Littlehampton RPC

[Trev]

Its a fair point Andy

On the one hand I'd like to say "It doesn't make much difference"

On the other hand would I want my birds taking flight 20 secs later than someone else's? No I would not

When I'm training once the flaps are down in 20 secs my birds are probably 600 yards away - thats the reality

But who knows if it's not the last one out of the crate, who doesn't get stuck in the batch, which is the first one home !!
Personally I don't think it makes any difference as the birds tend to all gather in a batch again before heading off anyway !! Just my opinion, and in all honesty its something we will never truly know. I'd rather mine were a few seconds later out than driven into the ground by those above them !!

[Trev]

For me, these YB never cleared the Lib site properly, because no Federation winners fly at less than 1000 ypm from such a short distance

Either the entire convoy has gone walkabout en route home (possible) or time has been lost clearing from the site (probable with it being 1st race)

There's every reason to think that next week the birds will reach what you'd class as a more normal speed, even though there'll be more 1st timers on board too

One thing you do know from the weekend Trevor is that Alan Still is going to be a force to contend with for you this YB season

Sent 15 and put 6 in the clock in just over 30 secs, there's every reason to think his will improve this coming week too

Like I said on the thread Good practice/training if you want to beat him you've gotta fight fire with fire

Alan is one our top sprint fliers Mike, he always takes some beating !! He does train his birds hard and is ruthless with them, but then he's also retired so has plenty of time !!
The interesting thing with this race is that on the whole training clearly made little or no difference, as those who trained hard leading into the race weren't much better of than those who had done very little training !!
As you say, this week will be a very different story.

[NeilA]

I think when you train and you can count 7/8 seconds and your birds are still in your vision in tne distance you wouldn’t win my club Saturday
mine is not a top ace sprinting club just has 4 very decent lofts in it and some that are improving
Mark Bulled always tells me sprint races are won at the race point and with wind also being a vital part to the result
Another example my pals a convoyer
When he libs a fed birds they circled for a bit when he use to lib the 5 bird club they hardly moved off the line mainly as there hand picked fast pigeons with less duffers

[MIL]

Sorry Trevor, my analysis and opinion is somewhat different to yours

Will be online later hopefully

[MIL]

Ok here we go

The good news Trevor is this was Race 1 of the YB season. A race that saw small entries at Fed level and all inexperienced pigeons. There's only so much that can be learned from this race because its not the most authentic of results. The guy who is 1.2. Fed wins the Fed by nearly 5 clear minutes. I don't know where he's from or anything Trevor but would he be one of the further fliers? I would expect him to be a further flier really.

I live in Rugeley, and within 15 mins of my house there's birds racing from Stafford, Penkridge and Cannock. They all race from 15 mins of me. I've seen many liberations and you're right, 99% of them swirl around trogether "x" number of times before clearing. They aren't the winners - the winners are away from the pack and gone. Seen it with my own eyes numerous times

Tell me what you make of this. 1st YB race the other year I was on the phone to Gary Gordon and they have a good mate who flies in the same Combine as them 30 miles short of them. This fella was on 17 past, but he said "there's a batch of about 20-25 went through here a good 2-3 mins ahead of me - some white ones in it too".. So I said to Gary that's you knackered then cos you haven't got white ones. "Not so fast" he said.... "There's 5 or 6 Pretty Pieds in the team this year and they'll look white from ground level. If we have birds in that kit we need to be on 49".

I called him at 48 and we were chatting, 48:50... 49:00. 49:10... 49:20 nothing then BOOM - 24 together including 3 Pretty Pieds.
They were the first 24 in the Combine
That race was Navan 68 miles- and 30 miles away from home those birds were clear
So you tell me where was that race won?

Alan might be retired but that's not why he wins. Sure he might have more time/opportunity to get a toss in or something but I can give you plenty of good lofts where the guy is a sole flier and working every day. What's important is the attention to detail that you apply to the birds when you are on the garden

Looking at your club result the top 2 lofts both had a handful of birds arrive together. In Alan's case almost 50% of his entries were in the clock in around about 30 secs. No other loft achieved that. So whilst only so much can be gleemed from that 1st race its indicative to me that those birds that are probably well schooled, well drilled and well trained and thats why they are the ones that are leading the way

The concern for Alan's competitors is that that will repeat itself time and again this YB season

If you don't fight fire with fire you'll be burned. Simples

[Trev]

Thanks for your comments Mike, I do value everyone's opinions, especially those who have achieved far more than I have, and ever will. I might not always agree with them, but then thats the beauty of this sport.
I wasn't suggesting that Alan wins because he's retired, only that he has more time for training and the finer points required. Alan is a top flier and all round nice guy, he has achieved most things with his pigeons over the years and at one time he was employed by a rich Arab in Saudi to train and race his pigeons. He will have a bit more competition this week as several members, like young Danny Porter, who didn't race last week will be sending, and these are others who do put in the hard yards.
The fed winner isn't one of the longer fliers, he's about middle, from this race they aberage between 60-70miles, our fed is spread over 60miles along the South Coast, so as we race from tue North our distances are very similar. You'll see more from the federation result attached.
I appreciate more this year than ever before the advantages of training, especially for the sprint races, but I'm afraid I just don't have the energy or the competitive drive these days for it, after years of getting up at silly o'clock to milk cows, these days I can't get my arse out of bed early to train pigeons before having to do a days work. My set up isn't great at the moment either, all my birds fly together which makes it a ball ache to basket my youngsters for training.

I'm still not convinced though that you/we can tell if its the first or last out of the crate who win the race, not without tracking them !!! But that's just my opinion, for what it's worth

This is the federation result for our first youngbird race, when you look at it bear in mind that my birds have only had 4 trainers, 2 @ 10miles and 2 at 20miles, so to be within spitting distance on week one I'm pretty pleased with.

All the best.

[Buster121]

Your birds did you proud mate and will only get better as time goes on

[Murray]

Thanks for your interest and comments guys, they are much appreciated.
We didn't get a conveyer report, just that they were liberated into a light South West wind, there is a video of the liberation which unfortunately I can't put on here, it was cloudy on site, the birds took a little while to start coming out of the baskets and did were still circling when the video ended but that was only seconds so I don't how long they did circle for. When you look at the result, although the birds were slow they obviously stayed together in batches as all clubs, once again, clocked in birds around the same time. The birds also got dragged all the the place as most members had birds come back in all afternoon, we also had a couple of our club members have birds reported, on Saturday, the other side of Portsmouth which suggests that they had possibly got in with other birds going that way. The really strange thing though is that although very slow, most people had good returns !!
Let's see what happens this week, I imagine we will have twice as many birds as a lot of members didn't send last week.

On a very slow young bird race like that, where there are good returns, I reckon they got in with another mob and took the scenic route. Won't hurt them.

[Murray]

The thing that once again comes out of this conversation is the lofts that regularly win are the ones that train thoroughly.
Blokes with 'you beaut' lofts, expensive feeds, a cupboard full of additives and the latest pigeons get beaten by someone with a modest set up.
Why? His pigeons are fit and educated.
Just about every race is won at the start. The winners leave immediately. But I reckon races are lost at the other end.
After an hour or two at race speed the birds that are a bit fat and soft will start running out of steam, while the ones that are fit and hard will push on. I might be wrong, but I think they can fly on a free loft all day but it is a different sort of fitness to fly 100 miles in a straight line at race speed.

[MIL]

We're different fanciers you and I Trev and that shows in the way we go about doing things

Your primary passion is for the longer events, whilst mine is in the shorter disciplines

Doesn't make me better than you, or vice versa, we're just different that's all

I've been trying to get you to see things a different way but I'm gonna need to step away from this one now

Very best of luck tomorrow, and for the rest of 2024