The West Cumberland Amalgamation birds raced from Cannock again on Saturday and fanciers enjoyed a good, fast race.
The Cleator Moor loft of Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon were clear winners of the Amalgamation, the West Cumberland Federation and the Cleator Moor club with an outstanding pigeon.
Almost 2,000 birds were liberated at 12 noon in a light north-east wind which was turning south west in Cumbria and the winner was clocked just after 2-39pm following a fly of 141 miles which equates to a speed of 53mph.
The winner is a two-year-old chequer hen on the roundabout system, although she has taken a shine to Michael Nolan when he’s in the loft.
Michael flies with long time partners David Easdon and his daughter Danielle.
The Amalgamation win completed a great double for Danielle as two weeks ago she played at Twickenham with the Workington Finches in their National Junior Plate triumph.
The hen was a bit special as a young bird when she won the Cleator Moor club from Cannock and was second Fed and second Amal when the loft got eight birds together. She had been 15th on the Amal sheet from Stafford two weeks earlier.
As a result she was chosen for the Amal’s best young bird performance award in 2021 and she was put away for the winter with high hopes for her future racing career.
But as seems typical she came home from the first race last year injured from a hawk attack so patience has been the order of the day.
She returned to the race team this season and from Charnock Richard showed her potential again with 2nd club, 10th Fed, which has now been surpassed by her performance from Cannock.
On her sire’s side she is a Louis Cooreman, gifted to the loft from Paul Kenny of Flimby, while her mother is a grand-daughter of the loft’s good Welsh pair along with Alan Marr’s Van Reet and Busschaert lines.
Her mother is sister to the loft’s good blue hen (a 2008 pigeon) who had 1st Fed, 2nd Fed; 5th Fed and 9th Fed in her racing career and has also bred winners.
Taking second place in both Amal and Fed are Holliday and Dixon of Lowca who clocked some five minutes after the Cleator Moor winner.
Their club winner is a yearling blue pied cock flown on the roundabout system which is full of the lofts best stock blood.
The sire was bred from their T and K Garman stock while the dam was bred from their number one stock pair, T and K Garman x Syndicate Lofts. This pair are now responsible for 18 individual first prize winners including five first Fed winners.
The grand-dam on the sire’s side was first Amal Falaise while the grand-dam on the dam’s side was first Combine Fougeres and first Fed Bedhampton.
In the Egremont club David Harrison swept the board with the first ten clocked in the club, but the one downside was the pigeon that was Best YB in the Amal last season arrived home with hawk injuries, it was minus six secondary flights so it’s probably the end of the season for it.
The winner was a blue yearling hen which had also won last year. She was bred in the stock loft from Malcolm Scott’s pigeons with the bloodlines mainly Johan Van Herck of Herentout in Belgium.
All four grandparents were winners at different levels including club, Federation and Section.
The Derwent Valley Federation winners Jimmy Nelson and Fletcher Crellin were third Amalgamation, but they have been one of the form lofts of west Cumbria as a whole from the start of the season with four wins out of five in the competitive Flimby club.
Their latest winner is a yearling blue hen on the roundabout system who is one of their well established Karel Boeckx team, originally obtained from Keith Rafferty of Maryport.
Her sire is a late bred pigeon of the partners’ original blue cock which was both an excellent racer and then breeder. The dam, who had 4th Fed and other club positions while racing, is off another good pigeon, a chequer cock which won both the Amalgamation and the Federation along with several club wins.
That’s clearly a good line on both sides of the pedigree because that chequer cock goes back to the original blue cock.
Fourth Amalgamation, and completing a Workington double in Victoria and Social Limit, is the loft of M. and L. Cape. Sadly son Michael died 18 months ago but Les has continued to race and this success owed much to Michael’s contacts and friendships.
The winner is a yearling blue hen on roundabout bred through birds Michael had been given by friends Stephen Chambers and the McLuckie brothers, Morris and Wayne. On that side of the pedigree she was through birds the McLuckies had obtained from renowned north east fancier Alfie Hawthorne.
Sandra and David Wood won Harrington Central with a yearling blue pied cock, a Kees Bosua which was a gift as a young bird from clubmates Ian and Denise Wood.
Flying on the roundabout system Sandra and David’s bird was fourth club a week earlier from the previous Cannock race.
Sandra, who only sent this season for the first time to Appleton, said: “He was actually from the second nest and his sister from the first nest was third for Ian and Denise in that first Cannock race.”
You know the old story about waiting ages for a bus and then suddenly a number come along together – well that could apply to Liam Norris in the Dearham club.
He certainly won’t forget Cannock. He achieved his first win last week and on Saturday followed-up in sensational fashion by talking the first four spots.
Liam’s grandfather Brian Reeves of Silloth bred the first and second for him. The winner being a Vandenabeele hen sent sitting on eggs due to hatch while the second was Vandenabeele x Van den Bosch hen sitting 14 days.
Third home was a Ven den Bulkke cock, also sitting 14 days and had been bought off Jackie Trainer from Durham. The fourth bird was a Vandenabeele cock sitting ten days who was a gift from David Backhouse of Doncaster.
Liam said: “It’s great to win two in a row but really I just enjoy watching them come home whether it’s the first bird or the last.”
The next objective for Liam will be to make the Derwent Valley Federation sheet, and this week’s result made impressive treading for the top local loft of Richard Martindale and George ‘Pal’ Lawman who had 20 of the 30 positions.
They didn’t win the Workington Victoria club, but were first and second in the Cumberland Social Circle.
WEST CUMBRIA AMALGAMATION (1,958 birds): 1, Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon (Cleator Moor) 1560; 2, Holliday and Dixon (Lowca) 1550; 3, Nelson and Crellin (Flimby HS) 1538; 4, M. and L. Cape (Workington Victoria) 1537; 5, 6, W. McGrady and son (Sandwith) 1536.5, 1536.3.
WEST CUMBERLAND FEDERATION (584 birds): 1, Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon (Cleator Moor) 1560; 2, Holliday and Dixon (Lowca) 1550; 3, 4, 5, W. McGrady and son (Sandwith) 1536.5, 1536.3, 1534; 6, B. Irving (Sandwith) 1533.
CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (10 sent 279): 1, 4, 6, Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon 1563, 1530, 1528; 2, Donson, sons, grandson and Lyle 1535; 3, J. Fitzsimmons and son 1531; 5, Graham and co 1529.
SANDWITH (6 sent 136): 1, 2, 3, 6, W. McGrady 1536.7, 1536.5, 1534, 1533.1; 4, 5, B. Irving 1533.9, 1533.8.
LOWCA (4 sent 92): 1, 3, 4, Holliday and Dixon 1550, 1529.7, 1529.3; 2, P. Taylor 1532; 5, 6, Tomlinson and Banks 1525.5, 1525.5.
EGREMONT (96 birds): 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, D. Harrison and son 1530, 1529.4, 1529.3, 1526, 1521, 1516.
DERWENT VALLEY
FEDERATION (1,374 birds): 1, Nelson and Crellin (Flimby HS) 1538; 2, M. and L. Cape (Workington Victoria) 1537; 3, 5, Martindale and Lawman (Workington Victoria) 1534.4, 1534.1; 4, Williams and Hadfield (Workington Social Limit) 1534.3; 6, McLuckie bros (Workington Victoria) 1533.
WORKINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (7 sent 211): 1, M. and L. Cape 1537; 2, Williams and Hadfield 1534; 3, 5, 6, McLuckie bros 1533, 1530.4, 1530.4; 4, Mr and Mrs Walters and son 1530.7.
DEARHAM HS (7 sent 160): 1, 2, 3, 4, L. Norris 1526.9, 1526.5, 1523.5, 1523; 5, Berwick, Thompson, Harker and Watson 1522.4, 1522.3.
HARRINGTON CENTRAL (9 sent 270): 1, Mr and Mrs D. Wood and son 1529.9; 2, 3, 5, N. and G. Wordsworth 1529.3, 1529.04, 1527; 4, 6. N. Semple 1528, 1526.
CUMBERLAND SOCIAL CIRCLE (23 sent 46): 1, 2, Martindale and Lawman 1531, 1530; 3, Mr and Mrs D. Wood and son 1529; 4, Tomlinson and Banks 1525; 5, McLuckie bros 1515; 6, A. Graham and co 1514.
WORKINGTON VICTORIA (11 sent 389): 1, M. and L. Cape 1548; 2, Williams and Hadfield 1545; 3, McLuckie bros 1544; 4, 5, 6, Martindale and Lawman 1542.8, 1542.5, 1542.2.
SEATON RBL (5 sent): 1, A. Parker and son 1537; 2, 3, J. Gale 1526, 1517; 4, Mr and Mrs Dustin 1511; 5, F. Scott 1509; 6, Dobie and Palmer 1507.
FLIMBY HS (12 sent 414): 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, Nelson and Crellin 1558, 1546, 1545, 1542.4, 1542.3; Berwick and co 1544.
