The West Cumbria Amalgamation birds should have raced from Guernsey on Friday but bad weather in the channel prevented that.
The weather forecast wasn’t much better for Saturday so it was decided to return to the UK and look for a race from Yeovil on Sunday.
But although they arrived back in England the weather was no better so, in fact, they came back up country as far as Cheltenham before liberating early on Sunday at 6.30am for the near 200-mile fly back to West Cumbria. They were up in a light south west wind.
The Amalgamation birds were in a Cumbria Combine entry of 122 birds which were transported along with three Scottish Federations.
Leading them home into West Cumbria was the Cleator Moor loft of Alan Graham and co, topping the West Cumberland Federation and likely to be confirmed as Amalgamation winners when the Derwent Valley Federation result is published.
Although the loft enjoys sprint racing, they particularly enjoy the distance races so were a little disappointed it wasn’t a test from Guernsey.
Alan said: “Firstly we were disappointed not to be racing from Guernsey as the longer races are our main focus, but credit to the Lanarkshire convoyer as the birds returned in good condition.
“Obviously our own Federation had a poor turnout but we are pleased our first three birds will be one, two, three in the Amal and we win the Cumberland Social Circle for the fourth time this year.
“The winner is from a direct Woodruffe Brothers cock and the dam is direct from John Crehan and he has previously hads 8th Fed Garstang and 17th Fed Cannock.
“The second bird who came with him is out of a cock that has had 2nd, 10th, 31st and 32nd from previous Guernsey races.
“The dam also scored a few times inland and is from a cock that Paul bought who is actually of Van den Bulkke breeding who has sired 3rd, 13th and 29th Combine, all inland.
“Our old birds have performed well enough this year and we are actually the only loft in the Cumbria Combine to have featured on every result, which given the difficult season, isn’t bad going.”
However, race partner Paul Byers says they are not considering sending to this week’s channel race from Grevillers.
“We think it’s a bit too far east and we have quite an inexperienced team, so we are trying the last one from Nort-Sur-Erdre as it is a race-point for the National Flying Club with a view to going back to Signone and Tarbes next year,” said Paul.
The long-established family partnership of Varty, son and grandson are the Derwent Valley Federation winners, also taking second spot as well.
Jimmy, Matthew and James won with a well-fancied two-year-old mealy hen and backed that up less than two minutes later with a three-year-old chequer hen.
In Harrington Central the winner was Neil Semple, a fancier who started the season with 20 old birds and in what has been a difficult season he has clocked in every race – which is no mean feat.
His winning birds is a two-year-old chequer hen with crossed Karel Boeckx, Stefano Lambrecht and Heremans Ceusters bloodlines he has obtained over the last three or four seasons.
In 2022 as a young bird she was 4th club, 16th Fed, 26th Amal, 27th Combine from Cheltenham and then as a yearling was 2nd club, 5th Fed, 9th Amal and 12th Combine from the bad Yeovil race.
This season she was 4th club, 24th Fed, 29th Amal and 38th Combine from Weymouth before leading them home in Harrington on Sunday.
WEST CUMBRIA AMALGAMATION (75 birds): 1, 2, 3, Graham and co (Cleator Moor) 1335, 1334, 1330; 4, 5, Varty, son and grandson (Flimby HS) 1311, 1303; 6, I. McGarr (Flimby HS) 1296;
WEST CUMBERLAND FEDERATION: (15 birds): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Graham and co 1335, 1334, 1330, 1183, 1094; 6, A. and T. Kenmare 1092.
CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (2 sent 13): 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, Graham and co 1336.6, 1336.3, 1331, 1184, 1095; 5, A. and T. Kenmare 1097.
DERWENT VALLEY FEDERATION (60 birds): 1, 2, Varty, son and grandson (Flimby HS) 1311, 1303; 3, I. McGarr (Flimby HS) 1296; 4, 5, 6, Berwick, Watson, Harker and Thompson (Dearham) 1274.8, 1274.1, 1243.
WORKINGTON VICTORIA (3 sent 11): 1, 2, 5, Varty, son and grandson 1321, 1313, 1073; 3, 4, 6, Martindale and Lawman 1227, 1200, 963.
FLIMBY (7 sent 45): 1, 2, J. Varty, son and grandson 1311, 1303; 3, I. McGarr 1296; 4, 5, 6, Berwick, Watson, Harker and Thompson 1274.8, 1274.1, 1243.
CUMBERLAND SOCIAL CIRCLE (10 sent 20): 1, A. Graham and co 1330; 2, 3, Varty, son and grandson 1311, 1303; 4, Berwick, Watson, Harker and Thompson 1243; 5, R. Hodgson 1196; 6, A. Kenmare and son 1092.
HARRINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (3 sent 5): 1, N. Semple 860; 2, 3, M. Walker 538, 485.
