Birds battle surprise gale

AFTER two Saturdays of exceptionally difficult flying conditions, local pigeon fanciers must have been encouraged by the fairly benign wind and weather forecasts for the most recent race day.

The birds were set to fly from Richmond in KwaZuluNatal, a distance of just more than 400km.

However, it would seem that the weather gods had other ideas.

The Yearlings and the AnyAge pigeons were released into cloudless, almost windless skies at 7.30am and 8.15am respectively.

With similar placid weather conditions prevailing in East London, fanciers could have been forgiven for their optimism.

And while the arrivals of the birds were not as staggered as in previous races, the unexpected strong to gale force westerly winds encountered midway through the flight in the vicinity of Kokstad – and not indicated in any wind forecasts – produced yet another day when many birds had to battle through to their perches.

Yet again, it was the East London fliers who made a clean sweep of the top positions on the race sheet,.

This saw Carel Weiss of Comrades taking the Yearling honours with a flying speed of 83.7km/hr.

Second and third positions went to the Ristow/Jamieson loft of Northerns, when they continued their fine run of form at 83.5km and 83.4km/hr respectively.

As in previous races this season, the inland lofts and fanciers further down the coast towards Port Alfred saw their average flying speeds fall off, in some cases dramatically.

The first Eastern Cape arrival was clocked by Raymond Schenk at 76km/hr.

King William’s Town posted 68.7km/hr for their first arrival.

The Queenstown speed though fell to 59km/hr.

The Any-Age race produced a similar result, with members of the Northerns Club taking all top-10 positions on the sheet.

First place went to Derek Nel (82.1km/hr), with Gavin Dargie taking second and third at 81.9km/hr and the Ristow/Jamieson combination taking the next two places.

The first Eastern Cape bird landed at Linton Randall’s loft at 74.3km/hr.

A clear indication of the difficulties experienced by the inland lofts was the pedestrian 49.4km/hr registered by Queenstown’s first arrival.

After four events, the overall championship points leader was Dargie, with 818.

At just more than 100 points was Michael Engelbrecht (Abbotsford), closely followed by clubmate, Alan Kemp.

The flying distance will now jump to 479kms from New Hanover in KwaZulu-Natal.

Who would blame local fliers for hoping for more favourable flying conditions next time around.