Ian and Denise Wood completed a strong finish to the 2023 old bird programme when he won the final race from Guernsey.
The Harrington Central loft has quite a pigeon, too, in the winner who is proving quite a star from the Channel Island race-point.
In 2022 he was 2nd club, 4th Fed, 8th Amal, 15th Combine and then 2nd club, 6th Fed, 11th Amal and 16th Combine.
This season he flew Guernsey three times – 3rd club, 12th Fed, 20th Amal, 33rd Combine from Guernsey 1.
From the second Guernsey race he was 2nd club, 2nd Fed, 3rd Amal, 5th Combine and 1st Cumberland Social Circle.
Now, to round it off from the third Guernsey test he has been 1st club, 1st Fed, 1st Amal; 2nd Combine and 1st Cumberland Social Circle which must make him a strong candidate for DVF bird of the year.
He is 75% Kees Bosua and 25% Jan Hooyman, home bred through Paul Fisher stock.
No West Cumberland Federation members sent with the Cumbria Combine for the final old bird race on Friday, the third one from Guernsey.
The birds were liberated with the Lanarkshire Federation and only 55 were involved from the Derwent Valley Federation.
Let go at 7am in a south wind it proved to be the best of the three tests from the Channel Island.
It certainly was a big day for 26-year-old Luke Pearson in the Dearham club as he registered his first win and for good measure took second Fed.
She’s a yearling chequer pied hen bred off a Stav van Reet from Mark Caudwell while her mother was bred by Ross Mitchell of Penrith. She only raced as far as Garstang as a young bird.
Luke says: “It’s my first win but I’ve had a few seconds and other positions and last year scored in the Fed a few times.
“It was my dad Mark Pearson from Wigton that got me into pigeon racing. I was hooked from an early age and loved waiting with him on the channel races.
“He eventually bought me my own shed in 2009 and set me on my way.”
Luke flies from a prominent Ellenborough loft (which he has renovated) that produced a few Fed winners for John ‘Donat’ Whitehead.
Meanwhile, Cleator Moor Central held their first young bird race of the season from Flookburgh on Sunday.
Two members sent in the Egremont club while Sandwith had birds away as trainers. Lowca members did not send.
A video circulating on social media showed the birds circling and leaving the airfield in close order, although returns appear to have been variable.
One Cleator Moor loft sent 90 and had all but 15 back in an hour, while another club loft only had 13 out of 58 at the same time.
Paul Byers had a good day, taking first, third, fourth and fifth which was a welcome change of luck for the loft.
He had a nightmare young bird season last year when his birds got a bad respiratory infection and he didn’t race them at all.
The winner was bred from birds off Morris and Wayne McLuckie which were Van den Bulck lines.
Meanwhile the plan was to continue this weekend when the weather forecast would be kept in mind but with prospects poor it has been decided to race on the Wednesday, July 19.
The Derwent Valley Federation are due to start their young bird programme for the clubs this week-end but have not announced any plans as yet.
The 2023 old bird programme will sadly be remembered for the bad race from Yeovil which ended a number of fanciers’ participation in the rest of the racing.
Fanciers always wonder where their birds end-up in races like that. Well Friington fanciers Andrew and Tom Kenmare have had two back under different circumstances that were lost from that race,
One ended up in Northern Ireland and was picked-up by a roofer working near the Whiskey factory in Bushmills (near the Giant’s Causeway).
Thanks to John Miller it was repatriated and is thriving again back in her home loft under a new name – Bushmill’s Girl.
Andrew takes up the tale of the second pigeon that went astray en -route home from Yeovil and has finally made it.
“Whilst riding on a bus in Yorkshire last weekend, I was contacted by Steve McDonald in Liverpool to say his brother Andrew had spotted a lovely Mealy Pied pigeon down at the Liver Building on the docks in Liverpool.
“He said it had been eating under the picnic tables for around a week and took a photo of it and asked him if he wanted him to catch it and bring it back to Steve’s small back garden loft in the city. Steve agreed and Andrew dropped it off the next day.
“Having rang me I said my mate Jim Moreau frequently visits his home city and I would try to arrange a pick-up.
“I rang Jim and gave him the crack and he told me he had been down to pick up the grandkids the day before and had been within four miles of Steve’s house!
“Jim hurriedly tried to arrange for his daughter to go over to Steve’s on her way up to Cumbria but unfortunately Steve wasn’t in.
“Having had the bird for a week and fed her up until she was in good condition, we decided to ask Steve to release her as the wind was a strong southerly so we thought that would help.
“Having waited for her return all weekend I was starting to think the worst only to find her sitting on the food bin early this morning.
“Tom often says to me “I wish pigeons could talk, I’m sure they would have a great story to tell ……..on this occasion he wasn’t wrong!”
The rehomed bird was actually the first bird that Andrew and Tom bred off the pigeon they call Frizy Flyer, the RPRA One Loft Race Schools winner in 2020. He followed-up by being fourth in the Yearling race the following year, again being the overall schools winner.
In total Frizy Flyer won £1,750 for Frizington School and then the Kenmares bought him back at the subsequent RPRA auction.
CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (Flookburgh – 5 sent 289): 1, 3, 4, 5, P. and S. Byers 1280, 1272, 1271.4, 1271.04; 2, 6, Rodgers and Benn 1274, 1270.
DERWENT VALLEY FEDERATION (Guernsey 3 – 55 birds): 1, I and D Wood (Harrington Central) 1678; 2, L. Pearson (Dearham) 1648; 3, 6, Nelson and Crellin (Flimby HS) 1638, 1479; 4, Berwick, Watson and co (Dearham) 1552; 5, R. Hodgson (Flimby HS) 1536.
WORKINGTON VICTORIA (3 sent 6): 1, 2, 3, Blacklock and sons 1459, 595, 547.
FLIMBY HS (7 sent 41): 1, 4, Nelson and Crellin 1640, 1483; 2, 5, 6, Berwick, Watson and co 1572, 1419, 1413; 3, R. Hodgson 1539.
HARRINGTON CENTRAL (2 sent 6): 1, 2, 3, I. and D. Wood 1678, 1314, 1231; 4, 5, M. Walker 1133, 940.
CUMBERLAND SOCIAL CIRCLE (11 sent 21): 1, 5, I. and D. Wood 1678. 1231; 2, Nelson and Crellin 1479; 3, Blacklock and sons 1459; 4, Berwick, Watson and co 1231; 6, Ostle and McNichol 1169.
