WELSH SOUTH ROAD NATIONAL FLYING CLUB
History made with double national race.
For the very first time Welsh South Road National members had the opportunity to win
two nationals in one race and what a finish it turned out to be with John Ludlam of Nelson
winning the race with a yearling and H & M Pullen of Fochriw gaining second position with
an old bird.
The gods have certainly been kind to the WSRNFC as for the third race running the
forecast was for the country to be bathed in sunshine and once again an excellent turnout was evident at the marking stations. Optimism turned to disappointment when
patchy rain throughout northern France accompanied by 20 miles per hour north easterly
winds on the channel prevented Saturday liberation from taking place.
In the last two national races despite high pressure sitting over the country there have
been two other hazards to contend with namely strong head winds and mist or fog.
When Sunday dawned, these two elements were missing and it looked like there was
nothing to stop the birds having a good race. However one must remember the birds were
flying 350 miles and were faced with hot flying conditions as well as a northerly flow of air
throughout much of the journey home let alone the large number of organizations flying
from France that day.
Mike Parker who normally controls the liberations for the Welsh South Road Federation
who convoy the National was away on the Sunday on a visit to Belgium and Peter Watkins
took over the reins for this important job. Peter rang me around 6am to discuss the
prospects for the race and confirmed my opinion that all was set fair for a very good race
with warm sunshine and excellent visibility over land and sea.
The patchy rain that was over northern France the previous day had moved away along
with the 20mph north easterly winds although they were now still strong over the eastern
side of the channel. Peter had checked with the NFC who later kindly rang him back to say
their convoy had gone at 6.30am and being 60 miles south west of us at Poitiers would
cause us no problems. So our birds were liberated at Tours at 6.25am in a six mile per
hour northerly wind. There were other organizations from Belgium on site that liberated
well before the Welsh birds.
It was anticipated that the Welsh convoy would reach the channel by 11am and by 12
noon would be at mid channel. At this time the wind was northerly 10mph at Cherbourg
and had changed from easterly to westerly at Weymouth and was veering to a more
westerly quarter over the channel. Away from coastal locations in the UK the winds
remained from a northerly direction which in my opinion meant that coupled with the
high daytime temperatures the birds would only make 40 mph.
So it could be anyone’s national and tension remained high at Welsh lofts as to which
direction the winners would emerge and this is what National racing is all about “that air
of uncertainty”. I checked the phone in messages at 3pm and no-one had phoned first bird
arrivals. Observing the clouds at this time it appeared that those very high in the sky were
from the north but the lower clouds were moving quite quickly from a south westerly
direction.
A minute later it some relief that the first of my four entries a yearling cock arrived so I
knew pigeons were now expected in the area. Shortly afterwards my fellow Pontypridd
club member John Ludlam of Nelson phoned in his first arrival which was clocked at
2.48pm and this proved to be the overall National winner achieving a winning velocity of
1209ypm. John has had his loft in great form this year and clocked 14 out of his 25 entries
within two hours of his first bird arriving home which is excellent flying with his first three
birds clocked likely to finish in the top ten national positions. In the first South Road
National from Vire his team finished 3rd, 12th, 15th and 40th Open and then in the National
Messac race he was 4th, 19th, 25th and 31st Open so fanciers can see this win is well
overdue. He clocked a yearling dark pied hen whose sire is Patrick Bros Invincible Spirit,
Leader, Bonte lines and the dam Paul Wooliss of Grimsby lines of Ambition, Lona etc. John
was telling me that 15 widowhood cocks stay in their own loft and 15 hens have their own
compartment in the young bird loft. On the day of basketing the cocks boxes are opened
and the hens go out and go straight in with the cocks and stay there for two hours before
basketing. To prevent any hens going in egg they are often locked out all day and are only
let in before the cocks take their exercise.
Taking 1st in the old bird National and second overall is once again the fantastic father &
Son partnership H & M Pullen of Fochriw who have now won three Nationals in five weeks
and I don’t know if this has ever been done before in Wales before so history may well be
in the making! Howard and Mark are certainly on cloud 9 at the moment but they will
quickly have to come down to earth as they have to shortly take a trip to National sponsor
Clive Hughes up at Tonypandy to have their three champions photographed. They have
been asked to submit an article for the British Homing World Stud book which should well
be worth waiting for. Their two year old winner was a chequer cock flown r/about. The
Sire was bred by James McCaig from Newcastle who the partners met when he was
visiting Tredegar. The dam was from birds from Haydn Minnett and contains the old
Burgham Bros bloodlines. I understand that the dam won the Bonn race twice and was the
only bird on the day in the Tredegar marking station.
Taking probable third in the Centre section is my dark chequer yearling cock who finished
32nd Open in the Vire National this season. He was sent natural having been paired to his
hen for four days before basketing. The hen he was paired to flew Messac on the day and
then was lost to a hawk in a training toss from Newport. A new hen was put with him of
the same colour as the hen he was previously paired to. He is three quarters my old Pau
National winning blood lines crossed with the Sepers sprint lines from Amsterdam. I
improved the quality of corn used this week with the distance in mind which is a mixture
of Versela-Laga and Marimans. As a source of extra energy I used form oil on the corn for
two days before basketing which my wife said stunk the house out. This is based on ten
different oil types including fish oils. This gives an increase in fat energy and was used in
combination with vitamin EB12 from Chevita administered through the drinking water. I
must stress I only used these products for the first time this season for this race as I was
expecting a 9 hours plus race. I clocked three out of four entries in just over an hour with
the other entry returning two hours later.
Over in the east section Scammel and Peploe clocked the leading bird which is a yearling
chequer hen flown roundabout. She is a pure M & D Evans Vandenabelle whose dam
topped the combine from Maidstone 10,500 birds. In second spot is John Smale who
clocked a yearling chequer hen sitting 11 days. She flew the recent Rheims smash when
she arrived on the day after 13 hours on the wing. Her dam is a ten year old hen Jan
Aarden from Liam Fitzgerald a friend from Limerick. She was paired to a Pied out of a
double G/dtr of Invincible Spirit when paired to a son of Chris Gordon’s Tarbes National
winner. In third position is National champion Denis Ford who clocked a well fancied
yearling grizzle hen. She won the Lessay club race last season and is a full sister to a grizzle
nest pair who won 3rd National Tarbes and 3rd National Pau. Next in line was Mark Sparey
who clocked a yearling chequer cock whose Sire was bought for £30 in the clearance sale
for the late Peter Owttrim and whose dam a Vandenabelle was from Mark Gilbert and
closely bred to his International winner.
Finally a great performance was put by National President Charlie Bradshaw Jnr who
clocked a yearling chequer widowhood cock at 15.35pm to win the West section by 34
ypm. He is bred from the old family of SteelxVan Bruane and was not raced as a YB but
had the two previous channel races.
In second position was the evergreen partnership of Fishlock & Roberts who are having a
very consistent season. Their winner was a dark pied two year old who was paired
Tuesday before the national Race. Her breeding is Brakhouse from their friend in
Guernsey and her dam should have been second national two years ago but was
disqualified as her ring number was entered incorrectly in error
Then John Bradley of Skewan clocked a good two year old chequer hen pooled £5 section
and Nom so was well fancied and certainly did not let John down. I failed to catch up with
John but will hope to provide further details later.
Early Times
East: Scammell & Peploe 1179, J Smale 1173, D Ford 1169, M Sparey 1151; K Caldwell 1137, G Lewis
& Son 1123; Preece Bros & Son 1113, J & A Rake 1105; Edwards Bros 1103; R Nicholls &s &Gson
1098; Padfield Family 1093; D Flowers 1089; J Gardner 1084; Smith & Jenkins 1084; JJ Williams & Son
1081; A Vincent 1082; T Smith 1043; C Pearce & Son 1033; J Edwards 1021; Mr & Mrs Gardner 1009;
D Smith 959; M Gibbons 862; DW Llewellyn 776
Centre: J Ludlam 1209; H & M Pullen 1196; J David 1162; A Evans 1161; H Radford & Sons 1155; D
Phillips 1151; D Evans 1150; M & L Casley 1148; M/M Richards & Goodridge 1143; M Parker 1126;
Morris Pugh & Whitcombe 1123; D McCann 1120; H Minett 1118; Bayliss Walker Nolan Jones 1116;
Owen & RT Evans & Son 1103; G Treharne & Son 1100; Foster Bros 1099; Nicholas & Schott 1081;
M/M Jones & Son 1080; D & G Bruton 1074; Newbury Son & Gibbs 1073; Watts & Williams 1066;
B Holmes 1060; T Coombs 1022; Williams Jeffrys & Sons 992; P Thomas 956; KJ Scannell 959;
C Neale 909; H Hughes 876; K Donnelly 793
West: C Bradshaw Jnr 1162; Fishlock & Roberts 1128; J Bradley 1112; B Williams & Son 1111;
P Robins 1068; GR & D Price 1025; M/M RJ Williams 1017; G & SR Ashton & Son 1016; H Davies
1009; N Bradshaw 1002; B Fender & Son 992; M/M A Powell 970; WL John 899; W Davies 897;
Watkins Bros 852; WN Price 729
John David Sec Phone 01443-226809 Email jc.david@btinternet.com Web site www.wsrnfc.co.uk