THE RACING PIGEON 26 APRIL 2024
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Harrowden Working Men’s Club who opened early for us and went above and beyond to accomodate us. They may not be pigeon people but even they seemed to be taking notes when Mark was speaking! We currently have a sale running on Elimar to raise
By Big Pete
The newly formed Northants Channel Club has been going from strength to strength. We are now up to around 23 flying members, we have transformed a metal shipping container into our new Headquarters which will be in use for both Fed Racing but also as a BICC Marking Station for 2024. The metal container has had a nice big window and double doors installed and a lick of paint and a fantastic sign added. Big thanks to the handy lads who did the graft Andy Smith, Simon Shearsby and Nelu Daraban. Special thanks also to Andy for purchasing the sign that hangs proudly on our HQ.
funds for silverware for our club, the sale ends this weekend so please do login and take a look. Big thanks to Les at Elimar for helping us out on the basis of this being a
very worthy cause for a group of very dedicated pigeon men. Duncan Goodchild (of Hales & Goodchild of Hockley) offered a pigeon to raise funds for us when I was having a chat with him over the quiet months and on the back of that Mark Gilbert kindly offered to put in a pigeon too and this very much got the ball rolling! On the back of this we decided to run a full on sale to raise the funds and myself and Simon reached out to a number of flyers who very kindly offered to donate pigeons for us. (Some amazing pigeons available from names including Gary Inkley, Mark Gilbert, Duncan Goodchild, Paul Basham, Rob Rome, Damian Szpak, Andy Cousins, John Gladwin, Lue Urbaniak (Team UK), Mark Evans, JPS Lofts, Brian & Angie Garnham, Peter Reilly, Anton Astore as well as a few other names too). All funds raised will go towards silverware to give our lads something to race for, and we are extremely greatful to the kind people who have supported us in this. Massive thanks also to one of our Romanian flyers Costa for donating £500 to the club, an amazing gesture! In other SR news, there is talk of a new SR Fed being formed in Warwickshire, ‘The Fosse Fed’ which was formed as a result of the Warwicksire Fed voting to stay North. When the Fosse Fed is up and running (predicted for this year) then South Road racing will certainly be alive and kicking back into the East and West Midlands both. Roll on the Nationals! We look forward to seeing all you lads at the Northants marking station. Anyone not currently in a SR club and with an interest to join our bunch of merry men please get in touch for further details: contactflysr@gmail.com Until next time, Big Pete. British International Championship Club BREEDER/BUYER SECOND SALE MAKES £4,970
We have been accepted by the mighty Mid Shires Fed for racing 2024 and beyond. We have a club training vehicle bought and operated by one of our members Simon Shearsby (DandiLofts UK). The vehicle can carry approximately 800 birds and the plan again for this year it to offer ten trainers for old birds and ten trainers for young birds. The trainers will start shorter (approximately 40 miles) and go right down to the coast for the longer ones. Fantastic training offered at a good price (for anyone interested please get in touch via the contact email at the bottom of this article).
We have just had our first race with the new Fed from Stoney Cross on 13/04/24 and Mel Errington took the honour of winning 1st & 2nd place in the clubs first ever race (sending just 16 pigeons) so well done Mel and here’s hoping for many more wins for him this year. Mel’s first pigeon was a dark chequer pied flying 104 miles and recording a rapid velocity of 1781. Mel had an excess of cocks this year so is racing them celibate. The winning pigeon is a Heinz 57 in terms of bloodline but with many fantastic lines running through it. The pigeon has been trained on the training scheme so has been well schooled.
The second Breeder/Buyer sale was held on Sunday 14th April at Sundridge Park, Bromley. The BICC had 57 superb birds in the sale and £4,970 was made, to add to the £4,215 from Bristol. With the ring sales, the club now has approx- imately £11,500 in the kitty with 151
birds still to be sold. If the average price continues at the next sales, members will be racing for a prize pot of around £20,000. The sale is only open to members, but the BICC always welcomes new members, so it’s not too late to join. The club would like to thank Tom Firmager for arranging the venue, Mark Gilbert for selling the birds and Lee Jackson for setting up the pens. The next two sales are: April 21st – Sarisbury Green Social Club, 108 Bridge Road, Southampton. SO31 7EP. April 28th – Drayton Village Hall, Lockway, Drayton, Oxon. OX14 4LG (about 2.5 miles from Milton FC). Viewing will be from 12 noon with all sales commencing at 1pm. The minimum opening bid will be £30 per pigeon. Remember you have to be in it to win it, so why not give this exciting new venture a go! Mike Jackson, BICC Press Officer Email: mike.jackson026@hotmail.com
As previously mentioned, the BICC has also confirmed our club Headquarters (post code NN9 5BB) will be used as a BICC marking station for 2024. This is all represents a huge turn around for South Road racing into Northants, espeically given in the years previously we had no SR clubs or Feds to send with. Now our local lads are blessed with being able to train their pigeons, send at Club, Fed or
National level all from one location! What more could a pigeon racer ask for? We also had the pleasure of welcoming Mark Gilbert (Southfield Lofts) to visit us on the 7th April for a grand opening ceremony. Mark can be seen pictured cutting the, ‘ribbon’, thanks to Russell Bradford for supplying and arranging this. Mark was kind enough to spend a few hours with our members and have a question and answer session while enjoying a few drinks and a lovely buffet. Big thanks to the staff at the
Mark Gilbert at the sale.
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