Not so short and sweet as birds fail to wing it

THE opening short races on the annual ECBU racing pigeon programme are meant to be no more than an introductory flight for the competing birds – after all, what is Kokstad at 300km in distance when compared to the long flight home from Touws River (750km) in the Western Cape at the end of the race schedule?

In the second of the two Kokstad races, flown last Saturday, the first ten positions in both the Yearling and the Any-age events were both filled within the space of four minutes. The overall arrivals at lofts across the Border and in the Port Alfred area were disconcertingly erratic, with arrival times greatly staggered.

The forecast hot, dry conditions led to a decision to release both sets of race birds earlier than scheduled in an attempt to offer the pigeons as much relief as possible from the anticipated adverse flying temperatures. In spite of this, many lofts reported that a substantial number of their birds were only able to reach their home perches on Sunday.

The Yearling race went to Gavin Dargie of Northerns with a winning average flying speed of 80.6km/h from clubmates Ian and Craig Lutge at 80.3km/h and Derek Russel at 80.2km/h. As was to be expected, coastal lofts to the south saw flying speeds drop off, with the first East Cape bird trapping at Brendon Samuel’s loft at 73.7km/h, while the further inland the birds had to travel the slower the flying speeds. Queenstown’s Tiaan Landman registered 67.0km/h with his first bird

The Any-age event, liberated 45 minutes later, saw the hot conditions affect the flying speeds even more, with the winning pigeon, flown by Alan Weimann and Stuart Sanders (also of Northerns) managing 78.6km/h. Second spot went to Abbotsford’s Alan Kemp at 78.4km/h.

As with the yearlings, lofts to the south and inland suffered from the heat, with the fastest East Cape bird clocking 72.7km/h and Stutterheim, King William’s Town and Queenstown registering 68.5, 65.3 and 58.8km/h respectively.

Michael Engelbrecht (Abbotsford) took three of the Top-10 positions in the Yearling race, while clubmate Kemp can be justly proud of his loft’s performance in going one better and clocking four of the Top-10 arrivals. Results were:

E Cape Pigeon Federation and Border Homing Union: Yearlings (913 birds) – Kokstad

1. G Dargie (NFC); 2. I Lutge & Son (NFC); 3. D Russel (NFC); 4. D A Nel (NFC); 5. D Schenk (NFC); 6. C Ruhrmund (CHS); 7. D Hartwig (NFC); 8.-10. M Engelbrecht (AFC)

E Cape Pigeon Federation and Border Homing Union: Any-Age (845 birds) – Kokstad

1. Weimann & Sanders (NFC); 2. & 5.-7. A Kemp (AFC); 3. T Marais (NFC); 4. D Hartwig (NFC); 8. Drie Duiweboere (AFC); 9. D Russel (NFC); 10 CA Weiss (CHS)

KEY: AFC – Abbotsford Flying Club; CHS – E L Comrades Homing Society; NFC – E L Northerns Flying Club.