UkPigeonRacing

This weekend there were a couple of long races that proved hard races. Partly due to the heat but also because of distance. To get birds to fly 500 miles on the day takes a lot. They have to be up early and have almost ideal weather conditions.
There were no birds recorded at anywhere near 500 miles on the day this weekend.
Firstly the BICC were at Poitiers. There was the odd bird timed at around the 400 mile mark on the day but only 68 members recorded a first arrival out of 96. 3 more timed to day with velocities down to 400 ypm.
The BICC were also at St Vincent with the international. With fires in France around that area they were moved to Tarbes. They were liberated at 6.20am on Friday. The majority of members were flying between 520 & 580 miles. There were none into the UK on the day. Mark Gilbert timed the winner at 11.07 next day recording a velocity of 748ypm. There were 28 recorded on the second day. 3 for Mark, 4 for the Preece family and 2 for Geoff Cooper among others. A further 9 have been timed this morning with velocities now down in the 400s.
Finally the BBC were at Thurso on the North. There were no day birds down this way and the only ones recorded on the day were under 400 miles.
Just goes to show that you need exceptional pigeons to compete in these long races.

Thanks for the upd@te Andy ,

of course you do Andy which is what i have been saying you need extreme distance birds now 600-700 mls when you say 500 ml bird what you mean is 400-500mls you need to go better than that back in 60s at a clearence sale in Belfast of a good distance flier in Northern Ireland chap with lots off money only bought birds that had flown France into Ireland not sire .dam. brothers or sisters

Sorry to correct you Andy but there was one brave little bird belonging to Peter Hargreaves of Acrington that arrived home from its 519mile journey from Poitiers at 9.33pm doing 980ypm taking 2nd section 49th open. In my opinion that bird is every bit as good as the winner, one gallant little pigeon.
Some good performances again all round this weekend so well done to all concerned

George and Morgan wrote: ↑Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:12 pm of course you do Andy which is what i have been saying you need extreme distance birds now 600-700 mls when you say 500 ml bird what you mean is 400-500mls you need to go better than that back in 60s at a clearence sale in Belfast of a good distance flier in Northern Ireland chap with lots off money only bought birds that had flown France into Ireland not sire .dam. brothers or sisters

I do agree with what your saying George and if I wanted to achieve 600+ miles quickly the easiest way would be to buy pigeons that have done it or birds direct from them. But that’s not for me or what the intention of this venture was. The venture was to test members pigeons and develop a team capable of flying the longest races from them. It would be completely wrong of me to achieve the goal by buying in pigeons just to get there.
I won Lerwick 650 miles back in 1990, as well as timing another in 1991. Timed pigeons to score from Thurso a few times 550 miles and had the only bird in the Cornish Combine from Pau 540 miles back in 1998. All with birds of my own breeding and not from proven stock.

That is correct, Andy.

The project is "The Barcelona Test Loft".

In any other period of time, you would probably be much further in your plan to race from Barcelona.

In the last few years you have had to deal with Brexit and Covid, with the resulting impact on racing outside the UK. To your great credit, you have retained the original concept of the Barcelona project, which is to take young birds from forum members and try to forge a team to race from Barcelona.

With the present situation being what it is, the primary goal is more difficult. That is not your fault and I applaud your determination to continue.

Go Andy!