"The Cobbler"
Northamptonshire
Ramblings
April 2010
Ramblings
April 2010
It seems to me that the power of the internet is transforming the sport of pigeon racing, and examples of both “For Better or for Worse”, can easily be found. The speed with which computer technology continues to progress, seems to continue unabated, and the danger for those who use computers and visit the internet, is that it is easy to be left behind. Perhaps it is the fanciers who are in no way shape or form technologically or computer-minded, who have been so vocally opposed to electronic timing ~ who knows?
There are some excellent web sites dedicated to various aspects of the sport, and if you have set your stall out to fly in the distance races, then I do suggest you have a look at Nigel Lane’s www.pigeon-racing-post.org. The site concentrates on International racing, and has links to all the European clubs, but equally lists all the pigeon vitality articles, along with some excellent and interesting contributions from John Clements. The pictures and graphics are superb and as with Les Parkinson’s site at www.elimarpigeons.com (where many of my own articles are stored), a lot of time and effort must be put in to keep them fresh. The National Flying Club www.nationalflyingclub.co.uk has recently updated part of its’ web site - namely the discussion page, and I have it on good authority that having recently upgraded the NFC computer equipment the whole site is going to be revamped in the not too distant future. There is an interesting single bird challenge in the topics page for the Tarbes race this year, which sadly by the time this article gets into print may have closed, and this links back to another excellent site albeit with a commercial characteristic, and that is Paul O’Leary’s www.pbosolutions.co.uk site. I am more than willing to give an unprejudiced plug as I have recently purchased a new program from Paul, and the back-up and support he gives if needed, is in this day and age quite exceptional. I used to think the NFC site was top of the list for the various clubs, but Richard Green’s BBC site www.britishbarcelonaclub.co.uk is now in my opinion one of the best specialist club sites. Again just my opinion - and doubtless I will receive the normal adverse observation for it - the MNFC site, www.mnfc.org.uk is absolutely dire and desperately needs upgrading., which is all the more strange when the race secretary has a personal web site with a live web cam in the loft. It takes ages to load and then only gives limited information and still requires registration. The RPRA (www.rpra.org) updated their site last year with much trumpeting, and it contains a good deal of basic information doubtless needed by fanciers from time to time, but is not kept sufficiently up to date with current news. At the time of writing I note there have only been two additions to the news section in the whole of this current year. I also feel the pigeons-in-war section could contain pictures or even film clips, rather than just a list of birds that have won Dickin Medals. It would seem the number one site for general discussion is www.pigeon-chat.com where just about every imaginable topic is open for discussion. This site certainly seems to bring out the worse and the best insomuch you can effortlessly find comments from ultra negative to super helpful. I can remember a comment a year or so ago from Jan Deacon when she was secretary of the BICC, that “she didn’t do web sites as they cause too much negativity” and she may well have been right, as some of the negatives expressed of late on this site towards the RPRA about the 2010 rings and rule 241 changes have been ‘full-on’ to say the least. Perhaps that’s why the BICC still doesn’t have its own web site, but Dennis Wall fills the gap for them with www.iprr.co.uk Both Unikon and Bricon, and possibly others have also adopted “YouTube” with various instructional short films that can be watched. The sport has in the last decade or so become ‘global’ in the sense that via the various search engines it is simple enough to explore pigeon racing in other countries, and a good example of this is the Sun City race which has a dozen or more ‘YouTube’ clips that can be viewed, and clearly have been, by literally tens of thousands of viewers.
Occasionally I receive the odd phone call from non-fanciers who have found me via my own web site that I have linked with white bird releases, and I recently received just such a call from a lady in Kettering (Northants). I am always suspicious of non fanciers asking about strays they have found, and this was no exception, so after all the normal questions, such as have you actually caught the bird and does it have a metal ring on its leg, I was amused to be told it was shut in the garage and she couldn’t possibly touch the bird as the lady concerned was frightened of pigeons albeit an animal lover. I tried to think who I knew closest to the address given, and Steve Gubbins kindly volunteered to collect ~ which he did to his credit within about ten minutes of the phone call. He ‘e’-mailed me a photo of the bird he’d collected and we both had a good laugh as I threatened to put the picture in the BHW, and true to my word I have sent it in with this article. It does of course beg the question as to who is the better looking.
There are some excellent web sites dedicated to various aspects of the sport, and if you have set your stall out to fly in the distance races, then I do suggest you have a look at Nigel Lane’s www.pigeon-racing-post.org. The site concentrates on International racing, and has links to all the European clubs, but equally lists all the pigeon vitality articles, along with some excellent and interesting contributions from John Clements. The pictures and graphics are superb and as with Les Parkinson’s site at www.elimarpigeons.com (where many of my own articles are stored), a lot of time and effort must be put in to keep them fresh. The National Flying Club www.nationalflyingclub.co.uk has recently updated part of its’ web site - namely the discussion page, and I have it on good authority that having recently upgraded the NFC computer equipment the whole site is going to be revamped in the not too distant future. There is an interesting single bird challenge in the topics page for the Tarbes race this year, which sadly by the time this article gets into print may have closed, and this links back to another excellent site albeit with a commercial characteristic, and that is Paul O’Leary’s www.pbosolutions.co.uk site. I am more than willing to give an unprejudiced plug as I have recently purchased a new program from Paul, and the back-up and support he gives if needed, is in this day and age quite exceptional. I used to think the NFC site was top of the list for the various clubs, but Richard Green’s BBC site www.britishbarcelonaclub.co.uk is now in my opinion one of the best specialist club sites. Again just my opinion - and doubtless I will receive the normal adverse observation for it - the MNFC site, www.mnfc.org.uk is absolutely dire and desperately needs upgrading., which is all the more strange when the race secretary has a personal web site with a live web cam in the loft. It takes ages to load and then only gives limited information and still requires registration. The RPRA (www.rpra.org) updated their site last year with much trumpeting, and it contains a good deal of basic information doubtless needed by fanciers from time to time, but is not kept sufficiently up to date with current news. At the time of writing I note there have only been two additions to the news section in the whole of this current year. I also feel the pigeons-in-war section could contain pictures or even film clips, rather than just a list of birds that have won Dickin Medals. It would seem the number one site for general discussion is www.pigeon-chat.com where just about every imaginable topic is open for discussion. This site certainly seems to bring out the worse and the best insomuch you can effortlessly find comments from ultra negative to super helpful. I can remember a comment a year or so ago from Jan Deacon when she was secretary of the BICC, that “she didn’t do web sites as they cause too much negativity” and she may well have been right, as some of the negatives expressed of late on this site towards the RPRA about the 2010 rings and rule 241 changes have been ‘full-on’ to say the least. Perhaps that’s why the BICC still doesn’t have its own web site, but Dennis Wall fills the gap for them with www.iprr.co.uk Both Unikon and Bricon, and possibly others have also adopted “YouTube” with various instructional short films that can be watched. The sport has in the last decade or so become ‘global’ in the sense that via the various search engines it is simple enough to explore pigeon racing in other countries, and a good example of this is the Sun City race which has a dozen or more ‘YouTube’ clips that can be viewed, and clearly have been, by literally tens of thousands of viewers.
Occasionally I receive the odd phone call from non-fanciers who have found me via my own web site that I have linked with white bird releases, and I recently received just such a call from a lady in Kettering (Northants). I am always suspicious of non fanciers asking about strays they have found, and this was no exception, so after all the normal questions, such as have you actually caught the bird and does it have a metal ring on its leg, I was amused to be told it was shut in the garage and she couldn’t possibly touch the bird as the lady concerned was frightened of pigeons albeit an animal lover. I tried to think who I knew closest to the address given, and Steve Gubbins kindly volunteered to collect ~ which he did to his credit within about ten minutes of the phone call. He ‘e’-mailed me a photo of the bird he’d collected and we both had a good laugh as I threatened to put the picture in the BHW, and true to my word I have sent it in with this article. It does of course beg the question as to who is the better looking.
Steve Gubbins holding lost Dragoon?
Northamptonshire Championship Club
I may well be accused of needing to change the record, as I will have said much of this before, but with racing just weeks away it is worth a quick recap. Since the AGM back in January the club has grown to seventeen members, which now makes it the largest membership club in the county, and arguably the most competitive. Membership is open to anyone in Northamptonshire with a two tier subscription option, to be part of a little over £2,000 prize money this year on the higher subscription, or for a lesser fee to also send as many birds as you wish to eight inland race-points, plus a further five Channel races. The new trailer is completely ready to go; kitted out with 44 brand new crates each holding around a dozen birds and now fitted with a quick release system to allow one person to operate. The club has decided to accommodate trainers from non club members, from within or outside the county, and as we race mid week inland, the interest in this facility has proved amazing. We start on April 14th at Newbury and then go four times to Portsmouth; once to Littlehampton plus a further two Newbury’s, so if you wish to train your pigeons for either Classic or National races please give me a call. We basket Tuesday evenings at Ringstead or will pick up Wednesday mornings in Northampton, with an aim to have the birds returning mid to late afternoon. The club is delighted to have received sponsorship to the tune of £1,000 since the end of last year, and clearly people are not going to part with that sort of money without faith in the club continuing to be highly successful. I will enclose a photo (if possible) at first marking to show the logo and advert of one of our sponsors on the rear panel of the trailer ~ namely Grahams Pet Foods in Rushden, who since the change of ownership approximately a year ago have created a fully stocked store for every pigeon fanciers needs for foods and products. Our second sponsor is a club member who does not wish to seek the spotlight, but has amongst other contributions put up £100 for an inland champion pigeon plus £150 for a champion Channel bird. This is apart from the £300 to be won for the cross Channel Averages and £100 for the runner-up. Each Channel race also has over £200 up for grabs, so there is some serious money to be won in the NCC.
National Marking & Clocks
I am told that it wouldn’t hurt to clarify where marking and clock stations will be this year in Northants. So to the best of my knowledge and of course locations may still alter: - Northampton SRFC are running clock stations for MNFC / BICC / BBC. Harrowden club will be doing the MNFC & BICC. Burton Latimer club will be doing the MNFC & BICC, whilst the NCC will be setting clocks for the NFC and the BBC at Ringstead. Marking for the Nationals remains much the same in the county, with the MNFC at Raunds football club, and the BICC at Ringstead, although an addition this year will be the first two BICC Internationals (Pau & Tarbes) with marking stations at Farndish. Interestingly the BBC has opened a new marking station run by Mike Shepperd at Walkern near Stevenage and I know of a couple of fanciers in Northants who have immediately joined this National club.
Statistics
Have you noticed how within the ongoing discussion about ETS, the discussion is starting to focus on how many systems are being used? Unless statistics are absolutely correct they become wholly meaningless, and even within the ETS debate the percentages being quoted differ hugely. In my own club of 17 members, nine own an ETS system. That’s 53%, albeit one member is not going to use it this year so that brings the users down to 47%. However three haven’t yet registered the system with the RPRA, so according to their records there are only five users which equates to 29%. Already in one small club we have a disparity of 24%, but it gets worse. The RPRA are counting electronic systems owned by partnerships as two, because there are TWO people in a partnership, so given the above figures, and that three of our club systems are owned by partners all the above mentioned figures become a complete nonsense, so how and where the statistics of ETS users being bandied about actually comes from, totally baffles me. I can tell you that last year at the BICC markings in Northamptonshire approximately half of the members turning up with birds were on ETS, and I would guess that percentage will rise significantly this year.
I may well be accused of needing to change the record, as I will have said much of this before, but with racing just weeks away it is worth a quick recap. Since the AGM back in January the club has grown to seventeen members, which now makes it the largest membership club in the county, and arguably the most competitive. Membership is open to anyone in Northamptonshire with a two tier subscription option, to be part of a little over £2,000 prize money this year on the higher subscription, or for a lesser fee to also send as many birds as you wish to eight inland race-points, plus a further five Channel races. The new trailer is completely ready to go; kitted out with 44 brand new crates each holding around a dozen birds and now fitted with a quick release system to allow one person to operate. The club has decided to accommodate trainers from non club members, from within or outside the county, and as we race mid week inland, the interest in this facility has proved amazing. We start on April 14th at Newbury and then go four times to Portsmouth; once to Littlehampton plus a further two Newbury’s, so if you wish to train your pigeons for either Classic or National races please give me a call. We basket Tuesday evenings at Ringstead or will pick up Wednesday mornings in Northampton, with an aim to have the birds returning mid to late afternoon. The club is delighted to have received sponsorship to the tune of £1,000 since the end of last year, and clearly people are not going to part with that sort of money without faith in the club continuing to be highly successful. I will enclose a photo (if possible) at first marking to show the logo and advert of one of our sponsors on the rear panel of the trailer ~ namely Grahams Pet Foods in Rushden, who since the change of ownership approximately a year ago have created a fully stocked store for every pigeon fanciers needs for foods and products. Our second sponsor is a club member who does not wish to seek the spotlight, but has amongst other contributions put up £100 for an inland champion pigeon plus £150 for a champion Channel bird. This is apart from the £300 to be won for the cross Channel Averages and £100 for the runner-up. Each Channel race also has over £200 up for grabs, so there is some serious money to be won in the NCC.
National Marking & Clocks
I am told that it wouldn’t hurt to clarify where marking and clock stations will be this year in Northants. So to the best of my knowledge and of course locations may still alter: - Northampton SRFC are running clock stations for MNFC / BICC / BBC. Harrowden club will be doing the MNFC & BICC. Burton Latimer club will be doing the MNFC & BICC, whilst the NCC will be setting clocks for the NFC and the BBC at Ringstead. Marking for the Nationals remains much the same in the county, with the MNFC at Raunds football club, and the BICC at Ringstead, although an addition this year will be the first two BICC Internationals (Pau & Tarbes) with marking stations at Farndish. Interestingly the BBC has opened a new marking station run by Mike Shepperd at Walkern near Stevenage and I know of a couple of fanciers in Northants who have immediately joined this National club.
Statistics
Have you noticed how within the ongoing discussion about ETS, the discussion is starting to focus on how many systems are being used? Unless statistics are absolutely correct they become wholly meaningless, and even within the ETS debate the percentages being quoted differ hugely. In my own club of 17 members, nine own an ETS system. That’s 53%, albeit one member is not going to use it this year so that brings the users down to 47%. However three haven’t yet registered the system with the RPRA, so according to their records there are only five users which equates to 29%. Already in one small club we have a disparity of 24%, but it gets worse. The RPRA are counting electronic systems owned by partnerships as two, because there are TWO people in a partnership, so given the above figures, and that three of our club systems are owned by partners all the above mentioned figures become a complete nonsense, so how and where the statistics of ETS users being bandied about actually comes from, totally baffles me. I can tell you that last year at the BICC markings in Northamptonshire approximately half of the members turning up with birds were on ETS, and I would guess that percentage will rise significantly this year.
"The Cobbler"
Any views on Pigeon Racing in Northamptonshire to
Tel: 01933 410322 or
Email: russellbradford@talktalk.net
Copyright, all rights reserved, Russell Bradford 2008
Ramblers Itinerary Racing Pigeon Post RPP Index to Articles
Any views on Pigeon Racing in Northamptonshire to
Tel: 01933 410322 or
Email: russellbradford@talktalk.net
Copyright, all rights reserved, Russell Bradford 2008
Ramblers Itinerary Racing Pigeon Post RPP Index to Articles