A number of West Cumbrian lofts are enjoying successful seasons as we near the end of the old bird programme.
The Workington lofts of Evans and Abraham, and McLuckie brothers have been flying particularly well in the Derwent Valley Federation.
It’s also proving to be a remarkable season for Egremont fancier David Harrison in the West Cumberland Federation as he continues his red hot form.
Because of the poor weather forecast the birds raced on Monday from Holmsley in the New Forest, six miles from the old race-point of Christchurch.
They were liberated at 8am in a north west wind, turning to south west in Gloucestershire.
Kevin Evans, who is assisted now by Bob Taylor, won the West Cumbria Amalgamation and Derwent Valley Federation when he clocked at 1.37pm.
For good measure a yearling hen went over the pad just six seconds behind to take the runners-up slot.
Kevin said: “The winner is a three-year-old blue hen bred off a cock through Peter Rushforth’s good blue pied hen that my late race partner Willie Abraham bought at his clearance sale,
“The mother is the Holkers hen from Manchester which has been involved in the breeding of lots of good pigeons for me.
“Interestingly the bird right behind in second is a yearling blue cock, a son of the winner.”
Just behind the two winning birds was the McLuckie brothers splendid hen Geordie Lass, who has had numerous prizes and must be in line for Old Bird of the Year (Inland) this season.
After winning his second Cumbria Combine race from Fougeres last week, David Harrison of Egremont added a fourth West Cumberland Federation triumph to his list of 2025 exploits when the birds raced from Monday’s Holmsley race.
David clocked his winner at 1.29pm following a 266-mile fly, with another bird arriving within seconds.
David said: “I’ve got to be happy with the birds performance this week even though the birdage was pretty low. They still have to fly 270 miles and not many leaders to help them, so sometimes I think the smaller liberations can be more difficult than the big ones.
“The first two birds are closely related to last week’s Fougeres Combine winner with the leader being from the same dam, but paired to a different cock from Tommy Lawrenson of South Shields.
“This hen was 19th Combine a few weeks ago from Stratford. She was followed in a few seconds later by a mealy hen bred in my stock loft from a grand-daughter of Donkere Leo paired to a son from Malcolm Scott’s no1 stock pair Brett and Becky who bred 8 winners in Gateshead fed and two section winners up to 450mls which are mainly Hereman Ceuster bloodlines.”
David’s grandson Henry is a big part of the team at the loft and it’s been a special week for him as he turned 10 48 hours later.
Back to the Derwent Valley and a welcome winner in Dearham Utd for Jason Dempsey after a traumatic week.
Jason liberated his young’uns near Sellafield at 6.30am and ten hours later was still around 50 missing.
Thankfully a good number towed in later and in the following days, leaving him 14 short but a setback after they had been training well.
It was a welcome club winner for him on Monday, a yearling hen (Van den Bulkke/Bosua sitting her first set of eggs.
One of the day’s top performances came from the Aspatria loft of Berwick and Watson who took the first five spots in the competitive Flimby HS. It would have been all six but they were beaten by decimals.
The race winner was a yearling chequer cock on widowhood which is bred to fly the channel and is getting better as the distance is increasing.
He’s from a direct Marshell cock paired to a hen from Ian Stafford’s.
The partnership’s birds came well and they had 16 out of 17 when they took their clock in.
Back on top at Harrington Central were Neil and Geoff Wordsworth. Their winner is a yearling blue hen on widowhood who had earlier in the season been first club, third Combine from Marlborough. She’s off Combine winners of Adam and Keith Young of Millom.
- WEST CUMBRIA AMALGAMATION (299 birds): 1, 2, 6, Evans and Abraham (Workington Victoria)1447, 1446.6, 1434; 3, 4, McLuckie bros (Workington Victoria) 1446.5, 1446.4; 5, Berwick, Watson and co (Flimby) 1442.
- DERWENT VALLEY FEDERATION (238 birds): 1, 2, 6, Evans and Abraham (Workington Victoria)1447, 1446.6, 1434; 3, 4, McLuckie bros (Workington Victoria) 1446.5, 1446.4; 5, Berwick, Watson and co (Flimby) 1442.
- WEST CUMBERLAND FEDERATION (61 birds): 1, 2, 5, D. Harrison and son (Egremont Rangers) 1423.3, 1423.09, 1397; 3, J. Fitzsimmons and son (Cleator Moor) 1421; 4, Dobson, sons, grandson and Lyle (Cleator Moor) 1402; 6, Holliday and Dixon (Lowca) 1279.
- WORKINGTON VICTORIA (6 sent 80): 1, 2, 5, Evans and Abraham 1450.5, 1450.11, 1438.3; 3, 4, 6, McLuckie bros 1450.10, 1449, 1438.2.
- WORKINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (2 sent 18): 1, 2, 3, 4, McLuckie bros 1446.5, 1446,4, 1434, 1408; 5, 6, Williams and Hadfield 1388.3, 1388.2.
- FLIMBY HS (9 sent 113): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Berwick, Watson and co 1478, 1458, 1436, 1428, 1427; 6, Hodgson and Saldert 1417.
- HARRINGTON CENTRAL (7 sent 41): 1, 3, N. and G. Wordsworth 1433.9, 1405; 2, 4, Mr and Mrs Carter and sons 1433.3, 1401; 5, 6, I and D Wood 1394, 1391.
- DEARHAM UTD (2 sent 31): 1, 2, 3, 6, Dempsey, son and Reay 1412, 1362, 1341, 1304; 4, 5, D. Todhunter 1337, 1334.
- CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (4 sent 37): 1, 3, J. Fitzsimmons and son 1423, 1358.2; 2, 5, Dobson, sons, grandson and Lyle 1403, 1331; 4, 6, A. and T. Kenmare 1358.1, 1326.
- CUMBERLAND SOCIAL CIRCLE (15 sent 30): 1, McLuckie Bros 1446; 2, Mr and Mrs Carter and sons 1433; 3, Hodgson and Saldert 1409; 4, Berwick, Watson and co 1402; 5, Mr and Mrs A Proctor 1397; 6, Nelson and Crellin1396.
