ALLFLIGHT CARNIVAL CITY LOFT NEWS 21 JANUARY 2009

“Pretty you Beauty”

Out of the dark blue sky against the backdrop of a raging thunderstorm towards race point she appeared over the roof of the loft, made half a turn and then the little tick eye blue bar hen that was sent here all the way from the lofts of Birgit & Gerhard Lucking from Alter Salzweg 33, Lohne, West-Germany was to become the first ever winner of Allflight Carnival City International Summer Challenge!

Let us get back to the where it all started, the race was supposed to take place on Saturday 10 January 2009 but due to the weather we brought the birds back and shifted the race by one week to 17 January 2009. On Thursday 15 January we proceeded to basket the 369 pigeons still left after training with the assistance of Charlie Rude, Joe Gomes, Willem Pieterse and Marius Klingbiel. All baskets and the two locks on the trailer were sealed individually with number seals and checked by Charlie, Joe and Marlize, a signed copy of this form was sent with Gys and Nic to liberation point. Friday morning at 06h30 Gys and Nic took the long road back to Gariep Dam, at 9h00 they stopped at Ventersburg and fed and watered the pigeons. Another stop in Bloemfontein to stretch the legs and fill up with diesel, then the home run to Gariep Dam where the pigeons were again taken care off. Extreme heat conditions prevailed all the way with temperatures in the mid 30’s.

Saturday morning at 05h00 the trailer was parked on a rugby field and two officers from the South African Police Services and the editor of the SA & World Pigeon News, Koos Fourie checked the seals and made sure all the numbers correspond with the list. We decided to open the pigeons at 05h45 to give them more time to beat the late afternoon showers predicted for the Vaal Triangle and Gauteng. Apart from a 30% chance of showers in Gauteng fine weather was forecasted. We were concerned about the midday temperatures of between 32 and 36 degrees predicted for the Free State. Gys and Nic stopped at Bloemfontein and reported a temperature of 34ºC at 9:15am! High temperatures could become a greater problem in future if we consider global warming and we as trainers would have to have to find better ways of preparing your champions for the heat.

Experts’ views of time of arrival varied from as early as 12h15 to 16h00. My own feeling based on past experience of races where temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius is that pigeons rarely fly faster than 1 000mpm under these conditions. I did not expect any pigeon home before 14h15 or at least not before the trailer was back.

In the tents the visiting fanciers were entertained by Riaan van Niekerk and Chrizaan with songs including “Die Wenduif” (The Winning Pigeon) written by Riaan. Carnival City had food stalls and some fanciers brought there own braaipacks and liquid refreshments to get them through the stressful exercise of waiting for the pigeons. Just after 14h15 Gys and Nic arrived back at the loft and reported a strong headwind between Bloemfontein and Ventersburg and that the heat was unbearable in the vehicle. Gys described it as the hottest day by far that he has ever liberated pigeons in. I got a phone call from Alberton which is only 20km west of the lofts that it started raining heavily. More reports came in from various fanciers and the public that there was rain in and around the lofts and that some rainstorms was being experienced right on the line of flight towards Carnival City. I sat on my own next to the trap and waited. From time to time a fancier would phone or text messages that can not be repeated in this newsletter as they are not suitable for publication! Funny how, when we got 24 pigeons together on the drop in the winter race everybody complained and when we experience a race like this one they complain even louder! Only one thing was certain; the best pigeon on the day would win the race, no matter what all the experts had to say!

A few drops of rain fell at the lofts and the clouds were turning darker and darker, then someone in the crowd shouted something that they see a pigeon, then more fanciers started whistling and calling. I could not see the bird as she was behind the roof, a position from which we do not normally get pigeons. The next moment she appeared, made half a circle and dropped in front of the trap, looked at the crowd and then walked over the electronic scanner and flew down the passage for a well deserved drink of water. The results came up on the 6 big screens that was erected earlier that morning and professionally run by Jay and his wife from Jay Kay Pro.

I let her settle down to rest for a few minutes and then called the two SANPO representatives Chris Prinsloo and Alan Jordaan to verify her ring details etc. Zak van der Merwe, our local photographer for the day took some pictures and then “Pretty” was let back in the loft to eat and rest.

At 15h38 from the same direction the second pigeon appeared, he was a bit more skittish and made two turns around the loft, then dropped down and walked in, The result on the screens read: Spaldings with a pigeon named “Caesar”. The brothers Herman and Johan Staal from Reitz in the Free State were in the audience and all the fanciers congratulated them. At 15h50 I saw the third pigeon coming out of race point, this would turn out to become the “Hot Spot & Final Race Ace Pigeon” named “Head of the Game” by her owner Bruce Symons from Pinetown in KZN. 8 minutes passed and the next moment from completely the opposite direction from race point two little Blue Bars appeared, they dropped on the landing strip and I left them to enter the lofts by themselves as to not interfere in the results. The first one to cross the scanner and the “Ace pigeon on all training flights further than 50km” named “Heidi” by her owners David & Anna Clausing from the USA took position 4, only a few seconds behind her “Beauty Beast” from A & B Kauffel the second pigeon from Germany took position 5, she is the second Ace Pigeon on “Hot Spots & Final Race”.

Then there was nothing, and 10 minutes later, nothing. 20 minutes later nothing, 30 minutes later nothing, 40 minutes nothing, 50 minutes nothing! Reports from all around the area was that it was raining with some heavy thunderstorms, at 16h54 the next pigeon arrived again straight out the north, completely opposite direction to race point. This super pigeon bred by Race Pigeon Farm – Marc de Cock from Belgium took 6th position; she is also the 3rd best bird on “Hot Spots & Final Race”. Another 9minutes passed and then two pigeons came from Alberton direction, the one dropped down and walked in but the other pigeon just carried on flying straight past the lofts to go look for its own home. Position 7 appeared on the screen and this is where all hell broke loose (and I say this with tongue in cheek) as the guys that were present since early morning and had a fare share of liquid refreshments noticed that the third South African pigeon belonged to Les Windle, one of the infamous “Banana Farmers” who eats “Great White Sharks” for breakfast and then brush their teeth with pieces of coral reef. They started some chant of “Go Down Big One; Go Down” whenever a pigeon arrived, at least they knew how to braai otherwise we would have had a few disagreements later that night! You are a bunch of good sports guys!

The 8th pigeon to arrive was the first of 3 in the top 30 from Cachalia Brothers; you guys see it helps to take care of your stock pigeons and babies! Position 9 is a Red chequer cock bred by Marius and Yolande Klingbiel, position 10 is “Deal or no Deal” bred by Danie van Dyk. He got another 7 positions in the top 100 which is exceptional, well done Danie! Position 11 is one of our old supporters that has always had success here, Robert Scott with his pigeon “Robert” and the last pigeon to arrive on the day at 18h39 is “Moonstar” bred and entered by Mark Kitchenbrand, she is also one of the last entries that we received and is still a very young baby that has done exceptionally well to make it home on the day under these circumstances.

On Sunday morning at 06h14 the first pigeon was clocked and every few minutes a further one or two would drop. The last bird in the money was clocked at 07h34. It was a very tough race and as the trainer I am already looking at ways to ensure that the pigeons for the next summer race will be even better prepared and have more hours on the wing, maybe even three training flights of about 300km before the final and not just one. This could result in a few more losses before the final but those pigeons that then go to the final will be used to flying for 5 to 6 hours.

The final prize money split was 68% of the positions taken by South Africa (From 67% of the entries), 23 % to Germany (From 29% of entries) and 9% to the other countries (From 4% of the entries), a fair and even split of prizes with SA, Germany, USA and Belgium in the top 6 positions!

To my team, Herman Snr. (without his help, money, patience and love nothing was possible), Marlize, Gys, Njomani, Abraham and Edward well done team! Many said we could not do it; some still sit in disbelief and will only wake up later to find that the first Allflight Summer Challenge is something of the past! To the critics thank you for all your input on the chatrooms etc, you guys will keep me going and keep me striving to make this race bigger and better every year so please don’t stop, I need your criticism.

A special thank you again to David & Anna Clausing from the USA, Marc de Cock from Belgium, Karl-Heinz & Timo Wagner and Christoph Grone from Germany, was it not for you this race would not have been an International event! Please also thank all the fanciers in your country for taking part in the first International race here at Allflight! To the South African fanciers that supported the race I salute you guys! The results show that, provided you are allowed to enter birds in affordable races, you can compete against the best in the world.

Herman

ALLFLIGHT CARNIVAL CITY LOFT

"Winning is not everything, it's the only thing."

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