up. We can come to an understanding with the Drivers and Convoyer as to who will be responsible for storing the food in a clean dry place, rotating it and cleaning up the vehicle. We can come to an agreement as how the ventilation on the vehicle should work and how and when curtains will be brought into use. What I have written is about the vehicle and the way the Drivers and Convoyers operate it. There are other things to take account of such as accounting for the fuel used and control of expenses but this list could be a start.

The next thing to look at would be the role of the Race Controller and the decision making process when the birds are being controlled by the Federation. It is entirely wrong in my opinion to have this sort of responsibility over to, for example, one guy and ask him to be responsible for our property and blame him when things don't go right. We need a fall back position that allows decisions to be made in the best way rather than the messes and rows we see now. We can measure two important things about our races. The returns being the most important and the numbers of organisations at the liberation point and in the area. I think that all Clubs should automatically record the returns. These days these records would be easy to do because we have the ETS print outs to help us do that. In regard to the clashes, perhaps it is time that the Unions took a hand here and insisted that permission is given to allow liberations to be planned so that clashing is brought under control. They are actively involved in the situations around airports so this step seems to be a logical step forward. The Unions must step up and act as a Governing Body and regulate the Sport so that we can help it to survive.

I have written these few notes without much planning and forethought so I am sure that someone with experience could come up with a suitable checklist to help organise pigeon races in a much better way. At least I hope these notes will start the ball rolling.

 

A site person in charge of liberation sites would help achieve most of what you suggest in your first paragraph. Other duties of this person could be controlling the actual liberations, liaising with other site persons at other sites and the race controller at the home end. It would be a start.

[Guest Owen]

Tony C

I think I would be happy to start anywhere as long as we do not stay stuck in the same position as we are now. I am in the position that our Club could disband because people do not have pigeons to race until the young bird programme and people are not prepared to pay for an old bird season that they can not compete in. The opinion is that it is the Federation's neglect that has caused all this so why should we pay for a mess that they have made.