"The Cobbler"
Northamptonshire
Ramblings
March 2009
Ramblings
March 2009
"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
For fear of boring the socks off the four or five readers that I have to this column, I feel I must bang-on again, about the ‘Oh So’ boring subject of the RPRA accounts. If finance is not for you, please just jump to the next paragraph. The BHW carried no less than a six- page coverage of the RPRA Annual General Meeting at Coventry on February 27th, and yet despite all this reporting, the state of the RPRA’s finances merited just five lines of comment from the general manager. The report states that several queries were raised (no mention what those queries were of course), and the accounts were passed. Perhaps even more enlightening was the paragraph that warranted a massive in depth analysis running to a whole eight lines, confirming that the 2007 profit of £71,674 has been turned into a loss of nearly £23,000. That is a disparity of around £94,000 in just twelve months, and yet it would appear that the only offering on the horizon from the RPRA, is the possibility of increasing the subscription, given the statement that expenditure exceeds income. (How hugely perceptive a statement was that?) Could expenditure, such as the £16,974 itemised as Blackpool Expenses, but is infact Entertainment of Foreign Pigeon Dignitaries be an example of expenditure that is too high? Any other business organisation producing such an abysmal set of accounts, might firstly have offered some form of apology to their shareholders (that’s us the membership); secondly looked long and hard at their finance director’s competence and tenure, and thirdly be on a cost cutting rampage. Did we hear any of this? ~ Of course not. Do we hear that a budget is being compiled for 2009? ~ Of course not. Do we see any mention at all by the RPRA management as to how they intend to resolve this position, other than by increasing subscriptions? ~ Of course not. I do wonder if the majority of Councillors understand that turning a healthy profit into a loss in a twelve month period, warrants a major overhaul of what would appear, in my opinion, to be quite a snug club, where nobody seems to want to rock the boat.
Northamptonshire Championship Club
The club goes forward into 2009 with five Channel races planned with a prize pot pushing towards £2,000. The races nominated are the four BICC Nationals ~ Falaise; Alencon; Saran and Poitiers plus the Merville D-Day anniversary race (more of that in a minute), and with a new pools system in place at £1; £2; £3; £5; plus SBN & Nom Yearling, it has the potential to spread the money amongst those who can pick their right bird on the day. This year the club is offering free racing from Fareham; that wasn’t a misprint - FREE-entry for as many birds as any member of the club wishes to send, with the same pools structure in place, but this year without any prize money. Just £150 subscription to join this progressive club, and as was proven by at least six members last year; a couple of decent positions and you finish up in pocket, and it shows what can be achieved with careful money management.
June 6th, 2009 - Merville
It would appear that there is substantial local interest in this anniversary race from Merville, and I certainly know of some six clubs within our region, who are considering holding a race within a race (as it were). Brian Newsome has written about the history of the military and how the Parachute Regiment took out the gun emplacements just behind the landing beaches in June 1944, so I will not repeat, other than to say that anyone who gets the opportunity to visit the site, where there is a small museum in one of the gun emplacements, will find the experience very worthwhile but quite emotional. In a previous article I stated that I considered it will make a fine yearling race, and apparently some have questioned if it is just a yearlings race. It is not, and is open to any age pigeons. Mike Armitage at The Lion Brewery is the main organiser and has sent me some further details, with more to follow in due course as details are firmed up. Race marking on Thursday 4th, June for this race will be at :- Ash - The Lion Brewery 3.30 pm - 5.30 pm; Bromley - The Great Elms Club Phone Tom Furminger on 0208 2901 181 for times etc; Whitstable - Phone John Lane 01227 263247; Exeter with Bob Reeves in charge at The Institute in Whipton 01392 679933; John Tyerman is running a station at Chichester at The Bell Inn Tel 01243 514338, and for those North of Watford Gap you can bring pigeons to either Budgie Crathorne at Manchester 0161 6431125, or for this area there will be a Northampton marking station at Ringstead from 10.30 to 1.00 pm. The actual entry fee if you wish to take your pigeons to Ash is £2.00 per bird, but like many other marking stations, in order to cover the cost of getting the birds to The Lion Brewery the entry at Northampton will be £2.50 per bird Section pools will be at £1; £2; £5 & £10 plus a SBN split 50%-30%-20%; a Charity Nom at £1 and paid 50/50, plus a Champ UNIKON system that has been kindly put up for winning by Ray Knight. I am sure this particular pool will attract loads of one pound nominations given the ever increasing wish for fanciers to race with ETS, and once ETS has been installed one must wonder what all the fuss has been about, and why we didn’t race with ETS many years previously. A novel way of approaching the sections is that members entering via one of the above marking stations will be in that section. This idea hasn’t been 100% agreed as yet, but will offer a new way of creating sections without the need to be within a precise latitude and longitude, or fly a specific distance. Merville has been allocated a special code by the RPRA, as it can not normally be used, other than on very special occasions and the code to obtain distances is 9999.
Narbonne International Open
Along with Paul O’Leary and John Clements, I have been invited to be a co-organiser for this Open race to be flown by any fancier resident in the British Isles, and welcomed the chance to become involved. I take pleasure in putting my two pennyworths into the organisational and administrative side of pigeon racing, as apart from racing my own birds, it adds a further dimension to a sport I thoroughly enjoy. This experience will just add a few more notches to the learning curve, for whatever might transpire in the future, and if it proves successful we probably will run the race as an annual event.
We are attempting to cover several aspects in organising this race, the first of which is fairly obviously to introduce an International race to which any fancier can participate, without the need to necessarily belong to any one particular club. I think that may well be called “Breaking-A-Mould”. Secondly if it is possible to swell the UK entry numbers, this can only help to improve UK performances, with all the glory a good position in the result entails.
Interest in distance and International racing seems to be growing, and yet for the fancier who wants to perhaps compete at the highest level for the first time, and is only prepared to send initially to one race, there is a need to belong to one of the classic clubs such as the BBC or BICC. Sadly the NFC, are no longer competing at International level, although it would appear the members will be asked to vote as to whether Tarbes should be International or not, when proposals go out at the end of this year. Somebody not currently in one of these specialist clubs, who wants to send to an International is thus forced to outlay an annual subscription to fly in just one race, and this hardly seems to me the best way to promote and grow International racing in the UK. With an Open race anyone can send without the added burden of a subscription, and we hope to see fanciers from the Up North Combine; the MNFC; the NFC; and from any other club not currently racing Internationally, plus entries from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and even the Channel Islands, prepared to enter what may well prove to be THE race to win into the UK this year.
We start of course with a blank sheet and no money in the bank to kick-start us. Happily we have support from many of the best fanciers in the UK, and even a couple of terrific fanciers in Belgium, who would like to see this venture succeed, and (at time of writing) eleven fantastic young birds are being put forward for a telephone auction, to be held within the next few weeks. This should give us adequate funding, to pay for everything required including transporting the birds to Belgium, but money aside, and regardless of whether you support International racing or not, this auction will be an amazing opportunity to obtain birds and bloodlines from some of the very best fanciers around. Watch the BHW for an advert, soon to appear. Narbonne is on the International calendar to be flown July 25th, and Basketing will (probably) be on Tuesday 21st July with pick-up points from Gloucestershire roughly north and south of the M4 corridor to the M25 and then through the south east before crossing at Dover. Exact marking stations have still to be agreed. Entry cost will be on a par with any other club sending to the Internationals, although of course Narbonne is not on any clubs current programme (which is why it was chosen). More news and information will follow as soon as there is more to tell you.
Northamptonshire Championship Club
The club goes forward into 2009 with five Channel races planned with a prize pot pushing towards £2,000. The races nominated are the four BICC Nationals ~ Falaise; Alencon; Saran and Poitiers plus the Merville D-Day anniversary race (more of that in a minute), and with a new pools system in place at £1; £2; £3; £5; plus SBN & Nom Yearling, it has the potential to spread the money amongst those who can pick their right bird on the day. This year the club is offering free racing from Fareham; that wasn’t a misprint - FREE-entry for as many birds as any member of the club wishes to send, with the same pools structure in place, but this year without any prize money. Just £150 subscription to join this progressive club, and as was proven by at least six members last year; a couple of decent positions and you finish up in pocket, and it shows what can be achieved with careful money management.
June 6th, 2009 - Merville
It would appear that there is substantial local interest in this anniversary race from Merville, and I certainly know of some six clubs within our region, who are considering holding a race within a race (as it were). Brian Newsome has written about the history of the military and how the Parachute Regiment took out the gun emplacements just behind the landing beaches in June 1944, so I will not repeat, other than to say that anyone who gets the opportunity to visit the site, where there is a small museum in one of the gun emplacements, will find the experience very worthwhile but quite emotional. In a previous article I stated that I considered it will make a fine yearling race, and apparently some have questioned if it is just a yearlings race. It is not, and is open to any age pigeons. Mike Armitage at The Lion Brewery is the main organiser and has sent me some further details, with more to follow in due course as details are firmed up. Race marking on Thursday 4th, June for this race will be at :- Ash - The Lion Brewery 3.30 pm - 5.30 pm; Bromley - The Great Elms Club Phone Tom Furminger on 0208 2901 181 for times etc; Whitstable - Phone John Lane 01227 263247; Exeter with Bob Reeves in charge at The Institute in Whipton 01392 679933; John Tyerman is running a station at Chichester at The Bell Inn Tel 01243 514338, and for those North of Watford Gap you can bring pigeons to either Budgie Crathorne at Manchester 0161 6431125, or for this area there will be a Northampton marking station at Ringstead from 10.30 to 1.00 pm. The actual entry fee if you wish to take your pigeons to Ash is £2.00 per bird, but like many other marking stations, in order to cover the cost of getting the birds to The Lion Brewery the entry at Northampton will be £2.50 per bird Section pools will be at £1; £2; £5 & £10 plus a SBN split 50%-30%-20%; a Charity Nom at £1 and paid 50/50, plus a Champ UNIKON system that has been kindly put up for winning by Ray Knight. I am sure this particular pool will attract loads of one pound nominations given the ever increasing wish for fanciers to race with ETS, and once ETS has been installed one must wonder what all the fuss has been about, and why we didn’t race with ETS many years previously. A novel way of approaching the sections is that members entering via one of the above marking stations will be in that section. This idea hasn’t been 100% agreed as yet, but will offer a new way of creating sections without the need to be within a precise latitude and longitude, or fly a specific distance. Merville has been allocated a special code by the RPRA, as it can not normally be used, other than on very special occasions and the code to obtain distances is 9999.
Narbonne International Open
Along with Paul O’Leary and John Clements, I have been invited to be a co-organiser for this Open race to be flown by any fancier resident in the British Isles, and welcomed the chance to become involved. I take pleasure in putting my two pennyworths into the organisational and administrative side of pigeon racing, as apart from racing my own birds, it adds a further dimension to a sport I thoroughly enjoy. This experience will just add a few more notches to the learning curve, for whatever might transpire in the future, and if it proves successful we probably will run the race as an annual event.
We are attempting to cover several aspects in organising this race, the first of which is fairly obviously to introduce an International race to which any fancier can participate, without the need to necessarily belong to any one particular club. I think that may well be called “Breaking-A-Mould”. Secondly if it is possible to swell the UK entry numbers, this can only help to improve UK performances, with all the glory a good position in the result entails.
Interest in distance and International racing seems to be growing, and yet for the fancier who wants to perhaps compete at the highest level for the first time, and is only prepared to send initially to one race, there is a need to belong to one of the classic clubs such as the BBC or BICC. Sadly the NFC, are no longer competing at International level, although it would appear the members will be asked to vote as to whether Tarbes should be International or not, when proposals go out at the end of this year. Somebody not currently in one of these specialist clubs, who wants to send to an International is thus forced to outlay an annual subscription to fly in just one race, and this hardly seems to me the best way to promote and grow International racing in the UK. With an Open race anyone can send without the added burden of a subscription, and we hope to see fanciers from the Up North Combine; the MNFC; the NFC; and from any other club not currently racing Internationally, plus entries from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and even the Channel Islands, prepared to enter what may well prove to be THE race to win into the UK this year.
We start of course with a blank sheet and no money in the bank to kick-start us. Happily we have support from many of the best fanciers in the UK, and even a couple of terrific fanciers in Belgium, who would like to see this venture succeed, and (at time of writing) eleven fantastic young birds are being put forward for a telephone auction, to be held within the next few weeks. This should give us adequate funding, to pay for everything required including transporting the birds to Belgium, but money aside, and regardless of whether you support International racing or not, this auction will be an amazing opportunity to obtain birds and bloodlines from some of the very best fanciers around. Watch the BHW for an advert, soon to appear. Narbonne is on the International calendar to be flown July 25th, and Basketing will (probably) be on Tuesday 21st July with pick-up points from Gloucestershire roughly north and south of the M4 corridor to the M25 and then through the south east before crossing at Dover. Exact marking stations have still to be agreed. Entry cost will be on a par with any other club sending to the Internationals, although of course Narbonne is not on any clubs current programme (which is why it was chosen). More news and information will follow as soon as there is more to tell you.