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British Homing World, July 27th, 2012 12 NATFOUINDOED 18N98 AL FLYING CLUB Patron: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN President: Mr John Edwards. Saintes National Race Hello National members and welcome to the Saintes report. Here is your east of Royan and about 100km north of Bordeaux (to which it is linked by the usual history lesson as to where your birds are flying from. A10 autoroute). Saintes is a French commune located in Poitou-Charentes in the Convoyer’s report. Thursday saw the marking for the last old race of the southwestern Charente-Maritime department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. season. Marking commenced at Bishop’s Stortford with yet another good Its inhabitants are called Saintaises and Saintais. In Roman times, the city turnout for this station. It also gave me the opportunity to congratulate the was known as Mediolanum Santonum. Saintes is the second city in Charente- Tarbes National winner, Mark Bulled. With the birds marked and loaded we Maritime, with 26,470 inhabitants in 2008; its metropolitan area, the second moved to Steventon, Ash and finally Chichester, then onto Portsmouth where urban area in the department, counts 56,598 inhabitants. Primarily built on the we met up with the other transporter which picked up the west side of the left bank of the river Charente, Saintes became the capital of the province of country. With all the crates on one transporter thanks to the Pompey lads it Saintonge under the Ancien Régime; it briefly became the prefecture of the was on to the docks and once signed in all the birds were watered before the department (then called Charente-Inférieure) during the territorial crossing. Arrived at Le Havre at 7am and the birds were watered for one hour, reorganisation of 1790, until La Rochelle took its place in 1810. Even though leaving the port at 8.15am. The journey down saw heavy cloud and showers it was but a subprefecture, Saintes was allowed to remain the centre of the with a top temp of 19˚C. We arrived at Saintes at 4.15pm with two stops en judiciary life in the department. In the last third of the 19th century, Saintes was route to water. All the birds were fed and watered by 5.30pm and settled for chosen as the seat of the VIIIth arrondissement of the Chemins de Fer de the night. I spoke to Paul Clements at 6.30pm and all indications looked good l'État, which enabled an era of economic and demographic growth. Saintes is for the following day and we arranged to speak at 6.05am on Saturday for the located on the banks of the Charente River in the centre-eastern part of the updated forecast. I was up by 4.45am to get things set ready. The skies were department. The city is located 60km south-east of La Rochelle, 33km north- clear and there was no mist at all which is unusual for Saintes. Paul Clements called at 6.05am to say that he had spoken to Terry THE SAINTES NATIONAL RACE Scholey and the information was good to go with light NE winds with the possibility of a few light mist LIBERATED ON SATURDAY, 21 st JULY patches en route. So with all the strings cut I decided to lib at 0630hrs into clear blue skies with AT 0630HRS NO WIND no wind at all. The birds climbed high and headed off in a northerly direction and out of sight in less PROVISIONAL TOP 30 POSITIONS IN THE OPEN than a minute. We left the lib site at 7am and a TELEPHONE VERIFICATIONS couple of miles north of Saintes we encountered Nat Sect Birds some light patches of low-lying mist which did not Pos Pos Name Town Miles Ring No. Velocity Sent concern me because of the height at which the birds 1 1E M Gilbert Winkfield 394 GB11C11036 1311.174 85 left the site. The journey north saw light cloud cover 2 2E R J Lowe Reading 396 GB10N13656 1298.383 30 with wind and the temperature was 20˚C at 11am. 3 3E R J Lowe Reading 396 GB11N34318 1271.792 30 4 4E V Shaw & Son Harlow 416 BELG08 2168991 1269.807 12 5 5E Mr & Mrs A Hayward Sandhurst 387 GB10N52755 1264.881 6 6 1B Mr & Mrs D Waterhouse Portsmouth 353 GB11N56310 1264.029 6 7 1F J & P Parker Reading 392 GB09N60006 1255.358 15 8 2F J & P Parker Reading 392 GB10N47784 1246.489 15 9 6E R J Lowe Reading 396 GB11N34326 1244.046 30 10 1A Crammond & Langstaff Fontwell 353 GB11J11241 1238.895 25 11 1K R & N Dennett Meden Vale 517 GB09Z38794 1233.202 6 12 1J J A Hamplett Stafford 492 GB09Z26085 1231.627 20 13 1L R & B Smith Warrington 539 GB10T28886 1226.160 6 14 3F Crowley & Green Compton Bassett 39964 GB11B38014 1226.018 24 15 7E R J Lowe Reading 396 GB11N34394 1224.609 30 16 8E R J Lowe Reading 396 GB11N34322 1222.320 30 17 9E R J Lowe Reading 396 GB11N35339 1220.858 30 18 4F A Crook Newbury 392 GB08R12907 1220.523 7 19 2L F & M Hough Macclesfield 526 GB10N24142 1217.886 9 20 3L J R Sutton Congleton 517 GB08T39300 1217.205 9 21 4L A & S Hughes Rochdale 548 GB08N05923 1213.198 4 22 10E J F Haynes Maidenhead 396 GB10N69614 1212.051 25 23 1G J Raeburn Melksham 394 GB10N49574 1210.716 5 24 2A Stewart Reed Havant 354 GB09N20248 1206.396 8 25 2B Paul Murrell Poole 351 GB11J18880 1205.905 6 26 11E G Inkley Uxbridge 400 GB09N49895 1204.699 28 27 12E Chitty Brothers Kings Langley 413 GB10N75660 1203.196 10 28 13E Mr & Mrs M Dickinson & Sons Hemel Hempstead 414 GB08D49015 1201.474 10 29 5F D Posey Kidlington 421 GB11P46101 1201.009 4 30 5L Mr & Mrs B Fisher Todmorden 555 GB08R01037 1200.880 4 Mark holding his 1st Open Saintes. British Homing World, July 27th, 2012 13 6 Section winners in the first 12 Open. That’s great by any standards. I noted many previous Open winners in the result with high, early timings. These fanciers time in early year after year. One special mention is the Section C winners. This family partnership have yet again won their Section and this will be their third Section win this year and with them winning 1st Section etc. in 1st Sect E 1st Open NFC Saintes, M Gilbert. other organisations, they must be delighted with their fantastic flying this year. Very well done. You will notice that J & P Parker 1st Sec F is also 2nd. This is We picked up a light NW wind at Le Mans which lasted all the way to the great flying, 2 in 4 mins. There is also Cottrell, Richmond & Son with 2 in less coast, so all looked as though we were in for a hard but honest race to finish than 2 mins. Our hard-working committee members are well rewarded with off the old bird season. My thanks to all who helped to make this race a good timings, such as R Sutton 3rd Sec L, Mr Staddon, Green & Hilson 11th success. NIGEL RIGIANI and 12th Sec L at 548 miles. Looking at the ring numbers of these birds I am Race advisor’s report. I spoke to Terry Scholey at 12.30pm Friday and sure I have seen and handled at least one of them. The one I’m thinking of is was informed that the weather for the next day was generally good with north a fine cheq hen. She has been to Saintes several times and at 548 miles has to north-east winds in France and variable over England. It was decided we never nighted out. Last year’s Saintes the partners had timed but George was speak again at 6am Saturday. Nigel Rigiani rang at approx 6.30pm and saying, ‘Well, it looks like the cheq hen is having her first night out’. It was informed me that the conditions were perfect and I informed him of the getting dark and suddenly she landed and stood peering into the loft trying to conversation with Mr Scholey. It was decided we would speak again at approx see inside. What a pigeon. Richard Howey with a fine 3rd Sec H, Lloyd & Kelly 6.05am Saturday. I rang Mr Scholey at 6am Saturday and was informed that at 14th and 15th Sec F. By the way, this man is Eamon Kelly not Eamon the weather will be perfect once the radiation fog in France lifts with light north Holmes, as I reported last race! My apologies for the error. Stan Dangerfield to north-west winds throughout and good visibility. I rang Nigel at approx in the result yet again. Our chairman Mick McGrevy at 538 miles timing in 6.05am and following a discussion it was decided that the birds will be another early one. I’ve saved the best performance by a committee member liberated at 0630hrs with no wind. Nigel rang at 6.35am and informed me the until last. This is none other than Mark Gilbert who is once again 1st Sec E birds had been liberated and they cleared immediately to the north. Many 1st Open . What more can be said about this great fancier. Another Classic thanks to all concerned. PAUL CLEMENTS win, and one of the very very few retaining his Saintes crown as Mark was 1st On to our race now, and what a great race it was.