That does seem a lot the chap that won my club last week had 16/17 in about 4 minsMIL wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2024 9:11 am The other week Trev we know that your Fed (like many others) had a horror race
Saturday's racing was a lot better, but I still can't get my head round your Fed result
Birdage is low I know, but there's like the guts of 20 mins to cover the first 40 from 80 miles
In my book that's ..... well, unheard of in our part of the world
Littlehampton RPC
It is certainly quite different racing to different parts of the country. Our combine can be well split. Three weeks ago our combine sent over 2,200 birds. There was more than 10 minutes between the 1st & the 50th combine from around 50 miles.
That’s with some members sending 50+ birds.
Some weeks even bigger gaps. We don’t go over 130 miles in the combine for the furthest members.
That’s with some members sending 50+ birds.
Some weeks even bigger gaps. We don’t go over 130 miles in the combine for the furthest members.
Back just enjoying club racing for the time being.
When we raced South Road from West to East velocities were much closer and if you look at their Fed results they still are, but of course they are pretty much racing in a straight line along the coast so there is very little if any drag, other than the Horsham birds that have to head around 15miles inland. Racing in that federation is very much dictated by the wind strength and direction.NeilA wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2024 9:48 amThat does seem a lot the chap that won my club last week had 16/17 in about 4 minsMIL wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2024 9:11 am The other week Trev we know that your Fed (like many others) had a horror race
Saturday's racing was a lot better, but I still can't get my head round your Fed result
Birdage is low I know, but there's like the guts of 20 mins to cover the first 40 from 80 miles
In my book that's ..... well, unheard of in our part of the world
With our Fed being so wide the birds have to split somewhere on route, I think this is where training and having lead pigeons really comes into play. As I've said previously, we rarely see a week when there isn't at least one bird from all 5 clubs in the Fed top 40, in my opinion this shows that these are the break away/lead birds. It then depends which lead the rest choose to follow as to where they end up, if you look at the times in our club last week and were to look at the loft positions of our members it would suggest that most of the birds in our club result probably followed Alan's first pigeons.
If I was clever enough to show where abouts our members were positioned it would be clearer. From this race we had 6 members sending, from West to east they are, Alan Akemenkalns in Barnham almost due North of Alan Still in Felpham, Malcolm Colliss in Littlehampton, next loft to the east of Alan, then Dave Winter is next on the Littlehampton/Rustington border, then would be Martin Watson in Angmering and finally me in Patching. The fact that all my early birds came up from the South would back this up as would the times that the birds were clocked in.
Now obviously some of our more easterly fed birds will also have come over to the west whereas our later birds would almost certainly have been dragged down to the East which would potentially mean for some birds an extra 40 plus miles back to home.
To me though that is the beauty of this sport, we never really know exactly where our birds go and we certainly don't have all the answers. If the day ever comes that one fancier does crack the code to success in this sport, which I doubt will ever be the case, this sport will be finished.
This week our birds were liberated at 9.30 from Melton Mobray, with a light South West wind given at the liberation. Ideally the birds maybe should have gone a bit earlier as the winds were predicted to pick up, however with other organisations liberating at sites South of us it was decided to hold until they had passed.
I was hopefull that something would turn within 3hrs but as the wind soon got stronger down here that was going to depend on what the wind was doing elsewhere.
Half past 12 came and went with no sign of anything and to be honest there were very few wild birds risking it either !! I was down near the loft doing some repairs to my strimmer when out of the corner of my eye I saw a bird land straight on the drop board and disappear into the loft, the little blue pied hen was in the clock at 12.57.04. Just as I was leaving the loft another bird appeared from the east over the roof of our house, wings up and gliding in like a missile, that one took a little longer to get his breath before going in and was on the clock at 13.00.45. Over the next 20 minutes I had a steady flow of birds arriving, all coming in high above the house from the east. What surprised me most, considering the wind, is how high they were and apart from the 2nd bird, just how quickly they trapped, it was like they were being chased !!
By 1.21 I had 9/15 home the others drifted in over the next couple of hours with the last one turning up at 3.12, so all in all, considering how windy it was, I was pleased to get them all home.
This is my clock sheet and our club result.
I was a bit surprised to be top of the sheet, although with the wind as it was the conditions were in my favour, all the early birds in the Federation were in the east with the winner being in the Eastbourne club. It is a bit of a hollow victory as there were very few birds sent again and only half of our members sent, with the man in form Alan Still giving this one a miss too, but a win is a win and I'll take it anyway, you can only beat what's against you !! This race was due to be our 200miler which is what I'd been preparing my birds for so was pleased to get the win, hopefully the birds have hit a bit of form which they'll carry into the last 3 races. My first bird is a daughter of my good blue Cock of Rich Gould Lambrecht/Gabby lines paired to a Blue pied Hen from Buster, sadly I lost the Cock from Crieff this year but I do still have the hen.
I also won the club pools with my 2nd bird.
This is the Fed top 10.
All the best.
I was hopefull that something would turn within 3hrs but as the wind soon got stronger down here that was going to depend on what the wind was doing elsewhere.
Half past 12 came and went with no sign of anything and to be honest there were very few wild birds risking it either !! I was down near the loft doing some repairs to my strimmer when out of the corner of my eye I saw a bird land straight on the drop board and disappear into the loft, the little blue pied hen was in the clock at 12.57.04. Just as I was leaving the loft another bird appeared from the east over the roof of our house, wings up and gliding in like a missile, that one took a little longer to get his breath before going in and was on the clock at 13.00.45. Over the next 20 minutes I had a steady flow of birds arriving, all coming in high above the house from the east. What surprised me most, considering the wind, is how high they were and apart from the 2nd bird, just how quickly they trapped, it was like they were being chased !!
By 1.21 I had 9/15 home the others drifted in over the next couple of hours with the last one turning up at 3.12, so all in all, considering how windy it was, I was pleased to get them all home.
This is my clock sheet and our club result.
I also won the club pools with my 2nd bird.
This is the Fed top 10.
