The second race of the season for West Cumbrian fanciers proved to be another good one.
Although the birds were held until 2pm at Charnock Richard until the line-of-flight had improved, they took just over 90 minutes to fly the 70-odd miles back home to the new south section of the Derwent Valley Federation.
The three member clubs had asked if they could use it for a South Section race, although the rest of the Derwent Valley Federation are still on club racing.
It proved another exceptional race for the Cleator Moor loft of Dobson, sons and grandson who won the club and the first DVF south section under the new arrangement.
They took all the six tickets in the Cleator Moor club and the first five in the Fed section.
The winning pigeon is a four-year-old chequer hen who over the years has been the most consistent bird to the loft, so the partners were delighted she had broken her duck.
She is bred from a cock of Keith Rafferty and a hen from Micky Collins of Birmingham.
The loft actually got five hens together, four of them were sisters and the fifth was a niece.
David Harrison won in Egremont with a 2023 late bred blue hen that won the Combine from Salisbury in 2024.
She was bred in the stock loft, the dam having seven firsts and first Amal before being stopped as a two-year-old after a hawk attack and has excelled in the breeding loft with different mates.
The sire was a Ceuster of Taylor Bros bloodlines which unfortunately escaped, never to be seen again, but has left a decent daughter as his legacy.
There were some repeat wins across the competing Derwent Valley clubs with the same lofts successful from Garstang a week earlier.
Wayne McLuckie hasn’t a big team this year but he had the winner again in the Workington Social Limit club.
She’s no stranger to the winner’s enclosure as the two-year-old blue hen – named Ange – won the Cumbria Combine last year from Marlborough and received an RPRA Award.
In Harrington Central Neil Semple continued his flying start to the season with another winner, and he also took the first four tickets.
The first in the clock is a two-year-old blue hen bred for Neil by Brian McKenzie, who used to fly up to five years ago as McKenzie Brothers.
Neil said: “He’s bred me four young birds every year since 2023 and they’ve done okay. This one is a Herman Cuester and goes back to birds that originate from Sugar Wilson of Egremont.”
Alan Parker has taken all four tickets in the Seaton RBL club for both races so far.
This week’s winner is a yearling blue hen bred by McLuckie brothers and was won in the transporter fundraiser bonus ball raffle. The dam was from Michael McGrady of Mirehouse.
The previous week’s winner was a chequer white flight yearling hen bred from a cock off Alan Devlin and a hen from Mick Carrick of Berkshire.
Winning again in Flimby HS were the Varty family with a chequer hen which is bred through birds off Ian Stafford and Mark Gilbert. They won the previous week with a three-year-old clue cock bred from the same source.
There was a change in Workington Victoria, but only just as last week’s winner Wayne McLuckie was pipped by Richard Martindale and George Lawman – on the second decimal point.
Their winner is a two-year-old blue cock bred in the stock loft. His sire Crixus 11 is the only one of five the partners have had from Adrian Leach’s top stock pair Crixus and Natalie that hasn’t bred an Amal winner.
The closest he got was third Amal by this particular cock when he was a young bird and beaten by two loft-mates.
The dam is an inbred granddaughter of Best Kittel of Dehon-Demonseau bred by Steve Best, of Middlesbrough.
- To clarify the Derwent Valley Federation open races don’t start until Penkridge and as no section results are possible, the southern-based clubs from the old West Cumberland Federation applied for open licences through the RPRA region open to their section which they were entitled to do.
- DERWENT VALLEY SOUTH SECTION: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Dobson, sons and grandson (Cleator Moor) 1344.9, 1344.6, 1344.4, 1344.17, 1344.17; 6, D. Harrison and son (Egremont) 1344.103.
- CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (10 sent 268): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Dobson, sons and grandson 1352.9, 1352.6, 1352.4, 1352.19, 1352.19, 1347.
- EGREMONT RANGERS HS ( 73 birds): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, D. Harrison and son 1344, 1335, 1332, 1300, 1298, 1282.
- LOWCA (7 sent 221): 1, 2, 3, Tomlinson and Banks 1336, 1335, 1334; 4, 5, L. Pears and son 1326, 1325; 6, W, McGrady and son 1310.
- HARRINGTON CENTRAL (7 sent 232): 1, 2, 3, 4, N. Semple 1337, 1336.5, 1336.5, 1336.09; 5, Mr and Mrs W. Carter 1313; 6, N. and G. Wordsworth 1309.
- FLIMBY HS (12 sent 419): 1, 3, 6, M. Varty and co 1318, 1306, 1279; 2, Hodgson and Saldert 1311; 4, Todhunter and Grisedale 1305; 5, Tinnion and Hodgson 1303.
- WORKINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (8 sent 253): 1, 3, 5, 6, McLuckie bros 1420, 1417.80, 1337, 1336; 2, 4, Williams and Hadfield 1417.82, 1384.
- WORKINGTON VICTORIA (10 sent 364): 1, 3, 6, Martindale and Lawman 1442.37, 1441, 1440.112; 2, 5, McLuckie bros 1442.36, 1440.114; 4, Williams and Hadfield 1440.3.
- SEATON RBL (3 sent 69): 1, 2, 3, 4, A. Parker 1360.3, 1360.09, 1360.09, 1311.
