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A special birthday present has proved to be a winner for Keekle fancier Steve Chambers!
His wife Eileen surprised him by buying him six young birds for his birthday earlier this year – and one of them topped the West Cumberland Federation on Saturday.
But neither Steve nor wife Eileen were there to see the pigeon home from Cheltenham as they were on a week-end break.
Pals Jimmy Scurr and Gordon Parry – who themselves had a Fed winner earlier in the season – had no birds away themselves so they were clocking for the Chambers family.
Steve recounts: “They said that four came together – one went in and the other three dropped on the loft top. Then another seven came together.
“In the end we took all six spots in the Keekle club and finished first, fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth in the Fed.”
The first and second pigeon which were clocked by Scurr and Parry had been bought by Eileen as squeakers from Brian Bolton of Yorkshire. They are off a Janssen based family. The Fed winner is a blue cock and the second bird is a chequer cock.
“One of the six birds that Eileen bought me didn’t make out but the other five all flew down to Cheltenham. In total I had 43 birds at the race and got all of them,” he says.
Steve actually left the sport in 2003 because he had obtained a new job at Sellafield and just hadn’t the time. He started taking an interest in hound trailing and was a partner in a hound for a while.
“I always thought I might get back into pigeons which is why before I sold all my stock birds I took a round of youngsters off them, and I had them when I started up again last year.
“Eileen offered to do the birds when I was at work and she takes a keen interest now along with our daughter Gemma, so that’s why I decided to get involved again in 2007.
“I’ve had a lot of success with young birds over the years and this was my 13th Feed win. I hope it isn’t an unlucky omen,” he said.
The Chambers partnership will have to wait until next year to try and move off thirteen because Saturday’s near 200-miler from Cheltenham was the last race of the season.
The top Flimby loft of Tinnion brothers and Aitken won the final Derwent Valley Federation race of the season.
A blue cock – which had won for the partners at Leyland – came home ahead of the field to take top honours.
He had been sent on a big young one, and originally been Lawrence Tinnion’s main fancy for the race but he admitted he had “gone off him.”
But the loft still managed four Federation places – 1st, 10th, 15th and 29th – while they also took second, third and fourth in Workington Social Limit’s S Ring scheme.
The pigeon that won the race was something of a rarity in the loft – a youngster off a pair of yearlings!
Normally the yearlings just bring up youngsters from the stock pigeons but on this occasion there was nothing to put under a particular pair and they were allowed to lay and rear their own.
Lawrence said: “The hen was off a hen which won the Federation two years ago so she had the right stuff in her. She’s a Soontjen and was paired on with a Karl Boeckx cock, another breed which has done well for us.”
The three pigeons which took three prizes in the S Ring scheme were all related to the good six-year-old Soontjen hen.
Tinnion brothers and Aitken had taken the first four positions in the Federation in an old bird Marlborough race earlier in the season.
Lawrence and Geordie Tinnion and Bill Aitken have been flying together since 2000, although the brothers were in partnership four years earlier. They come from a well-established pigeon racing family and Lawrence describes his elder brother, the late John James as his “mentor in the sport.”
The partnership first topped the Derwent Valley Federation from Wollaston in 2004 and in 2006 won three Feds in a five week spell – Portsmouth twice and Cheltenham. Last year they won from Portsmouth.
The win from Cheltenham was the eighth.
Bill has been ill recently and had just finished a course of treatment ahead of the Marlborough win. He wasn’t at the loft on Saturday but was able to go along on Sunday and take a look at the latest Fed topper.
The partners sent 29 to the race and got 20 of them – the poorest returns they’ve experienced all season – but it was enough to win them the Federation’s young bird averages.
DERWENT VALLEY
FEDERATION (615 birds): 1, Tinnion bros and Aitken (Flimby HS) 1376; 2, 5, Todhunter and Ismay (Maryport) 1371, 1362.3; 3, Sanderson and grandson (Ellenborough) 1365; 4, E. Hodgson and son (Flimby HS) 1362.7; 6, Ostle and McNichol (Flimby HS) 1360.
NETHERTON HS (5 sent 82): 1, 2, 5, K. Rafferty 1319, 1303, 1272; 3, R. Fisher 1313; 4, McAvoy and Penman 1284; 6, Ward and son 1266. (K. Rafferty wins YB average; McAvoy and Penman runners up).
HARRINGTON CENTRAL FC (7 sent 64): 1, 2, 4, N, and G. Wordsworth 1335, 1306, 1293.7; 3, D. Holliday 1294; 5, Telford and Pooley 1293.5; 6, Carter and sons 1293.4.
FLIMBY WEST COAST: 1, 2, 3, 4, J and D. Hine and grandson 1339, 1227, 1200, 1180; 5, Mr and Mrs Proctor 1177.
FLIMBY HS (10 sent 156): 1, 4, 5, Tinnion bros and Aitken 1376, 1330, 1300.8; 2, E. Hodgson and son 1362; 3, Ostle and McNichol 1360; 6, E. Pape 1300.7.
WORKINGTON SOCIAL LIMIT (3 sent 37): 1, 2, 3,5, 6, 1274, 1264, 1263, 1216, 1202; 4, Hucknall bros 1250. (S Ring – 1, K. Harper; 2, 3, 4, Tinnion bros and Aitken; 5, Mr and Mrs Dustin; 6, Harker and Berwick.
SEATON RBL (Sponsored by Metropolitan Racing - 4 Sent 30): 1, 4, 6, Mr and Mrs Duggan 1301, 1297, 1267; 2, 3, 5, Mr and Mrs Dustin 1300, 1299, 1269.
WORKINGTON VICTORIA (8 sent 76): 1, 2, K. Harper 1339, 1309; 3, Evans and Abraham 1281; 4, 5, 6, G. Best 1278, 1269, 1268.
WEST CUMBERLAND
FEDERATION (382 birds): 1, 4, 5, S. and E. Chambers and daughter (Keekle) 1394, 1391.5, 1391.1; 2, Tomlinson and Banks (Cleator Moor) 1393; 3, Rodgers and Benn (Cleator Moor) 1391.9; 6, D. Harrison and son (Egremont Rangers) 1389.
CLEATOR MOOR CENTRAL (140 birds): 1, Tomlinson and Banks 1394.4; 2, Rodgers and Benn 1394.1; 3, C. Doran, son and grandson 1388; 4, 5, J. Fitzsimmons and son 1353, 1348; 6, Graham and co 1346.
DISTINGTON HS: 1, 4, Holliday and Dixon 1373, 1304; 2, 3, R. McAvoy and son 1338, 1326.
EGREMONT RANGERS: 1, 4, 5, D. Harrison and son 1389, 1265, 1241; 2, J. and M. Doran and son 1318; 3, Mr and Mrs D. Wilson 1269; 5, Mr and Mrs Bewsher and co 1253.
KEEKLE HS (4 sent 88): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, S. and E. Chambers and daughter 1394, 1391, 1390, 1388, 1385, 1384.
MIREHOUSE HS: 1, Graydon and Mellon 1317; 2, 3, 4, B. Irving 1282, 1277, 1268.
SANDWITH FC: 1, Henderson and Hutchinson 1325; 2, Graydon and Mellon 1317; 3, 4, 5, B. Irving 1282, 1277, 1267; 6, J. Watson 1257.
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