WELSH SOUTH ROAD NATIONAL FC
NORT sur ERDRE RACE REPORT.
This race point is situated just to the north of Nantes in the Loire Valley region of north west France. It gives a distance of around 300 miles to most Welsh Valleys lofts and is used by the long distance enthusiasts as a conditioner for the longer races from Saintes, Bergerac and Tarbes and as a test of the speed of their entrants by the middle distance fanciers.
A total of 726 birds were basketted on a lovely Thursday evening and the convoy arrived safely at the race point in late afternoon of the next day when they were fed and watered and bedded down for the night.
Unfortunately, during the night some local low lives broke into the transporter and some pigeons were stolen from the crates. This affected the liberation on the Saturday morning and the birds were eventually given their freedom at 6.20 am.
The race itself developed into a bit of an “enigma” as the pigeons seemed to struggle over the course with some early birds being clocked into the Pontypool area but many others seemingly dragging their way home over the course of the afternoon and evening, with I believe, good returns eventually.
The following report is based purely on first bird verification times and so the final result may well differ. So here we go…….
The eventual winner of the race was the Pontypool partnership of Ron Scammell and Paul Peploe. This must take their total of National wins into double figures!! In fact the partners had two round about cocks drop together one a yearling in its first ever channel race and the other a two year old having his SIXTH trip across the briney this YEAR. The yearling crossed the ETS pad first so he’s the National winner and is of M & D Evans Vandenabeele Shadow lines x Graham Thomas and son’s Ad Schaerlakens bloodlines.
I should point out here that Graham and Adam Thomas from Llantrisant are five times National winners in their own right and on a recent visit to their set up overlooking Llantrisant Common I was really impressed with both the pigeons and the lofts.
The second cock across the ETS pad has the following NATIONAL positions to his credit in 2015 alone:-
2nd National Nort sur Erdre;3rd National Messac[the week before Nort s Erdre];4th National Falaise;21st National Fougeres; 29th National Carentan and 31st west section BICC Falaise. Not bad for a lifetime let alone a six week period in one season. I hope to visit Ron and Paul again in the next couple of weeks and complete an up to date loft report on these super fanciers. An earlier report I completed on the partners can be found on the BICC web site and the Welsh SRFED web site run by Anthony Williams.
Third Open is to be found in the Cwmbran loft of Steve Jude. Steve clocked a yearling blue cock sent sitting 6 day eggs. He is bred from a father daughter mating from birds obtained from Don Jones of Usk and has had every race this season including the full channel programme and was raced to the coast as a young bird.
In fourth Open position is the partnership of John Rawlings, Son & Partner who clocked a yearling chequer hen sent feeding a two day old squab. The sire was bred by Derek Bevan and the dam by Derek’s Dad, Eric Bevan. She has had every channel race this season and was raced to the coast as a young bird last year.
In fifth spot on the provisional result is one of Wales’s greatest ever partnerships – Preece Brothers and sons of Cwmtillery. Sadly Henry Preece passed away just before the start of the season and I’m sure he would be pleased with the continuing success of the loft in his absence. In the Nort sur Erdre race they clocked a real battler and I’ll let John Preece give you the details:-
“THE BIRD WE TIMED IS THE SAME CHEQUER 2Y/R OLD ROUNDABOUT HEN THAT HAS BEEN IN OUR FIRST TWO BIRDS IN HER LAST 5 RACES. SHE IS OUR OLD MORGAN AND COOK/BURGHAMS BLOODLINES ON THE SIRES SIDE BEING A GRAND DAUGHTER OF OUR GOOD TARBES COCK GWASTED FLOODLIGHT AND HER DAM IS A DAUGHTER OF GEOFF COOPER’S WRIGGLER, THIS WAS A GIFT TO HENRY FROM CATHERINE AND GEOFF.
SHE HAS BEEN 5TH WSR NAT CARENTAN, 5TH WSR NAT FALAISE AND NOW 3RD WSR NAT NORT sur ERDRE. SHE WAS ALSO 4TH FED IN ONE OF THE INLAND RACES, THE BIRDS WERE IN GOOD CONDITION AND WE HAVE 3 MISSING FROM 30 AS I WRITE THIS. COULD YOU THANK MY BROTHER LEIGH WHO HAS WORKED REALLY HARD HELPING ME WITH THE BIRDS.”
Winning the Centre East section and taking 6th Open is one to the Nantyglo partnership of Gareth and Stuart Treharne. Stuart had this to say about their latest section winning performance:-
“It was a yearling hen bred from Alan's Lad our Saintes National and Gold Cup winner when he was paired to a daughter of “The Machine”. She is a sister to the hen that was 2nd section BICC Tours a few weeks ago. Our second pigeon which is a yearling cock and looks like second section according to the provisional result is a Rutz pigeon bred out of a daughter of Rocco . Both were raced on conventional roundabout. A lot of the birds had been through heavy rain and did well to get home we had 17 out of 23 on the day with 3 more the following morning, so not bad considering the conditions . We weren't happy with the false liberation as we thought we were so far behind we really didn't rush to get the birds in and I guess everyone else was the same. Finally we would like to congratulate Paul and Ron on another great win in very trying conditions, well done boys.”
John and Pat Webber of Six Bells near Abertillery have an enviable record at Fed, Combine and National level here in Wales and in the Nort race they come up trumps once again with a pigeon to take 5th east section 7th Open. This is what John and Pat had to say about their timer:-
“Our timer this week from Nort-sur-Erdre is a 3 year old blue w/f cock and is a cross from a blue pied Andre Roodhof hen direct from the man himself with a son from Lovell Bros no 1 pair. He is a consistent pigeon but has never won a great deal but a real character to have around the loft. This time he helped us gain a good placing in what turned out to be a very challenging affair. He was sent sitting 10 day eggs and arrived home after 7hrs 20mins no worse for wear and he’s already out and about this Sunday morning cracking his wings together in a very fresh north west wind”.
Daniel Strickland flying under the banner of R Strickland & grand son comes in next at 8th Open with a yearling hen on round about. This one is bred in the purple as her sire was bred by Spencer Jones from his 1st & 2nd Open BICC winners whilst the dam is down from Lovell brothers National winner.
Shane Lewis of Abergavenny then takes 9th Open. Shane clocked a two year old blue hen bred by Alan Maull containing Jacob Portvliet and Van Loon bloodlines sent feeding a 10 day old baby. She has had every channel race this year at fortnightly intervals and these have included 2 x Falaise , Alencon and Tours with the BICC plus Nort sur Erdre with the Welsh SRNFC . In the BICC Falaise race she proved to be the first bird into Wales.
Shane’s hen was closely followed by one to the multiple National winning Lovell Brothers, who finished at 4th Open in the Carentan National, coming in to finish off the top ten at 10th Open here. The partners have in fact won SEVEN Nationals here in Wales and in this race they clocked a yearling widowhood hen that has had every race in the programme so far, including all inland and all channel races. She’s been on a couple of the National results earlier this season and is bred from Scammell & Ppeloe Nearly Cock bloodlines when crossed with birds from the late great David Evans of Gelligaer.
Around the sections now and the winners in the East section have all been featured in the top ten Open round up. So we’ll move on to the winners in the Centre East section where, assuming that the Treharne’s two timers take 1st & 2nd Centre East section, then in third place in the Centre East section we have to go down to the metropolis of CAAARE DIFF and one to “’Ark ‘Ark the lark its Nobby Clark” out at his Fairwater fastness. Nobby clocked a two year old latebred cock which was trained but unraced as a baby had one race as a yearling and this year has been put through the mincer having every channel race with the Welsh SRNFC. His hen was lost earlier in the season and so he was racing celibate.
The Centre west winner was timed by Alun Waters. Alun, in only his second season back in the sport, clocked a two year old blue cock of Invincible Spirit x R O Jones bloodlines. The cock is flown on the round about system and this was his third channel crossing of the year having previously been at Ypres with the Welsh SENFC and Fougeres with the Welsh South Road NFC. Alun’s second bird close behind looks good enough for 2nd section as well.
In third spot is a Jos Thone round about cock to the Brynna partnership of O’Connor and Bloss.
Over in the West section the birds had to really dig in to fight the strong westerly wind and intermittent showers of drizzle and poor visibility. Taking top honours here was one to the Maesteg partnership of Williams & Watts. This yearling hen bred by Dai Smith of Bristol has scored in every channel race this year for the partners and is of Vandenabeele bloodlines. Another one of the Smith imports topped the section of the Welsh SRFed from Portland the previous week.
Watkins Brothers of Neath then come in at 2nnd west section with a 2 year old Grizzle cock, out of Louwik Bros, A McFenton and J Smale Grizzles, sent feeding single YB. He has also won 1st Club Carentan this year and this was only it's 7th race.
At third west section is a bird flying to the Ystradgynlais lofts of Bryan and Anthony Williams. This one is a Walter Docx x Janssen dark cock bred by their good friend Andy Haydn from Rugeley in the Midlands. He was 32nd BICC as a young bird and was the partners’ 2nd bird from Fougeres 2 weeks ago. Flown on the widowhood system he has had every race this year except the Portland race the week prior to Nort s Erdre.
So the provisional top ten in the Open looks like this:-
1st Scammell & Peploe of Garndiffaith vel 1199.48
2nd Scammell & Peploe vel 1198.44
3rd Steve Jude of Cwmbran vel 1196.
4th J Rawlings ,son & Partner vel 1191
5th Preece Brothers & sons vel 1190
6th Treharne &son of Nantyglo vel 1189
7th J & P Webber vel1188.4
8th R Strickland & Grandson vel1185.4
9th Shane Lewis vel 1184.7
10th Lovell Brothers vel 1176
Finally a get well message for our secretary Charlie Silver who was in hospital until the day of the Nort sur Erdre race and yet still managed to get a provisional race result/early times notification on the web site on the day of the race. Take it easy Charlie and let the committee take some of the strain.
I ask once again, if you feature in the top ten of the Open or first three positions in the section results then please make an effort to contact me with details of your pigeons either on the day of the race or at the very latest early the next day. If you want me to continue as your PO until the end of the season then please make an effort on your own behalf. It’s up to you gentlemen.
Gareth Watkins
NORT sur ERDRE RACE REPORT.
This race point is situated just to the north of Nantes in the Loire Valley region of north west France. It gives a distance of around 300 miles to most Welsh Valleys lofts and is used by the long distance enthusiasts as a conditioner for the longer races from Saintes, Bergerac and Tarbes and as a test of the speed of their entrants by the middle distance fanciers.
A total of 726 birds were basketted on a lovely Thursday evening and the convoy arrived safely at the race point in late afternoon of the next day when they were fed and watered and bedded down for the night.
Unfortunately, during the night some local low lives broke into the transporter and some pigeons were stolen from the crates. This affected the liberation on the Saturday morning and the birds were eventually given their freedom at 6.20 am.
The race itself developed into a bit of an “enigma” as the pigeons seemed to struggle over the course with some early birds being clocked into the Pontypool area but many others seemingly dragging their way home over the course of the afternoon and evening, with I believe, good returns eventually.
The following report is based purely on first bird verification times and so the final result may well differ. So here we go…….
The eventual winner of the race was the Pontypool partnership of Ron Scammell and Paul Peploe. This must take their total of National wins into double figures!! In fact the partners had two round about cocks drop together one a yearling in its first ever channel race and the other a two year old having his SIXTH trip across the briney this YEAR. The yearling crossed the ETS pad first so he’s the National winner and is of M & D Evans Vandenabeele Shadow lines x Graham Thomas and son’s Ad Schaerlakens bloodlines.
I should point out here that Graham and Adam Thomas from Llantrisant are five times National winners in their own right and on a recent visit to their set up overlooking Llantrisant Common I was really impressed with both the pigeons and the lofts.
The second cock across the ETS pad has the following NATIONAL positions to his credit in 2015 alone:-
2nd National Nort sur Erdre;3rd National Messac[the week before Nort s Erdre];4th National Falaise;21st National Fougeres; 29th National Carentan and 31st west section BICC Falaise. Not bad for a lifetime let alone a six week period in one season. I hope to visit Ron and Paul again in the next couple of weeks and complete an up to date loft report on these super fanciers. An earlier report I completed on the partners can be found on the BICC web site and the Welsh SRFED web site run by Anthony Williams.
Third Open is to be found in the Cwmbran loft of Steve Jude. Steve clocked a yearling blue cock sent sitting 6 day eggs. He is bred from a father daughter mating from birds obtained from Don Jones of Usk and has had every race this season including the full channel programme and was raced to the coast as a young bird.
In fourth Open position is the partnership of John Rawlings, Son & Partner who clocked a yearling chequer hen sent feeding a two day old squab. The sire was bred by Derek Bevan and the dam by Derek’s Dad, Eric Bevan. She has had every channel race this season and was raced to the coast as a young bird last year.
In fifth spot on the provisional result is one of Wales’s greatest ever partnerships – Preece Brothers and sons of Cwmtillery. Sadly Henry Preece passed away just before the start of the season and I’m sure he would be pleased with the continuing success of the loft in his absence. In the Nort sur Erdre race they clocked a real battler and I’ll let John Preece give you the details:-
“THE BIRD WE TIMED IS THE SAME CHEQUER 2Y/R OLD ROUNDABOUT HEN THAT HAS BEEN IN OUR FIRST TWO BIRDS IN HER LAST 5 RACES. SHE IS OUR OLD MORGAN AND COOK/BURGHAMS BLOODLINES ON THE SIRES SIDE BEING A GRAND DAUGHTER OF OUR GOOD TARBES COCK GWASTED FLOODLIGHT AND HER DAM IS A DAUGHTER OF GEOFF COOPER’S WRIGGLER, THIS WAS A GIFT TO HENRY FROM CATHERINE AND GEOFF.
SHE HAS BEEN 5TH WSR NAT CARENTAN, 5TH WSR NAT FALAISE AND NOW 3RD WSR NAT NORT sur ERDRE. SHE WAS ALSO 4TH FED IN ONE OF THE INLAND RACES, THE BIRDS WERE IN GOOD CONDITION AND WE HAVE 3 MISSING FROM 30 AS I WRITE THIS. COULD YOU THANK MY BROTHER LEIGH WHO HAS WORKED REALLY HARD HELPING ME WITH THE BIRDS.”
Winning the Centre East section and taking 6th Open is one to the Nantyglo partnership of Gareth and Stuart Treharne. Stuart had this to say about their latest section winning performance:-
“It was a yearling hen bred from Alan's Lad our Saintes National and Gold Cup winner when he was paired to a daughter of “The Machine”. She is a sister to the hen that was 2nd section BICC Tours a few weeks ago. Our second pigeon which is a yearling cock and looks like second section according to the provisional result is a Rutz pigeon bred out of a daughter of Rocco . Both were raced on conventional roundabout. A lot of the birds had been through heavy rain and did well to get home we had 17 out of 23 on the day with 3 more the following morning, so not bad considering the conditions . We weren't happy with the false liberation as we thought we were so far behind we really didn't rush to get the birds in and I guess everyone else was the same. Finally we would like to congratulate Paul and Ron on another great win in very trying conditions, well done boys.”
John and Pat Webber of Six Bells near Abertillery have an enviable record at Fed, Combine and National level here in Wales and in the Nort race they come up trumps once again with a pigeon to take 5th east section 7th Open. This is what John and Pat had to say about their timer:-
“Our timer this week from Nort-sur-Erdre is a 3 year old blue w/f cock and is a cross from a blue pied Andre Roodhof hen direct from the man himself with a son from Lovell Bros no 1 pair. He is a consistent pigeon but has never won a great deal but a real character to have around the loft. This time he helped us gain a good placing in what turned out to be a very challenging affair. He was sent sitting 10 day eggs and arrived home after 7hrs 20mins no worse for wear and he’s already out and about this Sunday morning cracking his wings together in a very fresh north west wind”.
Daniel Strickland flying under the banner of R Strickland & grand son comes in next at 8th Open with a yearling hen on round about. This one is bred in the purple as her sire was bred by Spencer Jones from his 1st & 2nd Open BICC winners whilst the dam is down from Lovell brothers National winner.
Shane Lewis of Abergavenny then takes 9th Open. Shane clocked a two year old blue hen bred by Alan Maull containing Jacob Portvliet and Van Loon bloodlines sent feeding a 10 day old baby. She has had every channel race this year at fortnightly intervals and these have included 2 x Falaise , Alencon and Tours with the BICC plus Nort sur Erdre with the Welsh SRNFC . In the BICC Falaise race she proved to be the first bird into Wales.
Shane’s hen was closely followed by one to the multiple National winning Lovell Brothers, who finished at 4th Open in the Carentan National, coming in to finish off the top ten at 10th Open here. The partners have in fact won SEVEN Nationals here in Wales and in this race they clocked a yearling widowhood hen that has had every race in the programme so far, including all inland and all channel races. She’s been on a couple of the National results earlier this season and is bred from Scammell & Ppeloe Nearly Cock bloodlines when crossed with birds from the late great David Evans of Gelligaer.
Around the sections now and the winners in the East section have all been featured in the top ten Open round up. So we’ll move on to the winners in the Centre East section where, assuming that the Treharne’s two timers take 1st & 2nd Centre East section, then in third place in the Centre East section we have to go down to the metropolis of CAAARE DIFF and one to “’Ark ‘Ark the lark its Nobby Clark” out at his Fairwater fastness. Nobby clocked a two year old latebred cock which was trained but unraced as a baby had one race as a yearling and this year has been put through the mincer having every channel race with the Welsh SRNFC. His hen was lost earlier in the season and so he was racing celibate.
The Centre west winner was timed by Alun Waters. Alun, in only his second season back in the sport, clocked a two year old blue cock of Invincible Spirit x R O Jones bloodlines. The cock is flown on the round about system and this was his third channel crossing of the year having previously been at Ypres with the Welsh SENFC and Fougeres with the Welsh South Road NFC. Alun’s second bird close behind looks good enough for 2nd section as well.
In third spot is a Jos Thone round about cock to the Brynna partnership of O’Connor and Bloss.
Over in the West section the birds had to really dig in to fight the strong westerly wind and intermittent showers of drizzle and poor visibility. Taking top honours here was one to the Maesteg partnership of Williams & Watts. This yearling hen bred by Dai Smith of Bristol has scored in every channel race this year for the partners and is of Vandenabeele bloodlines. Another one of the Smith imports topped the section of the Welsh SRFed from Portland the previous week.
Watkins Brothers of Neath then come in at 2nnd west section with a 2 year old Grizzle cock, out of Louwik Bros, A McFenton and J Smale Grizzles, sent feeding single YB. He has also won 1st Club Carentan this year and this was only it's 7th race.
At third west section is a bird flying to the Ystradgynlais lofts of Bryan and Anthony Williams. This one is a Walter Docx x Janssen dark cock bred by their good friend Andy Haydn from Rugeley in the Midlands. He was 32nd BICC as a young bird and was the partners’ 2nd bird from Fougeres 2 weeks ago. Flown on the widowhood system he has had every race this year except the Portland race the week prior to Nort s Erdre.
So the provisional top ten in the Open looks like this:-
1st Scammell & Peploe of Garndiffaith vel 1199.48
2nd Scammell & Peploe vel 1198.44
3rd Steve Jude of Cwmbran vel 1196.
4th J Rawlings ,son & Partner vel 1191
5th Preece Brothers & sons vel 1190
6th Treharne &son of Nantyglo vel 1189
7th J & P Webber vel1188.4
8th R Strickland & Grandson vel1185.4
9th Shane Lewis vel 1184.7
10th Lovell Brothers vel 1176
Finally a get well message for our secretary Charlie Silver who was in hospital until the day of the Nort sur Erdre race and yet still managed to get a provisional race result/early times notification on the web site on the day of the race. Take it easy Charlie and let the committee take some of the strain.
I ask once again, if you feature in the top ten of the Open or first three positions in the section results then please make an effort to contact me with details of your pigeons either on the day of the race or at the very latest early the next day. If you want me to continue as your PO until the end of the season then please make an effort on your own behalf. It’s up to you gentlemen.
Gareth Watkins