Secretary’s Weekly Report

This is the first of what will be a weekly blog appearing on our new website detailing club business that the secretary has been involved with during the previous seven days. Because the club membership is drawn from across the whole of the North East the aim of the blog is to help keep the membership better informed of what is happening within the Club and across the National scene.

Club Membership

Since the AGM a further 4 applications have been received and accepted these included:-Ken Dodd and Son, Hexham. Gordon Clark, of Blackhall, Mrs B Matthews and Son Butterknowle and Dave Lodge of Barnard Castle bringing the membership up to 39 for the 2016 season and there is still time for that number to increase before the end of March. So don’t be shy if you know anyone who may be thinking about trying National racing give them a nudge and some encouragement to come and join us. It could be the best decision that they make this year.

NFC Business

NFC Auction is currently live on their website and will close at 21:00:00 on Sunday the 21st February. Looking at the auction schedule there are some excellent distance birds on offer which could strengthen any distance race team or stock loft.

Talking to Sid Barkel this week he asked that I remind all members that NFC Annual subs are now due.

He also mentioned that the NFC Annual Handbook should be issued early/mid April. I would encourage all members to take a few moments to read the guidance covering race entry and marking including basket arrangements. Give me a call if they need any issue’s clarified.

RPRA Annual fees are due end of February. Many of you have already paid these via the Club and I am in the process of preparing a schedule listing our full club membership which will be sent to the RPRA on March 1st. I will be happy to take outstanding club subs and RPRA Fees on Saturday 27th Feb.at our show race.

Messac Show Race

I have had regular discussions with Garry and Jeff, who are co-ordinating the event. All indicators suggest it will be a big success. There will be a great trophy for the best in show so even if you do not intend to show try and get along to the Sportsman. You never know it maybe that you get a chance to see a future NFC Open winner. One thing for sure you’ll enjoy the crack. Big thank you to Garry & Jeff for all their support in organising the show.

Club Young Bird Sale

Jeff has already started working on this initiative and would appreciate it if members could pass breeding details of youngsters to him asap. Pledges of youngsters are still welcome and an indication of when the babies will be ready would be enormously helpful for the press advert.

Sponsorship

I have been in touch with Tom Demeester at Vanrobaeys to confirm that I had picked up this year’s prizes from Terry Knox and again thanked him for their brilliant support. I also advised him about the launch of our Club website and the link within it to the Vanrobaey site.

I am still chasing other Sponsorship deals, although it remains quiet on this front currently.

New Cumbria Section

Have made contact with Ian Parsons across in Cumbria. Ian is not only a great flier of the doo’s he also manages a very successful Stud. He is looking to get things moving in his new section across the Pennines, it is early days and there is a long way to go before they get their National act together. One very interesting aspect he mentioned concerned the setting up of a Marking Station. His immediate thoughts were that if Section N were granted a marking station then perhaps the Cumbrian lads would/could use it rather than set up a separate one. We have agreed to keep in touch as Cumbria develop its approach.

Planning Permission for New Lofts

I am currently looking to relocate my own racing lofts from allotments a couple of miles away from my home, to agricultural land behind my house. Not an easy or cheap process although a lot more straightforward if approached sensibly. The RPRA website is a great starting place with some excellent advice to be found there. I also talked to my local Councillor and gained his full support along with local farmer who owns the land. Plans have been submitted and registered so it’s just a waiting game and if permission is given I see the shift taking 1 to 2 year. If anyone wants any advice on planning or permitted development processes just get in touch.

That’s it for this week but should any member want to see anything specific covered in the blog just drop me a quick text.

Bob Mckie

Annual General Meeting 27th January 2016

Tom Riddle the club Chairman welcomed and thanked everyone for attending. We had a full house with members traveling from all over the North East to be at the AGM and bearing in mind the average journey for each member is 25+ miles this was an excellent turn-out.

The club Secretary then gave his annual report on the 2015 season highlights before outlining some of the impacts that the NFC Management decision to create 3 new Sections including a Section N would have on the Sportsman. Everyone recognised the risks that come with the new arrangements, nevertheless the mood was very positive and members agreed to work hard to encourage more fanciers in the North East to take up the challenge of National racing with the NFC.

It was then on to the night’s agenda.

2014/2015 Balance sheet

The financial position of the club is satisfactory with our high transportation costs of ferrying birds to the marking station in Sheffield well under control. Options to keep transport costs at a minimum will be kept under review, any significant increase in birds entered would need to be carefully managed.

Resignations/Applications

Peter Brunskill a founder club member resigned through health reasons (The Secretary will be in touch and pass on best wishes). There were 12 applications to join the club and all were accepted bringing the membership up to 35. More applications are known to be in the pipeline and these will be welcomed through to the end of March 2016.

Election of Officials

The secretary had suggested a restructuring of the Official jobs which was fully discussed and adopted for 2016.

Chairman: Tom Riddle

Secretary/Treasurer: Bob Mckie

Events Secretary: Jeff Walton (Working closely with the Secretary will lead on IT Developments, race management etc.)

Local Clock Station Officials: Tom Riddle (Greenside) Jim Nicholson (Sunderland) It was agreed to explore the possibility of a further local clock station around the Stockton area.

Club Subscriptions

Maintained at £20 a loft for 2016.

Annual Telephone-in Young Bird Sale

To be organised mid/late April.

Sponsorship

Once again the club has secured excellent sponsorship from Vanrobaeys and a big thank you must go to Terry Knox of Knox Feeds, Swalwell, who was influential in securing this deal. Each race there will be prizes of:- 2 Bags Vanrobaeys Young Bird and a full range of Vanrobaey Products including, Bacostar, Broncostar, Packs of Pickstones and 10 Kilo tubs of Super Grit Mix.

Paul Stobbs has generously offered £100 sponsorship for the winner of the Ancenis National.

Paul has always been a big supporter of the club in more ways than one and the members wished to send their appreciation for his continued support.

Show Race

Garry Heslington, outlined proposals for a club show race from the Messac National to be flown 4thJune.

The show will be held on Saturday 27th February at the Sportsman, Toft Hill and open to club members. Penning 12 to 1.00pm. Entry limited to 4 Birds per loft (2 cocks/2 hens) All birds must be in show pen, 2 Classes Cocks/Hens, Show Prize Money 1st £20, 2nd £15, 3rd £10, Best in Show £10 (Entry fee is £5 per bird all paid out in the race four prizes. 50% 25% 15% 10% There will also be a £10 single bird nomination pool (Winner take all)

Website

The Secretary then raised the issue of communications which he had touched on earlier in his overview. It was proposed that if the club wanted to raise and maintain its profile then there was real merit in having our own website created to promote the club. Given the vast area covered by the club/Section N boundaries it is critical that our members and supporters are kept up to speed with everything happening within the Sportsman FC, the new Section and wider National scene. It was agreed that we would take forward this initiative and have a Website commissioned which would be specifically used as an Information only website (no chat-room facility).

2016 Presentation evening

This will take place on Wednesday the 16th October. Rod Adams was so well received last year that he will be a difficult act to follow! The Secretary will follow up on suggestions made about the main guest(s)

The AGM, after a very busy and productive evening, was eventually closed. The next General Meeting will be held on 16/3/16 (kick off 8.00pm).

2016 Racing Season is fast approaching with many lofts well advanced in their breeding programme. If however your approach is like mine with distance racing only in mind, then there is still plenty of time before the nest boxes will be opened. In recent years I have become increasingly calm and more objective about pairing later, paying greater attention to the dates of the longer races. Where once the 14thof February or should I say Valentine’s day and a full moon were the trigger to mating it strikes me that we need to be more cognisant of other factors not least changes in weather patterns and impacts of climate change. In this respect there are a range of excellent websites outlining both short and longer term weather patterns which are extremely informative and can be considered when formulating your breeding and racing plans. Breeding sound stock has always been an art where good husbandry skills were key to success, however these days science has an increasing role to play not just in feeding methods but understanding weather conditions. An excellent example of this has been the information that Joe Murphy has brought to fancier’s attention in his press articles which centre on Space Weather, highlighting atmospheric pressures and Sun surface disturbances. When you follow these data reports it is not without coincidence how there are delayed impacts on prevailing and sometimes unusual earth weather patterns. The poor returns experienced some racing days are influenced in part caused by turbulent sun storms and we really need to better understand the full implications on our weather systems. All fanciers but especially long/extreme distance racing exponents could in my opinion benefit greatly from understanding the science behind this activity and factor it into race preparations.

Final Warning just been told in no uncertain terms by my wife that the job of home decorating started back in March last year has to finished before racing season starts. Be warned!!

Bob Mckie

National Flying Club — New Section N

At the recent NFC Annual General Meeting in addition to significant changes of Officials we saw a proposal to create 3 new sections passed by the Committee. Not surprisingly there has been a mixed re-action to the boundary changes not least because of the additional financial impact the decision will have in the short to medium term. And in some quarters the breaking up of existing Sections is considered to be a weakening of Section competition.

Looking at the decision from a Sportsman FC member’s perspective-the general feeling is quite positive and seen as a step in the right direction insofar as National racing in the North East is concerned. However whereas the NFC is known for having a cautious approach to decision making, the creation of a new Section N whilst pragmatic indeed bold it is not without risk. Therefore it is worth taking a more detailed look at the argumentation supporting the Committee’s decision and their positive drive to enhance National racing in the North East.

What are the benefits NFC racing offers the North East Fancier?

• Proven record in promoting and organising UK National racing.
• Experienced administration processes and staff with proven track records.
• On line race entry and race verification facilities.
• In-race provisional results available on line.
• Strong flying competition across the UK.
• Seven National races including a joint Old Hen/Young bird race.
• Individual race winners recognised for performance.
• Annual race programme changes are kept to a minimum.
• Top of the range Transport with experienced drivers and Race team advisors.
• Allocated Section prize money with £100 to the winner of each race and additional prizes dependant on number of entries.
• Open prize money and excellent pooling.
• Fantastic range of Trophies to be won.
• In 2015 3 races carried sponsored new Motor Cars (2 of which were free entry.)
• Regular press coverage in both the Racing Pigeon and British Homing World.

What are the aspects of NFC racing which are less attractive to North East Fanciers?

• Cost of membership to NFC and RPRA.
• Birdage charges may be perceived as expensive.
• Nearest marking station is the Greyhound Stadium at Sheffield (Toft Hill for Sportsman FC members).
• Race entry numbers have to be submitted a week in advance. -Lack of local clock stations.
• Dual Club and National racing can bring extra time management pressures.
• Weather conditions highly influential on results (occasional late morning liberations are contentious).
• Heavy losses can be expected until a team is established. (Switching experienced and very successful Combine/Amalgamation birds to National racing is no guarantee of success.)

There we have it many of the key Pro’s and Con’s involving National racing into the North East. The NFC committee have set out their stall and it is now down to the North East fanciers who are interested in National racing to step forward. Currently there are nearly 4000 NEHU members and amongst these are some of the best long distance fanciers in the country and we have a golden opportunity to establish the North East as a major force on the National scene. There is no doubt that fanciers in this part of the UK have the ability to successfully compete and challenge for top spots in National racing and bring home the glory that goes with a 1st Open NFC we just need to see North East fanciers take up the challenge. Looking ahead I would argue that Specialist National racing has a great deal to offer despite some of the current challenges.

The Sportsman FC at Toft Hill has successfully removed many obstacles to National racing which face North East fanciers. We have tremendous support from like-minded distance fanciers across the UK along with business sponsorship in 2015 from Vanrobaey Feeds. There is no reason why other groups of interested fanciers could not come together and model their own local club for National racing on the Sportsman. The more that pick up this challenge then greater is the argument for our own marking station in the North East. Give me a call if you think I can help in anyway.

Finally members of our club wish Mick McGrevy and Phil Curtis all the very best in their new posts as NFC President and Chairman respectively.

Bob Mckie

Secretary (Sportsman FC)

Secretary’s Weekly Report

Bob McKie 1st Section N NFC Saintes

Saintes has come and gone with only 3 birds making the result sheet by the close of the race.

• 1st Bob Mckie (636 miles) 1st Section N
• 2nd McSween & Sexton (631 miles) 2nd Section N
• 3rd Barrie Blackett & Son (616 miles) 4th Section N

These 3 birds were all timed in a 12 minute window on Sunday morning which given the distance is an amazing outcome. They will all achieve decent Open position from an entry of 3270 with our birds flying up to 300 miles further than some of the competition.

Top drawer performances all round and it goes to prove if we set our “stall out“then this is one of the key race-points where a 1st Open is within our grasp!!

Tarbes is up next and liberation is scheduled for Friday 22nd July with race marking Tuesday the 19th July. Birds will be collected at the usual time at our HQ on Monday 18th July. (Note arrangements will be made to have T3’s set on Tuesday the 18th please bring to HQ on the Monday night)

Messac Show Race

The final result was:

• 1st John & Steven Best
• 2nd Malcolm, Heslington & Jones
• 3rd Bob Mckie
• 4th Bob Mckie (Single Bird Nom)

All prize monies will be paid out at our Annual Presentation evening on 19th October.

Many thanks to everyone for supporting this event and a special thanks you to Gary Heslington, John Fellows and Jeff Walton for making the show happen.

Bob Mckie

Ps if you need to contact me please email me on bmckie@tiscali.co.uk I am currently upgrading my mobile contract but we are having problems with activation which my provider says may take a little time to resolve.