Article by Randy Engelbrecht PRO – Federated Board of Homing Unions
Article Published 11 July 2011



Racing into the future!!!!

New season brings new excitement!!!

The past Saturday, July the 9th brought much excitement to the fanciers of the Federated Board of Homing Unions as they took part in their real true new venture of duel races.

I’m pretty sure the basketing at some of the unions would have been a bit chaotic at first, but this would have been off-set with the buzz of how everyone would fare on this Beaufort-West young bird and any age competition. The challenge of selecting just nine birds per race would have proved a somewhat difficult task for most fanciers as they have had the luxury of racing eighteen birds per week prior to this.

Either way, the pigeons were loaded and fanciers were left with the prospect of collecting a fair haul of points on the day as the predictions were that it would be a fast race on the Saturday. As luck, or bad luck would have it, the liberation times were badly affected by firstly, the generosity of the FBHU to allow the Bloemfontein Federation to liberate their birds first as they would be flying into a strong headwind and secondly, a huge bank of fog that had moved in shortly after their first liberation at 7.45am.

All other liberations were thus delayed, with even a member of the SPCA arriving to monitor the conditions and viability to liberate. Mr. Andries Venter paid particular attention to the fact that the birds had had food and water and he paid a very satisfactory compliment to the Federated Board for their support in putting the interest of the pigeons first above all else. In the end the FBHU young birds were liberated only at 10.30 and the old birds at 11.00am.

Over in Cape Town fanciers were hogging the airwaves trying to ascertain the liberations times so that they could prepare themselves for the pigeons’ arrival well ahead of time. Others were more inclined to see whether the Reds could upset the Crusaders and were hogging the television sets with family and friends during the early part of the morning.

However, I am sure that from around 2.30 that afternoon all eyes were glued to the sky looking for signs of the first young birds arriving. As it turned out, after much worry and trepidation about the liberations fanciers would have been pleased to see their first arrivals. As we would later learn, the birds achieved an exceptional speed in excess of 1500mpm.

The real surprise however, came with the arrival of the old birds which fell thick and fast just about 15 minutes later. Again, speeds well in excess of 1530/1540 were achieved which would have pleased fanciers tremendously. Although some do not like fast races, I am sure that they would have been very happy that the first real duel race in the FBHU proved to be a huge success.

Congratulations must go to all the winners, but I believe the real big-up must go to the race committee who handled the difficult situation at race point extremely well and really showed that when it comes to the pigeons of the FBHU fanciers, they will always place the well-being of the pigeons first.

Thank you guys! We look forward to this Saturday when we race from Three Susters, another in the series of duel races in the Federated Board of Homing Unions.

Article by – Randy Engelbrecht (P R O – FBHU)