Up North Combine
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Up North
Combine
Pigeon Racing
The UNC was formed in 1905, the first president was Mr
Smurthwaite and the first secretary Mr Gooderham; there
have been 14 presidents and 5 secretaries.
At the beginning the pigeons were transported by rail, with
the racepoints being from railway stations down the east coast
mainline i.e. Retford, Grantham, Peterborough, Hitchin.
The notable change was in the sixties under the leadership
of Colonel Hopas as president and Bill Towers as secretary
the UNC introduced road transporters which created more
flexibility in picking up the pigeon baskets at the local clubs
and enabled more racepoints to be used.
At present, there are 23 federations, 120 clubs and 1381
members in an area from North Yorkshire in the south to the
Scottish Borders in the north.
The first overseas race was in 1905 from Jersey and was
won by W Sheldon fro m Jarrow with 1,029 birds entered. The
first race from France was from Rennes in 1907 won by Reay
Bros of Murton with 2,696 birds entered. The most pigeons
entered for a combine race was in 2008 when 31,088 birds were
liberated from Folkestone and it was won by Mr/Mrs Baxter
from Haswell.
The most enjoyment is gained from not only watching
your birds grow from youngsters to racing from France, but
also meeting and talking to other fanciers, be it
from a social evening at the local club
or attending winter shows
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at Doncaster and Blackpool, also visiting other clubs at their
presentation evenings.
The general mood here is a one of changes that need to be
made as club membership is becoming smaller with the lack of
younger members entering the sport. New ideas are needed to
modernise the sport, but it always faces obstacles from various
sources.
This year racing has been very competitive with some
fanciers producing some wonderful performances. Racing
techniques have improved with the influence of continental
fanciers mainly from Belgium, where fanciers introduce new
birds from and most of the pigeon feeding companies are
Belgian.
For the rest of 2017, it is time to concentrate on racing
young birds (birds bred in 2017). So we need to educate them
by training from various distances back to the home loft. The
young bird races start at 70miles through to 250 miles.
The advice on anyone becoming interested in pigeon racing
is to frequent the local club in the area and get to know the
local fanciers. Be prepared to walk before you run, research on
various websites and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
The biggest challenges for the
future are how to attract new