​Another weekend and another National.
Yesterday we raced with the National Flying Club from Nort-sur-Erdre and the birds were liberated at 07.00am into SW winds and becoming very strong in the channel gusting up to 35mph with shower activity predicted on the way home and all through the UK.
We were expecting the birds to cover the 280 miles in about 4 and a half hours but we finally got two drop together at 11.49 for a velocity of 1699ypm. The birds came back out of the east side so we knew we would be a little behind the leaders.
We managed to provisionally take 5th Section E and 12th National so the second pigeon should be in the mix also with another one a minute later to back them up.
‘199’ is from a grandchild of Jan Hooymans ‘Harry’ and Gino Clicque’s ‘Golden Prince’ on the fathers side and a grandchild of Joel Verschoots ‘Armando’ (sold for 1.25million euros) and Gino Clicque’s ‘Prince Rudy’ on the Mother’s side.
‘199’ last year as a baby scored 6th Section, 9th National British Barcelona Club Guernsey.
Second on the clock was ‘194’ and he is from a son of ‘Brenda’s New Harry’ who is the sire of 2nd UK, 28th Open (1st drop) Pattaya International PR Final 5,854b 2024 when paired to a daughter of ‘Den Boswachter’ 1st National, 2nd International Pau 13,176b 2020 both Jan Hooymans pigeons.
The mother of ‘194’ is a granddaughter of ‘Armando’, Joel Verschoots 1.25 million euro pigeon.
‘194’ also scored last year as a baby and was 6th Section, 7th National British International Championship Club Guernsey and 8th Section 16th National NFC Carentan 2190b.
We had 49/69 on the day so it looks like a few got themselves into trouble, but so far this morning they have started dropping in again.
Onto the Pau International next week!

1st Club - 15th,16th, 19th, 20th Exeter BB&O Federation 1054 birds.

​Yesterday we had the British International Championship Club Norte-sur-Erdre race in a joint liberation with the British Barcelona Club and the Central Southern Classic Club.
The 5273 birds were liberated at 6.30am into broken clouds and blue skies and a light northerly wind with west northwest winds at 15mph expected in the channel.
We sent 183 birds to the BICC and in the main were yearling long distance pigeons to carry on their training programme in preparation for the longer ones. We did however send 9 middle distance hens back from last weeks national to try and have a good chance in the race. We always get the sprint/middle distance birds first so we had no doubt this would be the same this week and nominated those 9 hens into the British Barcelona Club as our only entries.
We thought with a nice steady race a good pigeon would do the 280 miles in about 6 and 1/4 hours doing high 1200’s. For us this was not the case.
Our first pigeon finally came half hour later than expected at 13.14 doing a velocity of 1216 ypm and came back out of the east suggesting the birds had gone further over to cross. The yearling cock trapped to the distance loft but as it turned out is a middle distance pigeon that chose to pair up in that loft. He is from ‘New Harry’ lines and is provisionally 19th Sect, 36th Open.
The birds continued to come out of the east and our next pigeon home was a grandchild of ‘Southfield Darran’ and ‘Golden Barcelona’ followed by a grandchild of ‘Southfield King’.
The 9 middle distance hens that we nominated back into the BBC didn’t seem to enjoy the race yesterday and we got our first one at 13.27 for a velocity of 1179ypm and she was 7th pigeon to the loft. She provisionally scores 5th Section, 26th Open and is from Gino Clicque and Andre Roodhoft bloodlines. The next two arrivals from those hens were 9th and 14th pigeon home.
Competitively this was not our greatest race but we were very pleased with how the distance yearlings came as a team. We had 152/183 last night and so far this morning we have already had another 8 drop in early so onto the next race we go.
Congratulations to Richard Brunger and Ricky Warner for winning both races.

Y​esterday we had the second National flying Club race of the season from Messac and after a holdover Saturday due to bad weather in France the 4756 birds were liberated at 7.00am into a light northerly wind and predicted nne winds all the way home.
We were talking in the morning and decided that the winds would not be that strong and that a fair race should be on the cards today and that good pigeons would pop up anywhere. This was proved right with 11 section winners being in the first 16 pigeons on the result.
We thought you would want a good pigeon around 12.45 - 1pm and after a longer wait than anticipated we had two yearlings arrive at 13.13 doing 1202 ypm. One clocked straight away but the second one didn’t clock until 38 seconds later. Then with another yearling 3 minutes later we then had to wait over half hour for the next pigeon.
Our first pigeon was provisionally 1st section, 2nd Open and it looks like we will possibly take the first 4 in the section with our later arrivals.
The hen that clocked first is from a son of C & G Koopman’s ‘Amano’ & ‘Alzina’ paired to a daughter of G & S Verkerk’s ‘Fireeyes’ & ‘Flyingwonder’. This hen last year as a baby was 1st BB&O Federation Weymouth 1467 birds so we knew she has promise going into this season.
As it turned out this race was a little more tricky than we expected it to be and the birds were coming all day, come nightfall we had 100/180 back. We sent about 30 sprinters, 80 middle distance and 70 long distance birds for some time on the wing.
At the time of writing this we have had another 28 back first thing this morning so they are still working in.
Congratulations to Mr Hollow for winning the national.

1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th,7th,8th,9th,17th,27th,30th Honiton BB&O Federation 1095 birds.

1st,4th,5th,6th,7th,8th,9th,21sr,23rd,26th Yelverton BB&O Federation 1255 birds.