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the racing pigeon recreation, has, like many other recreations been losing members to changes in life styles, however with the SNRPC,s outlook that it would be prepared to accept members of any recognised association with lofts situated within Scotland the doors would always be open to all fanciers of what ever denomination, this has proved to be correct and the SNRPC has seen its membership remain at around approximatley 400 right up to the present time, when many other similar clubs are losing membership at alarming rates. In 2005 the SNRPC had organised a full race programme, beginning with Newbury the inland National, then Alencon our Premier Gold Medal race, Cholet our longest channel race, then Falaise the last channel race and finally Leciester, our Young Bird Open. In this our first inaugural year we had 1541 entries at Newbury entered by some 300 plus members, 762 entries at Alencon entered by 186 members, 66 members entered just short of 200 birds for Cholet, 908 entries for Falaise from 162 members and 873 entries in the young bird open from114 members, the Committee were more than delighted at these entries but were even more delighted by the historic performances achieved by the members and their pigeons. Setting a record that may never be repeated, was Walker & Wilson of St Abbs who, achieved 1 st open Newbury with “Shore new era” 313 miles and the silver medal, then 1 st open Alencon our premier Gold medal race with ace pigeon “Shore 61” flying 530 miles and the Gold Medal. From Falaise this partnership then won 1 st open flying with “Shore Gem” 500 miles winning their second silver medal, then, amazingly in the young bird open they timed their first bird from Leicester to win 1 st open and their third silver medal flying 231 miles and a velocity of 1463 four first opens and the gold medal and 3 silver medals, was a phenomenal performance and produced by a partnership that was already established national distance winners. From Cholet more was to come with Mr & Mrs Chris Littles of East Riggs Annan, having the only Pigeon timed on the day into Scotland, winning 1 st Open the silver medal and a special prize from the Cumbria Combine and the North West of England with whom our birds had been liberated with. This special Blue hen had a velocity of 1334 flying 554 miles and must have been in the first 10 birds within the overall liberation a special performance. Our first young Bird open was from Leicester and Walker & Wilson of St Abbs were the winners with Adam Luke of the partnership Luke & Peters taking 2 nd open and on the 3 rd open position was Mel Bel Jnr, with Stewart Roberts of Ayton coming in at 4 th open. This young bird race was a fairly fast affair for the leading pigeons, even after a 2 day hold over, all sections timed pigeons with reasonable returns. 2005 saw the SNRPC introduce Wednesday basketing for the Premier channel race, and basketing for the young bird Open on the Friday instead of Thursday both races giving the birds one day less in the baskets. Mr & Mrs Chris Little of Annan won the extreme average for Alencon and Cholet as well as the average in section A. The Late Jimmy Keir in Partnership with his wife Jessie won the Overall average Decanter for the four old bird races and also the Sculpted glass award for the best average in section C. John McNeil in section D had an exceptional year winning four Bronze section medals and the section Average Mr and Mrs Davy Elloit of Newbigging won the section E Average award which included a great 5 th open from Falaise. Section B Average winner was to John Bell of Tranent In section F there was no Average winner but Ian Ross of Glasgow won 2 section Bronze medals for Alencon and Cholet and from section C for 2 nd open Cholet was Pete Patrick winning the John Trail Trophy for best
performance over the Forth At this point in time the John Fairbairn Memorial Shield was not quite finished but was destined to be presented to the winner of our Gold Medal Premier race to be kept for one year. Many other Fanciers won bronze medals in this our inaugural year the following is a roll-call of these good fanciers Jim Ohara Allanton, John Ellis Dundee, John Carrberry & son of Croy, Douglas Spittal of Glasgow, Barry McCrindle & Son of Glasgow John Mack of Alloa, Geddas & Hillas of Glasgow, Jocky King of Kirkcaldy , Andy Thomson of Dundee and Gregor MacCauly of Forfar. If 2005 had been a traumatic new venture, creating and running the SNRPC, then 2006 was to be even more exciting, trying and testing for the committee and members alike. On Saturday the 18 th of February 2006 the SNRPC held its first presentation and dance in the Cairn Hotel near Bathgate. 160 persons were present including our guests Mr & Mrs Les Blacklock of Cumbria, Les is secretary of the Cumbria region of the RPRA and Mr & Mrs Bill Wortley of Annan, Bill being a successfull long time writer of great distinction in the pigeon World. An outstanding evening ensued thanks to our guests, the efforts of our President George Wilson, our secretary John Baillie and the support of our member’s a precedent had been set for the future with this function by the harmony and goodwill so much in evidence. On the 4 th of March 2006 the first AGM of this exciting new Scottish distance club was held in Loanhead near Edinburgh, a good turn out of members ensured that all officials and committee were returned to office giving these people a vote of confidence for the future of the SNRPC. At his crucial time all members had the threat of no racing facing the coming race season, only 5 days after our successful AGM the RPRA confirmed the worst, with racing being banned from the continent, the channel Islands and strict controls on training and racing in the UK with virtually the whole of Fife being banned completely due to a dead swan in cellarDyke near St Andrews. The SNRPC committee set to restructuring our channel programme now confined to the UK these logistics were not easy but it was achieved. On April the 21 st Defra agreed that restrictions on UK racing and training would be lifted from the 1 st of May this was a relief for all Fanciers in Britain but more so for the fanciers in Fife who now had a chance to catch up with those of us who could race and train our birds during April. It took till early June before Defra confirmed that racing would be allowed from the Continent, under certain restrictions, this in itself now created another set of problems for the National clubs, transportation, licenses, changes in marking times, dates and informing the members of these changes, despite all of these problems the SNRPC was able to restructure its race programme and continue with its original long distance programme. Our original programme for 2006 was, Newbury the inland National, Reims our Premier Gold medal race, St Nazaire our Longer race Lessay our last old bird channel race and Leciester our Young Bird open. We also had arrangements in place for an Extreme distance race from Saintes but due to Defra restrictions this sadly did not take place. The 3 rd of June saw 1531 birds entered by 225 members for our inland national from Newbury, then on the 23 rd of June 140 members sent 531 birds to our Premier Gold Medal race from Reims, on the 1 st of July 124 birds were entered for our race from StNazaire then on the 15 th of July saw 1106 entries for our last old bird race and on the 9 th of September 649 entries competed in our young bird open from Leicester, taking all races into account, numbers were slightly down
Page 1: THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL RACING PIGEON
Page 5 and 6: at the distance to the present as a
Page 7 and 8: Virtue of Cockburnspath in section
Page 9 and 10: to be Mr& Mrs Skelton timed at 13.2
Page 11: Ian M Brown PRO the SNRPC 01577 840

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