So yesterday we were racing from Sigogne with the National Flying Club which was their last old bird race of the season.
The birds were liberated at 6.15am into light winds turning southwesterly and stronger south west winds in the channel. A band of weather was also predicted to come into the west side clearing east into the evening and overnight so this could make the race a little tricky.
We had lengthy discussions with different views on when the birds could make it back to the loft and decided to split the differences and were thinking a bird doing 45mph would be good enough today so that would be around the 3pm mark.
At 14.42pm while we were stood chatting and drinking coffee by the house we suddenly noticed a pigeon coming out of the east (offline) and diving at the loft. By the time we got round to the lofts she was on the trap and heading inside.
‘499’ had covered the 395 mile journey in 8 hours and 27 minutes for a velocity of 1372 ypm and managed to secure a provisional result of 2nd Section, 3rd National and was also our fancied pigeon from the 40 we sent so was pooled right through.
This hen has scored before but her most noticeable performance was last year when she arrived with 3 other loft mates to score 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th National British International Championship Club Alencon 4763b, she trapped last so was 4th National.
The Sire of ‘499’ is from a joint breeding with Peter Fox of Syndicate lofts. We paired ‘Southfield Champ’ 1st Open National Flying Club Saintes 4128b to ‘Joy’ a daughter of ‘Kannibaal’ 1st National Asduif Halve-fond KBDB 1996.
The Dam of ‘499’ is a double granddaughter of Gino Clicque’s ‘Golden Prince’ 1st National Ace KBDB Long Distance 2014.
The race did turn out to be a little harder than would have hoped and we had to wait 47 minutes for our second pigeon and had 8/40 on the night. Hopefully there will be a few more dropping into the lofts first thing this morning.
Overall we are pleased with the National Flying Club campaign this year and are in a good position for the overall averages as we scored:
1st section, 2nd National Messac
1st section, 3rd National Tarbes
2nd section, 3rd National Sigogne
5th section, 12th National Norte-sur-Erdre
Congratulations to R Stokes & son for winning the National.
8.15am - there has already been 7 arrivals to the loft this morning so they are working in.

The Dax International convoy was liberated Sunday 14th July at 06.10am into broken cloud and blue skies with light winds varying from east to southwest for the journey through France.
We thought we could get day pigeons
Sunday night into the UK but as seems to be the norm this season nothing made it home so it was an early morning alarm call again. Something must have stopped them from coming across as there didn’t seem to be any reason they would not do the same speeds as the birds being clocked in Europe. We have had reports there was heavy rain in France but not confirmed.
We sent four 2 year old pigeons back that went to Pau on the 24th June and sent 18 yearling hens from the yearling loft that came so well Saturday from Bordeaux. We thought as the yearling cocks were buzzing Saturday out of Bordeaux the hens would make a good job of this today. They didn’t and we think it just goes to show the lack of experience pulling out of thousands of pigeons going the wrong direction has shown just how hard international racing is if you don’t have the right team in. We were extremely disappointed with the returns today but as I am typing this would you believe 4 yearlings have just clocked in quick succession so will do a follow up post with their breeding for interest.
Before they clocked there was a total of 4 yearlings home out of 25 pigeons on the result so experience seemed to count today however the winner was a yearling so that showed it had its head on straight.
Our first two timed will be provisionally 1st & 2nd Section, 5th & 6th Open Dax.
The first pigeon in the clock is a 2 year old cock that was 32nd Open Pau on the 24th June and last year was 26th Grand National NFC Tarbes as a yearling. He is from a son of ‘Hellas’ 4th Nat Limoges and 7th National Bergerac and a daughter of ‘New Witbuik’ 1st National, 6th International Barcelona 2012.
Our second timer is a yearling hen from a son of ‘Jef’ 1st International Barcelona 16,051b 2019 paired to a daughter of ‘Southfield Hugo’ 1st National Perpignan 2017, 1st National Barcelona 2018 & ‘Willeke’ 1st International St Vincent 10,597b 2019.
Congratulations to Catalin Olaru for winning the race with his fantastic yearling.

Yesterday we were racing from Bordeaux with the British International Championship Club and the British Barcelona Club with a team of 32 yearlings.
The birds were due to go Friday but with bad weather they were held over for another day and liberated yesterday at 6.30am under broken clouds and blue skies. Winds predicted to be light over france but the main influence being northwest.
After much deliberation between us we decided that an early bird would be about the 10 hours 45 mark and didn’t have to wait too long for our first arrival after that estimate.
Our first arrival came at 17.33 covering the 452 miles with a velocity of 1200ypm. A little off the target but we were in the clock.
This cock managed to prov take 2nd Section, 2nd National British International Championship Club and 2nd Section, 3rd National British Barcelona Club.
We then had to wait 39 minutes for our next one but once the next one came they came quite quickly as the next times were 18.12, 18.13, 18.14, 18.19, 18.22, 18.28, 18.38 etc.
We had 16/32 on the night and at the time of writing this have already had another 4 drop in early so overall a really good team performance.
Our first 8 arrivals were as follows
1 - grandson of ‘Jack’ ‘Erin’ & Orion from Jelle Jellema on the father’s side and ‘New Laureaat’ 1st International Barcelona x ‘Special One’ 1st International Barcelona on the mothers side.
2 - grandson of ‘Southfield Hugo’ 1st National BICC Perpignan 2017, 1st National BICC Barcelona 2018 & ‘Southfield King’ 1st Grand National NFC Tarbes 2020.
3 - grandson of ‘Queen Mary’ 1st Grand National NFC Tarbes 2019 and ‘Snow Prince’ 1st Section, 4th Grand National NFC Tarbes 2012 and father of ‘Queen Mary’.
4 - grandson of ‘Queen Mary’ 1st Grand National NFC Tarbes 2019 and ‘Snow Prince’ 1st Section, 4th Grand National NFC Tarbes 2012 and father of ‘Queen Mary’.
5 - grandson of ‘Southfield Hugo’ 1st National BICC Perpignan 2017, 1st National BICC Barcelona 2018 & ‘Golden Barcelona’ the 2014 Barcelona Gold Wing Winner.
6 - son of ‘Southfield Euro Supreme’ 1st National BICC Tarbes 2022
7 - son of ‘Southfield Gold Lady’ 1st National BICC Barcelona, 1st National BBC Barcelona 2020.
8 - granddaughter of ‘Southfield King’ 1st Grand National NFC Tarbes 2020, ‘Southfield Gold Lady’ 1st National BICC Barcelona, 1st National BBC Barcelona 2020 and ‘Golden Barcelona’ the 2014 Barcelona Gold Wing Winner.
Congratulations to the Berry and Matthew’s partnership for winning the British Barcelona Club and also congratulations to our good friend John Adams for winning the British International Championship Club.

As you know this weekend we were competing in the Barcelona International and the Grand National from Tarbes with the National Flying Club.
The NFC liberated the birds at 2pm on Friday 5th July with a view to getting them a good start in decent weather but not letting them get so far as to hit the bad weather that was going to be in the UK Friday night. They were in light winds for the early part of the journey and would pick up sw winds from about the Nantes area.
So with a guarantee of no day birds in the UK it was going to be a wait Saturday morning for the first arrivals. As you know from our Barcelona report the weather was horrendous, thick cloud cover with rain all morning and gale force west winds.
We were still thinking a good bird could make it home by about 11.00am and the two pigeons that took 1st and 2nd Open verified the assessment was about right.
We however did not time our yearling widowhood hen until 12.10pm to take 1st Section, 3rd National Tarbes who incidentally arrived 1 minute after our first Barcelona pigeon meaning we were finally on the sheet for both races in quick succession.
We timed 7 pigeons on the winning day at 12.10, 14.10, 15.00, 18.07, 19.05, 20.28 and 20.34 and should all figure in the first 100 of the result. All our pigeons were on widowhood.
The race turned out to be an absolute grueller and from 69 pigeons sent (largest percentage yearlings) we got another 8 next day to make a total of 15 home. So much for getting the yearlings schooled for next years internationals.
The arrivals were as follows:
1st - grandchild of ‘Southfield Hugo’ 1st National Barcelona, 1st National Perpignan paired to a daughter of ‘Willeke’ 1st International St Vincent. Also a grandchild of ‘Southfield Darran’ 1st National St Vincent, 1st section, 7th National Perpignan, 3rd section, 3rd National, 7th International Pau paired to a daughter of ‘Sumerian fighter’ 1st International Barcelona.
2nd - grandchild of ‘Golden Barcelona’ Father of ‘Southfield Hugo’ ‘Southfield Gold Lady’ and gfather of ‘Southfield Gold x ‘Miss Gilbert’ mother of 1st National Agen & ‘Special one’ 1st International Barcelona x ‘Romee’
3rd - same way bred as the first arrival
4th - can’t find breeding so need to look up
5th - son of ‘Southfield Hugo’ 2 x 1st National paired to a daughter of ‘New Laureaat’ 1st International Barcelona
6th - daughter of ‘Kanibaal Barcelona’ 4th International Barcelona paired to a double grandchild of ‘Golden Barcelona’. This hen was 4th National Perpignan 2023.
7th - from a son of ‘New Jade1’ x ‘Saar’ and the mother is a daughter of ‘Sumerian Fighter’ 1st International Barcelona.
The race turned out to be much harder than we would have liked and let’s hope our brave pigeons make it home over the next few days. We know plenty of fanciers who are still waiting for their pigeons to arrive so fingers crossed they get them home.
Can we say a big well done to Mel and Sue King for winning the race but also to everyone that made it onto the sheet on an exceptionally difficult day. There were some fantastic birds further up country flying between 650 - 750 miles and everyone should be proud of the ones that made it home.

Well the weekend we had been waiting for finally arrived and we were competing from the Barcelona International and the Tarbes Grand National with the National Flying club on the same weekend.
The Barcelona International was liberated at 6.15am on Friday 5th July with light winds for the early part of the journey and stronger west/southwest winds expected from about Nantes onwards with gusting winds in the channel. We were expecting the winds to keep the birds over in the east and so as much as we would have liked them we were not expecting a repeat of last year for a day bird making it into the UK. We knew the birds would be close to Dover early morning but if they waited until then to cross would have to face the full force of a strong westerly wind and would take a few hours to get back to the central section.
We started waiting at the lofts 4.30am anyway and a lot of talk on how long they could be took place over coffee. The weather was awful all morning with loads of rain, a completely filled in sky and gale force winds which were stronger than forecast so as the morning went on it became clear the birds had an awful task ahead of them and we feared the worst for good returns.
We didn’t feel this year that we had the best team in Barcelona compared to other years so we’re hoping they would produce a surprise or two.
At 12.09pm our first bird arrived recording a velocity of 684ypm for the 698 mile (1122km) journey. We finally had one in the clock and seeing her condition we started to think as she was so well hopefully more will follow and follow they did.
Our next arrivals came at 12.20, 13.09, 14.40, 14.57, 15.26 and 19.15. We also had another one arrive at 6.31am this morning so at the time of writing this we have 8/22 home.
Team wise the birds managed to secure 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th,7th section & 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th British Barcelona Club and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th section & 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 19th British International Championship Club Barcelona. Not a bad days work by some very gutsy pigeons.
The birds breeding were as follows:
1st - from a son of Kees Droog’s ‘Blue Champion’ x ‘Rozalynn’ paired to a daughter of Jelle’s ‘Jack’ & ‘Dafne’
2nd - from a son of Jelle’s ‘Romee’ paired to a daughter of ‘Jack’ and ‘Dafne’
3rd - father is ‘Supreme Junior’ 1st National British International Championship Club Pau paired to a daughter of Jos Martens ‘Helios’
4th - a grandchild of ‘Southfield Iron Man’ 1st National BICC Perpignan 2018, 2nd National BICC Marseille 2018, 7th National BICC Palamos 2018 x ‘Southfield Dark Star’ 1st National BICC St Vincent and also a grandchild of ‘Golden Barcelona’.
5th - father is ‘Southfield King’ 1st Grand National NFC Pau 2020 paired to a daughter of ‘Lloyd’ 1st International Barcelona 2018.
6th - ‘Abigail’s star’ who was 1st British International Championship Club Agen 2022. She is from a son of ‘Sumerian Fighter’ 1st International Barcelona 2017 x a daughter of Jelle’s ‘Romee’.
The 7th arrival doesn’t appear to be in the system so will have to look up the breeding on this one at a later date.
Can we say congratulations to Andrei Bargaoanu for winning the BICC with his fantastic hen that was 4th Open Barcelona last year. We put her through at the marking station and told Andrei that she was in super condition and even joked with him that he would win it with her. Well done to you and your special hen.

3rd Club - 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 14th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 26th Exeter BB&O Federation 910 birds.