West Cumbrian pigeons again raced on Sunday over the weekend and again it proved a sensible switch.
Because of the forecast for Saturday the decision was taken to put the race from Lymm back 24 hours, and as in the previous week it was well worth it. A fast race with good returns pleased everyone.
It proved a special day for the Egremont loft of Bewsher, sons and Park who broke their novice status with the win.
Peter Bewsher, grandson of the long established Mr and Mrs Bewsher partnership, races with Wayne Park and their seven-year-old sons.
They won the Egremont club with a yearling chequer hen which had been bred for them by the established loft of Wilson and Buchanan.
Peter said: “It’s one of their Frans Zwol pigeons and she had been very consistent in the first two races for us.
“Wayne and I would like to thank some members for helping us get started in the sport with some fantastic competitors.
“Firstly we’d like to thank Danny and Ken from R and B lofts; Neil Buchanan and Ian Sharples for breeding us some late youngsters last year to get us started.
“Also thanks to Jim Moreau for breeding us some youngsters along with his help.”
As well as winning the Egremont club the partners were on the West Cumberland Federation sheet in 23rd position.
Topping the Fed was the Cleator Moor loft of Joe Tomlinson and Brian Banks, who also won the Lowca club.
Their winner is a yearling chequer pied cock who had six races as a youngster but was then put aside for this years Widowhood team.
He started the season with a 4th club, 13th Fed from Garstang prior to topping the Fed on Sunday.
His sire is a Lambrecht who was bought as a young bird from James and Jimmy Dutton of the west midlands. He was a good racer winning best old bird in Cleator Moor in 2015, scoring for five weeks on the trot.
He was stopped as a three-year-old and has bred eight individual first prize winners and plenty of others to svcore.
The mother of the winner was purchased for stock last year and is through Best Kittle lines.
Joe and Brian didn’t win the Cleator Moor club, though. That honour went to Michael Nolan and partners who had to settle for second place in the Fed.
Their yearling chequer white flight hen took the honours at club level. She’s a Cuester with the sire from Ruben Dowding and Tony Ingledew and the dam from the loft’s own Van Reet lines. Her nest mate scored in last year’s A ring race.
The Derwent Valley fanciers are still involved in club racing with the Federation events still to come.
There won’t have been a more popular winner than Wayne McLuckie who topped the sheets in both Workington Victoria and Workington Social Limit.
Wayne has been battling on his own after the sudden death earlier in the year of elder brother Morris, as the pair had established a fine reputation over many years as McLuckie brothers.
A yearling mealy cock was the winner as Wayne harvested a clutch of tickets in both clubs. His first three were all bred through the loft’s good pied hen from Les Green’s UK Kittel. She is the mother of 15 winners and the grandmother of eight winners.
But through the anomalies of the measurement system Wayne didn’t win the West Cumbria Amalgamation. That honour went again to one of the regions top lofts of Richard Martindale and George Lawman.
Adding to their impressive list of Amalgamation wins over recent years was a yearling mealy cock who was scoring or the first time. A Van den Bulck his half-brother topped the Fed last year.
The winner’s sire is a son of Wonder Red that the partnership once owned but is now the property of Richard Goodier.
His dam Freya is also mother of a Fed winner for the loft and also of several birds that have scored in Fed and Amal.
In Flimby there was a poignant success for Gordon Tinnion and Richard Hodgson who won the very competitive club with a two-year-old blue cock.
He’s proved very consistent scoring at club, Fed and Combine level on a couple of occasions last year.
Richard explained: “The reason it is very poignant is that the dam was bred by Peter Rushforth and the sire by John Gale, both of whom were very good friends that have passed away recently.
“The dam was our first pigeon last week and scored from Grevillers last year. The yearling hen which was second on Sunday is a daughter of the winner and she has already won a first, two seconds and a fourth club as well as three Amal positions, so I think these lines could be quite special.
“Gordon has been quite ill this year with a couple of spells in hospital so hasn’t had anywhere near as much time as he’d have wanted with the birds so this is a fantastic tonic for him.”
Harrington Central was won by father and son duo of Geoff and Neil Wordsworth with a white, yearling hen who had won as a young bird. She was their nom and pontoon pigeon.
She is from Adam and Keith Young out of their vetry good white hen which has twice won the Cumbria Combine.
Neil said: “She was one of three Adam sent up when we won the bonus ball draw for the transporter fund last year.”
WEST CUMBRIA AMALGAMATION (1867 birds): 1, 4, 6, Martindale and Lawman
1776.5, 1775.9, 1775.62; 2, 3, 5, McLuckie bros 1776, 1776, 1775.69.
WEST CUMBERLAND FEDERATION (687 birds): 1, Tomlinson and Banks (Cleator Moor) 1748; 2, Nolan Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon Cleator Moor) 1747; 3, Dobson, son, grandson and Lyle 1743 (Cleator Moor); 4, W. McGrady and son (Lowca) 1742; 5, 6, D. Lofthouse (Lowca) 1741.5, 1741.1.
CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (10 sent 329): 1, 6. Nolan, Hetherington, Coultas and Easdon 1752, 1731.02; 2, 5, Tomlinson and Banks 1751, 1731.8; 3, 4, Dobson, sons, grandson and Lyle 1750, 1737.
LOWCA HS (7 sent 279): 1, 5, Tomlinson and Banks 1748, 1728; 2, 6, W. McGrady and son 1742, 1713; 3, 4, D. Lofthouse 1741.5, 1741.1.
EGREMONT RANGERS (119 birds): 1, Bewsher, sons and Park 1706; 2, 3, 4, D. Harrison and son 1699,1698, 1697; 5, 6, Wilson and Buchanan 1696.9, 1696.3.
COPELAND NORTH WEST (Worcester, 6 sent 45): 1, 2, 3, 6, B. Cottier 1654, 1647.7, 1647.2, 1615; 4, 5, Dixon and Cockbain 1636, 1634.
WORKINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (7 sent 255): 1, 2, 3, 5, McLuckie bros 1776, 1776, 1775, 1774.7; 4, Williams and Hadfield 1774.8; 6, Dolan and daughter 1774.5.
WORKINGTON VICTORIA (10 sent 391): 1, 2,3, 5, 6, McLuckie bros 1796.7, 1796.7, 1796.4, 1795,5, 1794; 4, Williams and Hadfield 1795.7.
HARRINGTON CENTRAL (8 sent 236): 1, 2, 5, 6, N. and G. Wordsworth 1774.7, 1774.4, 1773, 1773; 3, 4, N. Semple 1774.3, 1774.
ELLENBOROUGH: 1, 2, Barlow and Doyle 1717. 1676; 3, 4, Barker and Charlton 1613, 1601.
FLIMBY (10 sent 403): 1, 2, 5, Tinnion and Hodgson 1807, 1802, 1801.3; 3, 4, Nelson and Crellin1801.8, 1801.5; 6, I. McGarr 1790. (Garstang – 9 sent 336): 1, 2, Hodgson and Saldert 1781, 1778.9; 3, 5, A. Bromley and co 1778.8, 1746; 6, Berwick and co 1744.
(Charnock Richard – 11 sent 369): 1, A. Bromley and co 1804; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Nelson and Crellin 1803, 1802, 1801, 1800.4, 1800.
DEARHAM UTD (3 sent 152): 1, Dempsey, son and Reay 1755; 2, 3, D. Todhunter 1746, 1744; 4, 5, 6, Varty, son and grandson 1716, 1714, 1706.
