The pigeon racing season has come to an end, and members of the Grahamstown Racing Pigeon Club (GRPC) have performed well throughout the season.
The pigeon racing season has come to an end, and members of the Grahamstown Racing Pigeon Club (GRPC) have performed well throughout the season.
Graham Samuel of the GRPC was named the Eastern Cape Pigeon Federation (ECPF) champion at the end of the 2009 pigeon racing season.
The ECPF commenced the racing season at the beginning of June this year which consisted of nineteen races in total, with the last race held on 14 October.
The ECPF then held a banquet and prizegiving function the following Saturday at the Bushman’s River caravan park hall where the chairman, Raymond Schenk ably assisted by the race secretary, Cas Vorster and the treasurer, Kiewiet Dorfling presented certificates, trophies and prize monies to the fanciers whose birds had excelled in various categories throughout the season.
The races took place from Middelburg in the Eastern Cape to as far afield as Standerton in Gauteng, with distances ranging from 250 air kilometres (as the crow flies) building up to 760 air kilometres and is divided into short, medium and long distance categories.
Secretary of the GRPC, Peter Bailie said the programme, which was relatively extensive as far as distances were concerned, “was spiced up with a special race from Port Nolloth near the Namibian border, a distance in excess of 1 000 kilometers for most fanciers”.
Bailie said the race was contested between the various Free State and Eastern Cape pigeon clubs. The federation is made up of lofts belonging to racing pigeon enthusiasts situated at Fish River, Port Alfred, Kenton-on-Sea, Bushman’s River Mouth, Alexandria and Grahamstown.
Apart from being named the federation champion, Samuels was also named the middle distance and long distance champions. Kempie Coetzee, also of the GRPC was named the middle distance yearling champion.
The GRPC members took nine first places throughout the season, nine second places and eight third places.
The members also achieved eight first placements in the yearling section. Bailie was placed first at the Colesburg race, Petrus van Niekerk won the Kimberley event, Samuel won the Kroonstad, Bethlehem, Ventersburg (both events) and Groblershoop (second event) races, while Coetzee was placed first at the Ficksburg ad Standerton races.
The two categories in pigeon flying are AA (also known as the open category) and yearling. The open section is for pigeons over one year and the yearlings are under one year old. Membership, including non-flying members, totals some thirty avid bird fanciers who endeavoured to get the best out of their birds on each respective race.
Races were held every weekend on a continuous basis throughout the season. While the races were usually held on a Saturday, only two races were held over until the Sunday due to inclement weather.
The birds are collected from the various centres on a Thursday evening and transported on the Federation truck to the headquarters of the Eastern Province Pigeon Union in Port Elizabeth where the panniers are loaded onto a horse and trailer with birds from all the different pigeon clubs in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Despatch, Humansdorp and Jeffery’s Bay.
The trucks’ total pigeon carrying capacity is 176 panniers accommodating around 6 000 birds. “It is truly a wonderful sight to witness the release of so many birds in the early morning on race days,” said Bailie.
Depending on the weather, release times vary from 6am to 8am towards the end of the season when it becomes light earlier. See more pigeon flying news on page 11.
