The 2022 pigeon racing season in West Cumbria will open on April 16 with the first old bird race from Garstang.
The first West Cumbria Amalgamation race is two weeks later on April 30 from Appleton while the Derwent Valley Federation have their first race from Cannock on May 14.
There are a couple of new inland race-points for the locals – Lyndhurst, a village in Hampshire and Salisbury, a city in Wiltshire made infamous by the Russian poisoning case. Lyndhurst is 271 miles to Workington and Salisbury is 256.
After an absence of channel racing four race-points have been selected for the resumption of French racing – the last one a new one for Cumbrian fanciers, Nort-sur-Erdre.
It is a town of about 7,500 which stands on the river Erdre in north western France and will be the final leg of the four tests for fanciers who have missed their channel racing. It follows Carentan, Fougeres and Messac.
It’s a traditional young bird programme, with two openers from Flookburgh all the way through to Marlborough.
The Old Bird programme is: April 16, Garstang; April 23, Charnock Richard; April 30, Appleton; May 7, Appleton 2; May 14, Cannock; May 21, Stratford; May 28, Marlborough; June 4, Carentan; June 11, June 11, Salisbury; June 18, Fougeres; June 25, Lyndhurst; July 2, Messac; July 9, Vacant date; July 16, Nort-sur-Edre.
Young bird programme: July 9, Flookburgh; July 16, Flookburgh 2; July 23, Garstang; July 30, Charnock Richard; August 6, Appleton; August 13, Appleton 2; August 20, Cannock; August 27, Cannock 2; September 3, Cheltenham; September 10, Marlborough.
The West Cumbria Amalgamation held a successful Moot on Friday night which made a profit of £1,255 with an auction raising £975 of that. Around 70 fanciers were in attendance, with some travelling from Scotland.
On the panel answering questions were Richard Wade from the successful West Auckland loft of Wade brothers, and Linden Joesbury from West Bromwich. Kevin Winter, from the north east, chaired the panel.
It was a very interesting evening as they are two successful, but different-style fanciers and with Kevin posing some insightful questions it provided local fanciers with plenty to chew over in the weeks leading up to the new season.
Linden is an out and out sprint racer while Richard is a real all-rounder with very different feeding and racing methods employed.
The one common denominator was the same dedication to succeed, but also an openness to learning something new.
After the break for buffet, supplied by Al’s Kitchen, 16 young birds, including from panel members and the Amalgamation’s top fanciers were auctioned by Les Blacklock.
Before more questions to the panel, the Amalgamation awards for 2021 were handed out with Richard Wade doing the honours.
