the-scottish-nationa..

McNeill won 1 st 2 nd and 3 rd section D and12 th, 13 th, and 27 th open timing at 16.06,16.12 and 18.45
and on 15 th open from section F was Alex Roberts from Clydebank 583 miles timing his 5 year
old blue pied hen at 17.29 this good hen was also 1 st section F winning the Bronze medal. A
very difficult race but distance racing has never been easy and our distance candidates have to be
up to facing all kinds of weather. All distance clubs are in the same boat when it comes to the
weather and trying to forecast what conditions are to be over these long routes home, is not easy
and you are on to hiding to nothing if there happens to be north in the wind, our committee
congratulate all who were on the race sheet and for the support of all who sent birds.
What words can be used to describe John Proctors performance from Tours on Sunday the 1 st of
July 2007? When John Timed his 5 year old Grizzle Cock “Lucky Jim” at 21.27, only day bird
into Scotland flying 627 miles, this is the third pigeon to be the only bird on the day in the
SNRPCs Longer channel race and for John this is the second year running he has achieved this,
John in 2006 timed the only pigeon into Scotland on the day from 600 miles with McFly and in
2005 Mr& Mrs Chris Little from Eastriggs timed the only Day bird from Cholet flying 556
miles. The Committee are delighted that John and Chris with their pigeons have set these superb
performances with the SNRPC and pleased that they have been recognised not only by the
Scottish fancy but with the RPRA, the MNFC, the NFC and the Cumbria and West of England
Region.
109 entries for the SNRPC were convoyed to Tours with 3500 MNFC entries and after a 1day
holdover were liberated at 07.30 hours on Sunday morning the 1 st of July. 2 nd open went to W
Watson of Kirkfieldbank in section E timing his pigeon at 05.29 on the second morning flying
605 miles and also a second bird at 08.57 to take 20 th open, also in section E, Ken Buchanan of
Hamilton timed his 1 st bird at 05.47 taking 3 rd open flying 614 miles then a second pigeon at
06.36 on 5 th open and a third pigeon at 08.42 on 15 th open. In 4 th open Was Les Mackay of
Carnoustie flying 647 miles timing his good Mealy Pied hen at 06.57 this pigeon is closely
related to Les’s 1 st open Leige in 2001, les also had a second pigeon to be 26 th open. 38 Birds
were recorded on the open sheet 37 being timed on the second day quite a number of these birds
may not have been very far from home on the first day. The SNRPC recognise the effort and
dedication of all fanciers who fly these distances and the committee are committed to promoting
an extreme distance race from Saintes which to date has been cancelled twice due to
circumstances beyond the SNRPCs control, it is hoped that 2008 may be the year it will happen
so all Scottish Fanciers interested please note that a tentative date for this race is the 28 th of July
and will be decided by the members at our AGM on the 9 th of February.
The final old bird race was to be from Arras in France but sadly because of problems again
outside our control, our final old bird race was flown from Portsmouth. On Sunday the 22 nd of
July after a 2 -day holdover 877 entries entered by 136 members were liberated into a light
North- west at 06.35. The forecast was once more mixed with showers and varying wind
directions on route, it was to be a fairly fast race for the early birds but the result was to stretch
from The first arrival in section A to Mr & Mrs Skelton of Kilpatrick Flemming at 13.26 till
19.00 hrs with many fanciers reporting birds late on into the evening.
1 st open and 1 st yearling also 1 st section B was to Adam Luke of the Partnership Luke & Peters
timing his yearling cock at 14.45 on 365 miles and a velocity of 1310. 2 nd open 1 st section A was