​Yesterday we also had a team in the British Barcelona Club race from Messac.
The birds were liberated at 6.30am in a northeast wind and being one of the most westerly race points on the calendar we thought they would come in a bit deeper. Even so we were hoping to see birds doing a velocity of low 1300’s to get in the shake up so we’re looking out for arrivals around the 12.15 mark.
At 12.26 our yearling hen ‘516’ came like a rocket out of the west doing a velocity of 1260 ypm to score prov 6th Section, 24th National.
She is from a son of ‘Amano’ x ‘Alzina’ from C&G Koopman and daughter of ‘Olympic Fire Eyes’ x ‘Flying Wonder’ from G&S Verkerk.
This hen previously scored 1st Section, 2nd National NFC Messac 4563b against the wind earlier in the month so obviously likes this racepoint.
Congratulations to Martin Williams for winning the race but also to Paul & Esther Kenny and David & Emma Armstrong for 1st and 2nd section and 2nd and 3rd Open. Well done all.

​On Friday 31,254 birds taking part in the Agen International were liberated at 7.05am UK time in to a northwest wind.
With northwest winds forecast for the rest of the journey through France we thought it would slow them down a bit but at the home end it was looking like they could pick up some west to southwest winds in the channel. If the UK pigeons hit on a good line we were hopeful that this would enable a few day birds to be clocked.
This turned out to be the case for just one gallant bird clocked on the night for D Watson and son and so it was going to be another early morning for the rest of us again.
Back at the lofts at 4am and we were hoping for the early ones to start dropping in.
We sent a team made up of yearling distance pigeons and older middle distance pigeons so now it was into the second day we were starting to think it would be the yearlings that would arrive first now and that turned out to be the case.
Our first yearling cock arrived at 7.58am and completed the 528 mile journey with a velocity of 821 ypm to provisionally score 3rd Section and 6th National.
He is a grandson of ‘Golden Barcelona’ when paired to a daughter of ‘Zeus’ x ‘Silke’ on the father side. The mother is a daughter of ‘Roman’ when paired to a daughter of ‘New Laureaat’ x ‘Kleine Jade’.
‘Golden Barcelona’ is the father ‘Southfield Hugo’, ‘Southfield Gold Lady’ and grandfather of ‘Southfield Gold’ so full of the right breeding for a race like this.
Our second arrival came at 9.34 with a velocity of 757 ypm to prov score 4th Section, 12th National.
She is a granddaughter of ‘Southfield King’ (1st Grand National NFC Pau 2020) when paired to a daughter of ‘New Laureaat’ x ‘Kleine Jade’ on the father side. Her mother is a granddaughter of ‘New Jade 1’ x ‘Rena’.
‘473’ is a half sister to 1st National Agen 2018.
Our 3rd arrival was a yearling grandson of ‘Southfield Darran’ & ‘Golden Barcelona’ and then the first middle distance pigeon arrived 4th. She was out of ‘Bro Golden Devil’ & ‘Nest Sister Limo’ from Gino Clicque. This pair are the grandparents of 1st National British International Championship Club Alencon 4763b 2023.
Well done to David and Daniel Watson on a fantastic win with their gallant pigeon. It’s always great to see workers for the club do well and hopefully encourages others to have a go.
Next week we move on to Barcelona but we are going with confidence lower than we would like. This year we are just not getting the birds into the super form we would like so we are hoping the birds surprise us with something unexpected.

1st Club - 8th, 9th, 10th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 27th Honiton BB&O Federation 833 birds.

​Well after 7 long nights in the basket the Pau International run by La Colombe Joyeuse liberated the pigeons at 7am UK time Monday morning. With light NW winds predicted most of the route home and possibly some light southerly winds predicted the home end we were hopeful of a good chance of a day pigeon Monday night. The heat did get up during the day but we were still confident if you had a super pigeon in the team the possibility of birds making it into the uk was a possibility and maybe even a top International performance.
With plenty of beer and some fish and chips we sat patiently waiting for the pigeons to arrive. Sadly no birds made it into the UK on the night so it looked like being a tougher ask for the British birds than first expected.
So with an early start at 4am we waited patiently again but early pigeons did not appear so that emphasised the fact the birds held up at the channel and waited for the next morning to cross.
The morning was longer than we would have liked and we finally got our first arrival ‘242’ a widowhood hen at 10.07 for provisional 1st Section, 3rd Open BBC, 3rd Section, 7th Open BICC Pau.
This hen is a pure Jelle Jellema being from a son of ‘Zeus’ x ‘Silke’ x and a daughter of ‘New Jade 1’ x ‘Romee’. ‘242’ scored 20th Section, 76th Grand National NFC Tarbes last year as a yearling.
Our next 3 arrivals came at 11.31, 12.50, 14.54 to score prov 2nd, 3rd, 4th section, 9th, 13th, 23rd Open BBC, and 11th, 15th, 23rd section, 19th, 30th and 51st Open BICC.
The third arrival also flew Tarbes Grand National last year as a yearling and scored 7th Section, 26th Open.
Team wise we were a little disappointed and thought they were a good team and would make a good job of this but it wasn’t to be.
So onto Agen and Barcelona we go!
Well done to Lee and Kevin Buddle for winning the BBC and to Jonathon Palmer for winning the BICC.

8th, 13th, 22nd, 25th Weymouth BB&O Federation 1379 birds.

1st Club - 4th,5th,6th,7th,8th,9th,11th,12th,13th,17th Wadebridge BB&O Federation 674 birds.