The Flimby loft of Jimmy Nelson and Fleck Crellin have been presented with the coveted Big Cup for the 2023 season.
The Derwent Valley Federation’s most valued trophy for the Combined Average is what the majority of fanciers aim for at the start of each new racing season.
For Fleck it’s the first time he’s had his hands on the famous old trophy, while Jimmy was successful in 1984 when partnered by the late John James Tinnion.
The pair got together to race at Flimby in 2007 and although they have had numerous successes since then nothing compares to their achievements this year.
They have won eight races in the competitive Flimby Homing Society, and with them two Federations and one West Cumbria Amalgamation.
“It’s just been a wonderful season for us. To actually sit and watch them home this year has been a treat.
“I must admit I was still nervous for the Cheltenham young bird race but when we clocked to win the Big Cup it was an unbelievable feeling,” says Fleck.
The partners race 27 pairs of old birds and a productive stock loft contains their hugely successful Karel Boercx (from Keith Rafferty), Dan ven Bulcke, Peter Virtue and Brian Denny bloodlines.
They also operate a policy of not racing all their young birds, but training a group of them so far. That has proved to be a sound move with several notable successes in recent years.
Jimmy and Fleck are pictured with the Big Cup which was originally purchased in1947 by the Derwent Valley Federation for 500 guineas – quite a sum in those days.
The trophy is said to have been a copy of the old Scottish FA Cup.
