The in-form Workington loft of Richard Martindale and George ‘Pal’ Lawman were top of the sheet again at the weekend.
The Workington Victoria fanciers won the West Cumbria Amalgamation and Derwent Valley Federation race from Stratford.
The partners actually had four drop together but the first and third birds had to be disqualified because Richard had inadvertently transferred them to another fancier when they were young birds.
He said: “Ironically they have both picked up prizes before, one winning in the club, but in the Fed winner are verified so we have to take it on the chin.”
The winner is from a cock of Juan Castello Mari from Huddersfield. It’s dam was actually bred by Martindale and Lawman and has had multiple Fed wins for Juan.
It’s dam was bred for stock for the partners number one stock cock Trojan Warrior when paired to Miss Lector, the very best of Leach brothers and Brian Clennan of Whitby.
She is both full and half sister to two of the loft’s Cumbria Combine winners.
Second was the 77 cock who topped the Fed as a young bird and has already won the club this year.
He is from Baboa x Freya, both Van den Bulkke pigeons and he is also brother to one of the loft’s Combine winners last year.
In the Workington Social Limit club Graham Best took the honours with a yearling chequer white flight cock on the roundabout system.
He had a second club as a young bird last year and his sire is Heremans/Van den Bulkke bred by John Campbell from the south east while the dam is David Peeters/Syndicate Lofts bred by Mark Darby.
He was duplicated into the Copeland North West club and he won that as well.
In Dearham Jason Dempsey was first and fourth. The winner is a yearling chequer white flight cock, a Kees Bosua through Paul Fisher of Blackpool and his sire actually took the fourth ticket.
The Carter family won Harrington Central, and got second for good measure.
The winner is a black hen on roundabout bred from gift birds off Martindale and Lawman, She’s already won Appleton this year and last season was second in the Fed, Amal and Combine from Cheltenham.
They also took second club with a yearling chequer cock which is a very steady pigeon and was 15th in the A ring race of 2022.
At Seaton RBL Joanne Gale has been doing a lot of the work around the loft while husband John hasn’t been too good.
She’s managed to oversee two club winners, including Saturday when a two year old chequer cock on widowhood, bred by Dave Zerk of Roadhog lofts did the business.
West Cumberland Federation winner David Harrison had mixed feelings over his success at the week-end from Stratford.
Although the Egremont fancier topped the sheet again he lost a very handy blue yearling cock that has been on the Fed sheet for the last 4 weeks and won the Amal from Cannock last year as a youngster.
“He will no doubt be lying in a peregrine’s nest somewhere getting his bones picked on. I also lost another four cocks, two of which scored last week but were late-breds having only their sixth race so low on experience and may have gone up Shap with other pigeons. Who knows?,” he said.
The birds had been liberated at 10am in a light north east wind and returns appear to have been mixed. A number of birds have been reported in Scotland, and also in Northern Ireland.
Certainly in parts of the Derwent Valley Federation numerous Scottish pigeons have been reported and which are expected to be repatriated on Friday.
David clocked his winner just before 1.20pm following a fly of 175 miles. She’s a blue yearling hen that won the club last week making it her third win as she also won as a youngster last year.
He said: “She’s a mish-mash of Cuester, Lambrecht, Van Bulck, Van Herck and some names i cannot pronounce but all four grandparents have one thing in common, they have either won Section 2 of the Up North Combine or have bred section winners.
“So mish-mash is the way forward for me as its performance that interests me, not price tags or 3 page pedigrees.
“The sire of the winner is a full brother to Malcolm Scott’s best bird in club, fed and section in 2019 and would have been best in UNC if the details had been forwarded for the award but unfortuately they were not, much to the disappointment of Malcolm.
The dam is bred from a sister to Malcolm’s 6th UNC Burbure 2017 who also turned out to be a great breeder, with many winners to her name.
Just missing out on decimals were the Lowca partnership of Andy Holliday and Ken Dixon who took second and third.
The second Fed pigeon is a three-year-old blue hen flown on the roundabout system. She has now scored eight times and has five top ten Fed positions including 1st Marlborough. She is 75 per cent Syndicate Lofts and 25 per cent T and K Garman.
Third Fed for the loft is a yearling chequer hen which was scoring for the second time this season. Her sire was a gift bird from Michael McGrady of Sandwith while the dam was purchased from Gary New of Askam when he called it a day.
The loft had 29 back out of their 30 entries and were particularly pleased to see the return of a cock that was second Amal last week. They had to stitch him after a hawk attack – an all too common occurrence these days.
Last week’s Amalgamation winners Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon won Cleator Moor again.
This time it was a two year old blue cock who has been steady away so far in his career – just off the pace until Saturday – although he did lead up to the loft from Garstang.
He’s Joss Thorne crossed with their own very successful Welsh blood and Staf Van Reet.
WEST CUMBRIA AMALGAMATION (1,921 birds): 1, 2, Martindale and Lawman (Workington Victoria) 1548.9, 1548.4; 3, D. Harrison and son (Egremont) 1547.905; 4, G. Best (Workington Social) 1547.900; 5, 6, Holliday and Dixon (Lowca) 1547.7, 1547.7.
WEST CUMBERLAND
FEDERATION (610 birds): 1, D. Harrison and son (Egremont) 1547.9; 2, 3, 5, Holliday and Dixon (Lowca) 1547.7, 1547.7, 1545.8; 4, Blaney bros (Sandwith) 1546; 6, W. McGrady and son (Sandwith) 1545.4.
CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (10 sent 303): 1, Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon 1546; 2, 3, Dobson, sons, grandson and Lyle 1545.6, 1545.6; 4, J. Fitzsimmons and son 1544.6; 5, Graham and co 1544; 6, A. and T. Kenmare 1537.
LOWCA (5 sent 133): 1, 2, 3, 4, Holliday and Dixon 1547.7, 1547.7, 1545, 1524; 5, 6, Tomlinson and Banks 1512, 1508.
EGREMONT RANGERS (79 birds): 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, D. Harrison and son 1547, 1537, 1536, 1531, 1515; 4, Wilson and Buchanan 1535.
SANDWITH (6 sent 148): 1, Blaney bros 1546; 2, 4, 5, W. McGrady and son 1545, 1528, 1527; 3, 6, B. Irving 1544, 1523.
BNFL (22 sent 440: 1, Holliday and Dixon 1524.8; 2, J. Fitzsimmons and son 1524.5; 3, A. and T. Kenmare 1509; 4, Wilson and Buchanan1508; 5, J. Davidson1500; 6, DLT Fallows 1493.
COPELAND NORTH WEST: 1, G. Best 1545.72; 2, 3, 6, Holliday and Dixon 1545.701, 1545.3, 15643; 4, 5, McLuckie bros 1544.2, 1544.1.
FURNESS
MILLOM HS (13 sent 347): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, A. and K. Young 1589, 1588, 1587, 1585, 1579; 6, G, Bradley 1576.
DERWENT VALLEY
FEDERATION (1,311 birds): 1, 2, Martindale and Lawman (Workington Victoria) 1548.9, 1548.4; 3, G. Best (Workington Social) 1547.9; 4, Mr and Mrs Carter and sons (Harrington Central) 1547.2; 5, Evans and Abraham (Workington Victoria) 1547.1; 6, Mr and Mrs Walters and son 1546.
DEARHAM (7 sent 163): 1, 4, Dempsey, son and Reay 1540, 1528.90; 2, D. Manchester 1531; 3, 5, Todhunter and Grisdale 1528.99, 1526; 6, L. Norris 1516.
WORKINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (8 sent 265): 1, G. Best 1547; 2, 4, 5, Mr and Mrs Walters and son 1546.8, 1546.3, 1546.3; 3, 6, McLuckie bros 1546.4, 1546.2.
HARRINGTON CENTRAL (9 sent 244): 1, 2, Mr and Mrs W. Carter and son 1547, 1544; 3, 4, R. McAvoy and son 1536, 1526; 5, 6, Mr and Mrs D. Wood and son 1525, 1524.
CUMBERLAND SOCIAL CIRCLE (23 sent 46): 1, Martindale and Lawman 1548; 2, Mr and Mrs W. Carter and sons 1544; 3, Nelson and Crellin 1534; 4, A. Kenmare and son 1527; 5, R. McAvoy and son 1526; 6, Mr and Mrs D. Wood and son 1525.
SEATON RBL (5 sent 74): 1, J. Gale 1534; 2, Dobie and Palmer 1527; 3, F. Scott 1524; 4, A. Parker and son 1517; 5, Mr and Mrs Dustin 1496.
WORKINGTON VICTORIA (11 sent 383): 1, 4, Martindale and Lawman 1550.9, 1550.44; 2, Evans and Abraham 1550.8; 3, Mr and Mrs Walters and son 1550.45; 5, 6, McLuckie bros 1550.3, 1550.2.
FLIMBY HS (11 sent 349): 1, Berwick and co 1555; 2, R. Hodgson 1554; 3, 4, 5, Nelson and Crellin 1553.6, 1553.5, 1552; 6, A. Bromley and co 1550.
