MNFC Young Bird Falaise
A Likely Super Victory for Williams & Wilks
When the birds entered in the last race of the season were liberated from Falaise at 8.15 am under sunny skies and a no wind situation after a two day holdover. The big question was ‘how long would it take them?’. Well anyone who had checked on the weather forecast saw that the wind direction on the channel and in England was coming from the North. So my thoughts were for the leaders to achieve 40-42 mph because it was clearly going to be a ‘tough one’.
As it was to turn out only one intrepid little hen was to beat the 40 mph barrier when after a flight taking just a few seconds more than 6hours and 22 minutes for the 260 miles journey back home to Cleobury Mortimer she recorded an estimated velocity of 1200.
The bird belongs to the partnership of Kirk Williams & John Wilks who I believe are something of a young bird specialist team. John told me that Kirk has worked really hard with their ‘babies’ and they have reaped a rich reward for their efforts. In fact the likely National winner was 3rdsection J and 11thOpen in the NFC Coutances race a couple of weeks previously. Clearly she had plotted her course very well. I will talk a good deal more about the partners and their bird when the race result is confirmed in a few days time.
One thing that a tough race often throws up is a very fair result and this is certainly the case once more with no less than 7 probable section winners represented in the first 10 placings. The event moved one member to call me and say that it was the fairest race for quite some time. Yes Robert a Northerly wind does tend to make good pigeons more influential than loft locations.
I will leave you to study the leaderboard and as ever if your names is in the leading four placings of you section get in touch to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Stop Press
The first 80 of the very successful MNFC One Loft pigeons will be for sale at an auction to be held at the R.P. Uttoxeter Show on the 11thNovember. News of the sale of the remainder of the birds will be revealed later. I have seen a few of the pedigrees and believe me there will be some crackers in all of these sales.
Mike Lakin
Midlands National Young Bird Portsmouth
It’s Simply too Close to Call
When the decision was made to alter the race dates for the two young bird races this season it certainly upset a good number. The motives may have been honourable but with many having holidays booked and birds starting to fall apart in the moult quite a lot of people have decided to shut up the loft for the season. Quite a number also queried the price but it would have been very difficult to alter the price for the substitute event which could have caused mayhem with many sending in the original birdage prices. One thing we do guarantee is that the entry fee profits will all be used as prizemoney which judging by the understandably low entry figure and the holdover will certainly be much needed.
So after the originally planned release date on the Saturday being called of very early due to the dark damp rainy conditions the strings were cut and the birds liberated at 9.00am in the morning into sunny conditions and a light South Westerly breeze. Obviously the conditions favoured the more Easterly sections and this proved to be the correct call as the East South East section looks likely to lead the way home though it is too soon to call Mick Godfrey of Walsoken looking likely to be the main beneficiary as he has the Provisional velocity of 1913.4 but Kings Lynn’s Perry Brothers and Son are just .2 of a yard behind according to the leaderboard so until the full details are checked out it would be foolhardy to make any declarations at this present time.
Hours of Darkness Change for Falaise Race
Before I leave members to study the leaderboard I have been instructed to inform members sending to the final Falaise race that the hours of darkness which may well come into force for the longer flyers especially if the race turns out to be a tough one have now been changed : The race will now close at 19.14pm and re-open at 6.58am next morning.
Mike Lakin
