2008.

Off to a Crackin start or should I say a Flying start

taking 7 Positions (in a North Wind)

in the first 10 of the FEDERATION

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 7th & 10th

Stafford 56/ 1,038 Birds.

 

"UpDate".

2009.

The RPRA Council ruled that ETS Can be used.

Do you struggle to clock in over 400 miles.

If you buy rubbish you will breed rubbish.

A pedigree is only as honest

as the man that made it out.

The pedigree of my birds are based

on over 20 years of the

basket and winning performances.

They race against every so called breed of pigeons advertised and still win after flying upto and

over 200 miles further.

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The National Flying Club Presentation Evening at Torquay December 2007.

Joe being presented with his trophies by

Judith Napolitano the wife of Carlo Napolitano

who is Her Majesty the Queens loft manager.

Racing Pigeons with Pedigrees

backed up with

Fantastic Performances from 60 to 622 miles.

 

Saturday 2nd June 2007.

Winner of

"The National Flying Club"

Cholet Race 2007

941 members 6,798 birds

1st  Section 1st OPEN

472 miles 504 yards

Velocity: 1562.451

8 hours 52 minutes.

"Coronation Queen"

holds the record for being the second furthest flying pigeon (472 miles) to win 1st Open in "The National Flying Club" flying into Lancashire ("Section L") in over 100 years in the history of

The National Flying Club.

 

A Magnificent Win for Joe Dorning

Brian & Joe.

Joe holding both: Coronation Queen and her Sire: The Judge

and his friend Brian holding her Grand Sire: Fulwood Cracker.

How do you top last years performance in

"The National Flying Club"

clocking 4 birds in the first 57 in the OPEN result

in 2006 out of 4,388 birds.

and having the 1st yearling in Section "L"

only by going one better and winning it.

The Details.

1st Section, 1st Open flying 472 miles is Joe Dorning of Preston who timed a 2y cheq pied hen who is impeccably bred. Her sire is The Judge, a winner of over 40 prizes; 2nd in the RP £10,000 Championship Sprint Category; 3rd RPRA Sprint Award and a Meritorious Award winner. He is from Fulwood Cracker, 7 x 1st x Fulwood Leading Lady, 5 x 1st and a Meritorious Award. The dam of the National winner won 1st Combine, 29th Open RPRA Millennium Race Vire 351 miles. She is from Fulwood Detective, winner of 37 prizes and Bird of The Year North West Lancs Fed x Fulwood Classic, 1st Section, 1st Open North West Classic Club Rennes 396 miles.

Now named Coronation Queen, Joe’s National winner had 8 races leading up to the coast and was then sent to Cholet. Her previous positions are: 1st Club, 2nd Fed Mangotsfield 77/1549 birds; 2nd Club Kempsey 164 birds (came together with winner); 3rd Club Ludlow 234 birds; 3rd Club, 11th Fed Cheltenham 76/1545 birds; 3rd Club Portland 155 birds & 5th Club Wollaston 157 birds.

Joe had this to say: ‘She is on no system really. She was in the stock loft paired to The Millennium Cock and I have bred 4 young birds from her this year. When I moved her last 2 young birds about three weeks ago, I also moved her and put her back into the racing section. But at every opportunity she got she would fly over my head and try to get back to her mate and I just put her back to him and then sent her to the National.

On arrival she was in fantastic condition.

Credit should go to all members of the Committee of the National Flying Club and the convoyers for the condition of the birds on their return. Also to people like Jack Pickup and no doubt other members who came up with suggestions into improvements in the final transporter design.

I would also like to pass on my personal thanks to Mr Brian Long for setting up a trust fund, so that the National Flying Club could buy the new air-conditioned transporters.

They truly are fantastic transporters and a great gesture to all the members of the club. John Edwards has also to be congratulated for his financial support to Brian in replacing the grills in the crates. You truly are gentlemen who are much respected and appreciated.

‘I feed my birds as much as they can eat of a good quality mixture from either Bamfords or Bucktons. They are also given a good supply of various grits and minerals, which are kept clean. Besides giving them good corn I believe that it is most important to wash and clean the drinkers ever day - and I do not mean just rinsing them out. I have had pigeons on and off since I was 10 years of age, which is for over 50 years now.

I do not have a partner but my friend Brian Parkinson comes round every Saturday to wait and to throw the droppers and he now rightly boasts that he took the rubbers off a National winner. He now proudly displays his own photograph holding the winner!

‘I sent 3 to Cholet and got all three. It was an exciting and confusing afternoon as I also had birds in a combine race from Lessay which were released at 10am and arriving approx. 30 minutes before the National birds. I was ringing other members and they were ringing me (Andrew Hastings, Frank Cuthbertson, Trevor and Tony Ennis from Whitehaven in Cumbria, Jim Sephton from Kendal,Jim Kenyon from Logridge and Tony Moss to name but a few).

Also I was checking on the websites for the wind forecasts and the progress and speed of the various Section winners as the birds were racing up the country, trying to work out the expected time to get a good one. To have one to be up with the leaders I calculated I needed one by 4.30pm.

I was keeping a close eye on the leading times, especially in Sections J and L, and the excitement was building up.

And then she appeared! Brian threw the dropper, which, although it has a broken wing, flew onto the top of the loft instead of going straight through the open door, which upset Coronation Queen and she failed to trap. She was a little nervous as she could obviously sense the excitement in my voice and would not trap through the open door or the stall trap.

In desperation I dropped the stall trap into the stock section where she was trying to get in. A big big mistake as three or four stock cocks then came out, and to say that panic set in would be an understatement. It was like Fred Carno’s circus until I clocked in at 16.22.

‘On accessing the National website, it said there were no birds recorded at the time of my bird’s arrival in Section L, which I did not believe. Approximately 15 minutes later I then managed to access Section L, which was recording a page of arrivals in our section. I worked out my velocity.

Frank Cuthbertson then rang me, asking if I had clocked in. I told him that I was just about to verify my time and he said, “You will not be far away with that time”.

Quite a long time elapsed and still my verification was not showing but I had worked out my velocity. It was then my heart started to beat a little faster.

I tried to refresh the website to see if that would make a difference but still my name and bird time and velocity was not appearing. The pages had frozen!

It was then I got a telephone call from the Secretary Sid Barkel asking me to confirm my seconds’ reading on the clocking in time. I informed him that it was a dead reading of 16.22.00. He then congratulated me and informed me that at that time I was in 1st Open position. To say that I was ecstatic would be an understatement - this was my ambition come true.

‘It was then my heart went into overdrive. Sid informed me that he was going to update the result right away.

It was back to the computer waiting for the updated result and telephoning numerous fanciers who had rung me up asking what the wind speed and direction was, and what time should they expect their birds from other liberations. Whilst waiting for the update to appear, I ran back into the loft to throw some corn into the troughs and I noticed three or four other birds had arrived from the club racing, which I had paid no attention too,due to having already clocked a number of birds.

The stock cocks had gone back in and, not checking, I had just closed the traps. Back to the computer and, after what seem be forever, there it was, the telephone result with Joe Dorning at the top. I just sat there shouting for Brian to come and have a look.

The club secretary arrived shortly after 6pm to take me to the club and then to the national clock station at Chorley. I showed him the bird. Then it was back to the computer to run a few copies of the provisional telephone result off.

In all the excitement and without checking, I shut the loft up and was off to the club and the national clock station. I was that high, if that’s the right word, that I never checked to see if my other two entries had returned.

It was only the next morning on entering the loft that I discovered that both my other 2 birds must have arrived sometime between 5 and 6 o’clock the night before and were in the loft before I set off.

I was so pleased to see them as they had both performed well previously that I was on a high again, so much so that when my wife saw me she said,  “DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE GOT YOUR SHIRT ON INSIDE OUT?”

That’s what a good drink celebrating does for you, but who cares, I have just achieved a life’s ambition. And my ambition now is to do it again before I die.

‘Whilst out celebrating the question of what to name my winner came up. Andrew Hastings, our club Secretary, started by saying that I had got to think of a name that I and fanciers would remember.

He said I remember the 2nd of June because it is my daughter’s birthday, it is also the anniversary of his sister. He remarked that everbody remembers 2nd June as a date in history because it was also the day Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was crowned and everybody remembers that, so the name I have chosen is Coronation Queen. I will always remember 2nd June 2007.

‘I would like to thank all the numerous people that e-mailed and telephoned me and others who left messages on my answering machine to congratulate me on my bird’s performance.

Calls came from fanciers on the south coast, from fanciers in Wales and from fanciers right up into Scotland. And the telephone never stopped ringing till after 10pm.

Some of the comments were quite exceptional and straight from the heart. One message I picked up after returning from celebrating till the early hours on Saturday night was from Brian Stansfield. It said: “Hello Joe, it’s Brian Stansfield here, your section representative, ringing up to congratulate you on your absolutely fantastic win and achievement. I think it was wonderful for you and wonderful for Section L and all of us up here. The other thing is that Roy and Arthur Gough have asked me to pass on their congratulations to you, too.”

I mention this because of the genuine warmth and excitement in his voice. Thanks Brian and thanks also to all the other fanciers who contacted me. I would like to add my congratulations to all the winners and every member who took part in the race.

Keep sending and it may be your turn next. Believe in your birds and love them and you will get the best out of them like I do. Whether I will race Coronation Queen again is something I might have to take a little time thinking about.’

NFC Press Officers: Les Parkison and Cameron Stansfield.

References.

I first met Joe nearly 50 years ago when as a 12 year old new starter his only ambition was to race pigeons successfully.
Since then Joe has spent a virtual lifetime in the sport during which time he has learnt a great deal about pigeons particularly in the field of selection breeding and racing.
Since returning in the sport 20 yeas ago Joe’s success in racing has been phenomenal at Club, Federation, Combine and Classic level his record is unsurpassed.
To complete the picture however we must add performances in the National Flying Club in which recent years Joe’s pigeons has achieved some outstanding results.
Finally Joe’s achievements have been at all distances and he must therefore rank amongst the best all round fanciers in recent years.

Brian Newson. (British Homing World)

I have known Joe Dorning for nearly 40 years. He has been the top flyer and Highest Prize Winner in the North West Lancashire Federation numerous times. The pigeons that he has got are of very high quality and any fancier purchasing pigeons today will breed winners and winners from them.

Cliff Holmes. (North West Lancs Federation Secretary.)

Numerous fanciers to many to mention throughout the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales have wrote, telephoned and emailed reporting winning with Joe Van Dorning pigeons

send an email to info@josephvandorningpigeons.com