International Racing Pigeon Issue nr 4 . July 2018 | Page 51

This cock has now scored 6 times in the inland nationals and has paid for the upkeep of his loft mates for the past 4 years. The very first training toss he had this year he took three days to come home, this was from 10 miles, when he did come home he was very scared and jumpy, I think he had been chased by a peregrine and went into hiding for 3 days. It took him a month to get back to his old self and I decided to give him a few tosses and his first race was Wetherby a distance of 175 miles, then Wakefield 190 miles and then into

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Wetherby again; before going to the SNFC Buckingham race, a distance of 300 miles. I took this photo 5 minutes after he arrived from the national. His previous wins are as follows; in 2015 he won 36th section E from Portsmouth flying 375 miles against a convoy of 4767 birds; he then won 15th section E from Eastbourne a distance of 402 miles with 2494 birds competing. The 2016 he won 30th section E from Buckingham a distance of 300 miles with 4328 birds in the convoy; that same year he was also sent to Littlehampton a distance of 385 miles and won 38th section E from an entry of 4482 birds. In 2017 he competed from the Bedhampton national a distance of 375 miles and he won 55th section E 449th open from a convoy of 6065 birds. My next pigeon highlighted is ‘Lynne’ a blue hen SU14AF 1440 raced by my son Kevin J Murphy of Arbroath. In 2016 she won 25th section C 63rd open from Ypres flying a distance of 455 miles; then in 2017 she won 3 times in the national being 69th section C 201st open from Buckingham a distance of 322 miles back to her loft, 2 weeks later she went to Bedhampton and she won 9th section C 26th open flying 400 miles 3 weeks later she was sent to Ypres and she won 24th section C 63rd open thus achieving her 4th national diploma. We now come to A Nelson of Hamilton in the west section his blue bar hen SU13L 3343 is a very consistent bird as a 2 year old she won 18th section E from Billericay flying 342 miles, the following year she won twice the first time from Buckingham a distance of 288 miles where she won 67th section E she was then sent to the Ypres national and won 11th section E 101st open flying 445 miles. In 2017 she was entered into the Buckingham race and just missed out on the very last section prize but lifted pool money. We move to the west of Fife to the loft of Eddie McWilliams of Blairhall who has a blue chequer cock SU15F 1200 that has won 3 times from inland nationals for him. In 2016 he was sent to Buckingham a distance of 302 miles and won 46th section C 195th open he was then sent to Littlehampton a distance of 386 miles and he won 41st section

C 136th open. Then in 2017 he was again sent to Buckingham and he won 78th section C 239th open. I have had a look to see if he was on the recent inland national result but did no notice his number.

International Racing Pigeon July 2018 l www.internationalracingpigeon.com