Fougeres Young Birds & Old Hens National
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Fougeres Young Birds & Old Hens National Young Bird Winners Old Hens Winners John & Theresa (Gladwin & Jarvis) Dave & Gary Heywood from Leigh on Sea from Basildon with “Theresa’s Boy” with “Kings Road Princess” 1 st Section J 1 st Section J Warmest congratulations to the winners of our Fougeres young bird and old hens races, John & Theresa Gladwin and Dave & Gary Heywood. After a one day holdover due to the unsavoury weather conditions from the midlands upwards on Saturday, Nigel liberated the birds at 7.45am with a very light SE wind at Fougeres changing to West then South Westerly when they approached the English coastline. With this our final race of the 2018 season we would like to congratulate all of our winners and thank everyone who has assisted us this season. Thank you to Bill Travers our driver who is now retiring for his effort over the last five seasons. We wish you well Bill. All positions are provisional until the paperwork has been checked Taking 1st Open 1 st Section J in the young bird race is John & Theresa (Gladwin & Jarvis) from Leigh on Sea. I would like to congratulate my good friends and fellow Thames North Eastern counties members David and Gary Heywood on their old hens win. My winner is now called “Theresa's Boy”, it was that or randy git. The reason for that was he was so keen to get into the hens running up to the race each day Theresa went to the loft, she kept saying he is going to hurt himself as he was banging on the door and the partition to get through to the hens. So I was very aware he was very keen, the reason being I do not have early young bird's they were weaned in April and had only just started to pair together in the last couple of weeks, on seeing this I split them up a couple of weeks before as I was worried the hens would be laying just before the nationals and would not be able to go to the races. Theresa's Boy had already scored 3 rd Hullbridge Club 4 th Open Thames when beaten by 2 loft mates on the trap. His breeding is also impeccable being a Formula 1 Lofts Frans Zwol with the sire being the Amal cock who I bred and was raced by Micky Connolly and Son. Racing he won 2 x 1 st Fed including winning the Fed by over 7 minutes, plus 1st and 4 th Amal 4,000+ birds and many other prizes including Fed bird of the year. After finishing racing he came back to Formula 1 Lofts and was paired this year to Guernsey Princess who won 1st and 3 rd Open BICC who in turn is from the Prince of Rekkem who won 2 nd 19,409 birds beat by a loft mate, 3 rd 9,166 birds, 15 th & 18 th 9,000+ birds 47 th 17,429 birds etc. Incidentally the BICC winner the day before was also a grandchild of the Prince of Rekkem. I would like to close by saying a massive thank you to Theresa without her help and support I could not race pigeons let alone dream of winning any races and definitely not at national level. John & Theresa Gladwin 2nd & 3 rd Open 1 st & 2 nd Section E is Ken Pettitt from Stoke on Trent who has had a cracking season. (thank you to Michael John Burden for the report). What can I write about this man and his birds? Well I have known Ken since I moved to this little village in 2009. He was by all accounts a very good Club and Fed flyer so I teased him about the Nationals and he took the bait. I am glad he did because he has become a great friend of mine now and although I do not like to admit it he has taught me many things about pigeons. This year he had had only 3 races with the BBC winning all three section positions and provisionally 2 nd & 3 rd Open from Fougeres at 325 miles. I was watching with Ken at the time the birds got home, two dived right passed me, trapped within a few seconds of their arrival. (Both on the clock at the same time). A few minutes later he had 3 together who all trapped quickly. We did not understand where they had come from as they appeared from the back of the lofts so I went out to see if I could see if any more were headed for the lofts which I saw 3 birds who appeared to be coming back from the north. They did not trap as quickly as the first batches but they did and Ken had 9 birds on the clock within 6 minutes of the first bird. An awesome team performance by Ken and his birds. They are practically all his old family of Vandenabeele birds who are bred down through Carrie and Jester. These are the same birds he would win at 50 miles out to 500 miles then onto 680 miles!! Ken starts his young birds training not to long before the first young bird race. His wife Shirley takes his pigeons and will go in any direction up to about 30 miles about 6 times then they go to the race points not in a race but privately trained usually on a Saturday and taken as far as the coast. Once they have flown over 100 miles he never trains them again only flies them around home. I handled the birds which are lean and solid to the touch but in good health. He feeds maize to the birds and beans and they eat as much as he can get down them. Then he feeds some treats to get them eating again. All his team went to the MCC race Portland and last weekend again to the MCC race Carentan where he won 3 rd Open. I went to see him today and he is sorting out some to resend back to Carentan this coming Saturday. Ken Pettitt & Michael Burden Mark Gilbert from Windsor 4 th , 5 th & 6 th Open 1 st , 2 nd & 3 rd Section D. My first bird was a Jelle Jellema, the father was a son of Rena 6 th International Pau and 7 th National Barcelona 2018, the mother was a double grand daughter of his champion breeder Orion. The second bird was from a son of Kanibal 4 th International Barcelona and 26 th International Perpignan, the mother was from Starlight and Mellissa 1 st and 2 n International. The third bird was three quarters Jelle, the father was from New Laureaat 1 st International Barcelona when paired to Kliene Jade 1 st international Barcelona. The mother was from Jelle champion breeder Zwart Gold. Mark Gilbert 7th Open and Runner Up in Section D is Terry Haley from Abbots Langley. Blue W/F Cock GB18Z60649 was bred by A & S Hughes of Rochdale, Lancs. Simon has bred and gifted Terry many winners in previous seasons and this is another one. He is Janssen based and is a grandson of “Clean Slate”. Simon and his dad, Tony, are very successful fliers in the North West of England and are not afraid to go out and buy the best to help them stay on top, for example - 11 x 1 st Feds and also big Open Race winners in 2018. Terry himself has won 1 st Fed on the North and South Road Federations in 2018 as well as 1 st Combine North and 1 st Combine South in 2017. He only sends a small team in these nationals, only 4 in this race and his 2 nd pigeon should also feature in the final result of what proved to be a testing race, according to the verification times and numbers. Well done to the winners and to Mark Gilbert on stopping me winning the section, also the convoying team and administrators for a job well accomplished again. Pictured with Terry is his youngest grandson Jack who is 4 ½ months old (Harry’s brother) and Pippa the dog. Terry Haley, Grandson Jack & Pippa the dog. In 8th open we have Nick Atkin from Telford who is our next Section E member to time. This youngster was bred from my stock pair which was bred by Frank Bristow, from lines including both of his Kings Cup winners, Oscar and Kezie. She was sent sitting 10day old eggs. Nick Atkin’s young hen John & Ben Oakley’s young cock bird 9th Open is John & Ben Oakley from Whitchurch, Shropshire. I race in partnership with my dad John in Whitchurch, Shropshire where we live and work on a dairy farm. I've been involved with pigeons since I could walk but took over the management of the birds in 2011 when I returned home from college. Since then the club racing has started to decline in the area and a greater focus has been put towards building a sustainable winning family for national racing. We rate the BBC very highly among the national clubs as the birds always return in fantastic condition and the quality of racing is very good. There is a great atmosphere at marking and the club is run very smoothly a real credit to yourself. Our young cock in 4 th section 9 th open is bred for the job being from a gifted Gaby Vandenbeele cock from top national man Micky Locke from the Wirral and a Gaby hen purchased from another top national man on the area Derrick Jones.