Statistics Corner by Paul O’Leary

NFC Fougeres 2009

Welcome to the first in a series of reports this year on pigeons that scored well in the latest NFC old bird race (based on provisional timings only) and that have previously taken good positions with the NFC. The new Press Officer, Ron Crook, will doubtless have compiled a very good report on all the leading Open and Section winners but the pigeons listed below will for the most part got little or no mention in their report by dint of the fact that they didn’t actually win their Section. The shape of the Fougeres result was, as last year, heavily fashioned by the East wind with Section D dominating the Open result, with the more Easterly Sections being somewhat marginalized. That matters not to this report as I look at the top 10 pigeons in each Section thereby giving a good spread across the sections. As you’ll quickly see I have found some wonderfully consistent pigeons not all of whom were flown by ‘household’ names as you’ll see:-

Open / Section / Member / Comments
4th / 4th / D / Luscombe Bros of Plymouth / Previously 45th Open 29th Section Fougeres 2008
6th / 6th / D / Franks & Baker of Tiverton / Timed on three previous occasions includind 232nd Open Fougeres 2008
8th / 1st / J / M/M A Shore of Crewe / Previously 126th Open 22nd Section Saintes 2006
13th / 9th / D / Paul Naum of Watchet / Previously 25th Open 6th Section Saintes 2008
14th / 10th / D / H Baker & Son of Plymouth / Four previous timings found!
18th / 2nd / G / G Summers of Nailsea / Three previous timings found including 17th and 22nd Section
21st / 3rd / G / M/M A Fielding of Bristol / Previously 213th Open 52nd Section Sennen Cove 2006
27th / 6th / G / Peter Atherton of Portishead / Previously 12th Section Alencon 2008
30th / 9th / G / Nigel Templar of Bristol / Three previous timings including 14th Open 1st Section Saintes 2008
35th / 11th / L / M/M Livesey of Preston / Four previous timings including 5th Section Fougeres 2008
39th / 13th / G / John Handyside of Bristol / Previously 110th Open 16th Section Cholet 2007
45th / 1st / K / Brian Denney of York / Four previous timings including twice 4th Section and once 6th Section!
59th / 8th / J / K Rhodes of Telford / Previously 289th Open 9th Section Alencon 2008
82nd / 3rd / K / G Metcalfe & Son of Barnsley / Previously 79th Open 21st Section Fougeres 2007
136th / 6th / K / Brian Holland of Keighley / Five previous timings including 11th Section Alencon 2007
152nd / 8th / K / Peter Hagland of Doncaster / Previously 11th Open 3rd Section Fougeres 2007
285th / 7th / F / Crowley & Green of Calne / Three previous timings including 178th Open 15th Section Saintes 2008
422nd / 5th / B / M Waters of Salisbury / TEN previous timings for the 7yo including 60th Open 8th Section Nantes 2003, 42nd Open 4th Section Saintes 2003, and 55th Open 1st Section Nantes 2004. A proper National pigeon is this!
495th / 10th / E / G&S Baron of St Albans / Previously 50th Open 27th Section Alencon 2008
502nd / 10th / B / Bartlett & Jones of Southampton / Previously 21st Open 1st Section St Malo 2008
513th / 2nd / H / T&B Graham of Milton Keynes / Four previous timings including 3rd Section and twice 5th Section.
532nd / 5th / H / Pollitt & Brimicombe of Milton Keynes / Three previous timings including 228th Open 1st Section Fougeres 2008
572nd / 8th / H / HM The Queen of Kings Lynn / Previously 2nd Open 1st Section Alencon 2008
674th / 2nd / A / M/M Mead of Emsworth / Three previous timings including 23rd Open 5th Section Fougeres 2007
784th / 5th / A / Crammond & Langstaff of Arundel / Previously 10th Open 5th Section Angers 2008

Only members’ FIRST timed pigeons have been reported on here so anyone in this list wondering why their second or subsequent timers are not included that’s the reason why. The provisional result rules only require you to telephone in your FIRST clocked pigeon and in a busy race like this one the Secretaries must be really pushed for time so it makes sense to keep the length of telephone calls down by just reporting your first pigeon only.

I think you’ll agree that there are some terrific pigeons above and as the distances increase through the Summer I think you’ll see even higher quality pigeons appearing in these reports as when the going gets tough the tough get going.

This report plus many others can be found at www.pbosolutions.co.uk and don’t forget you can still buy NFC Results CD’s at just £15 just e-mail Paul O’Leary at

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