SATURDAY 16th January and whilst the Arona team were preparing for race day 8 on the island of Tenerife, in Poland and the uk delegates from the Arona organization were present to promote the race to a wider audience at various shows, , whilst Gladys Ledesma attending the show in Poland, mark and myself were once again present at the winter gardens for the British homing world show of the year in Blackpool here in the UK, with the newly purchased stand up and ready along with the TV screen in a prime location on the horseshoe of the winter gardens, we were hoping that if everything went to plan we would be able to show Saturday’s race to the fanciers present live through livestream.
With the doors opening at 0900 there was a constant flow of fanciers in and around the stand waiting on news of the liberation of the pigeons from a distance of approx 35 klm by 10.30 when the liberation was confirmed it was nearly impossible to pass due to the increased numbers which had surrounded us and with the birds in flight, we were on hand to answer the many questions regarding the arona one loft ace whilst we kept an eye on the traps ourselves, it was at 10.55 that the sighting of the first arrivals were seen and as everyone waited for these to land, and enter the trap.
Upon the announcement of the result it was clearly shown that the winning pigeon and 1st place for training race 8 went to team Hungary and team Laszlo Gotthard
with his pigeon named Gary timing in at 10.55.23.35 this pigeon whilst over the previous races hasn’t come to the forefront it has however flown consistently in and around the 400th place on numerous occasions, in 2nd place its team cantarella and agius lofts of Malta and pigeon siry which has come into form over the past week recording 7th place in race 5 and 32nd in race 7 timing in just behind the winner on this occasion at 10.55.25.20.
For 3rd we have team polska and pigeon antek entered by team Arkadiusz Buttner at 10.55.26.25, 4th place went to team Germany and syndicate team reiss & pfeiffer and pigeon Maya timing in at 10.55.26.40 closely followed by, pigeon alexandru 4 for team Romania
who takes fifth spot on 10.55.26.45, in 6th its the golden ladies entry porthos of team Europe recording their arrival at 10.55.26.90.in 7th place its team Italy with pigeon ferngully timing in at 10.55.27.20 just ahead of the first arrival for uk /Ireland with team England and syndicate team alveley flyers in 8th place with pigeon maiden over recording a time of 10.55.25.27, in 9th spot its a second arrival for team Germany and a 1st for Eric Muller with pigeon mary recording 10.55.27.80, and rounding off today’s top ten is team France with syndicate Phillippe Haquette and pigeon leonore 10.55.27.95.
So that was the top ten in race day 8 result, and whilst the pigeons were still returning throughout the afternoon the interest at Blackpool was more intense as more people, after seeing the race and witnessing the transparency offered via the live link and information displayed on the website regarding the race we were pleased that all the hard work to be present the arona Tenerife one loft race didn’t go unrewarded as we obtained quite a few new entrants for the 2017 race over the two day show as for the race, unfortunately come night fall for some reason there were 2257 pigeons from the initial basketing list of 2377 perched and whilst a few of these missing pigeons came through the following morning a large number are still unaccounted for at basketing on Monday evening in preparations for training race 9.
Tuesday race day 9
And with the 2277 pigeons basketed for race 9 from a distance of 40 klm the livestream chat page was once again a hive of activity as at one time 148 fanciers and interested parties logged in to watch the race .with a liberation confirmed at 10.35 it was reported on site that the pigeons seemed nervous to leave the liberation point for some reason, and slowly made their way down the gumier valley in a southerly direction towards the coast, and as the last of the pigeons cleared, the possible reason for such confusion may have been the presence of an army helicopter flying in the area unknown to the conveyer sat the lofts it wasn’t until 12 .10 that the first pigeons were spotted approaching and as the first arrivals hit the landing board the quickly made their way into the loft to register their arrival the winning pigeon timing in at 11.12.28.75 and honour first place goes to team Netherlands and entrant team cees van gelder
with pigeon named buzzlord a pigeon that has steadily moving into form over the past training races with improved positions, team Netherlands also take 2nd place with team t Bosua and pigeon wild billy just behind by the smallest of margins timing in at 11.12.28.85.
3rd place goes to local fanciers from Gran CanariaTeam Félix Santiago – Aday Rguez and pigeon Daniel recording an arrival time of 11.12.29.55 taking 4th place its team south Africa and entrant team fouche lofts with their entry machine 11.12.29.75 closely followed into 5th by the first arrival for team uk/Ireland with team England and mark Gilbert timing in Southfield believer on 11.12.29.85.
The 6th pigeon to cross the winning line and taking 6th position is a third arrival for team Netherlands with pigeon named midnight cruiser for team Schoordijk-Schults 11.12.30.45, in 7th place its team Portugal
and pigeon high arrival for team Jose do carmo at 11.12.30.65, 8th place goes to team Malta and jesmond for team Team Cantarella&Agius Lofts timing in on 11.12.31.40, in 9th place its another arrival for team Netherlands and Lorenzo van russell timing in birra on 11.12.31.95, and finally in 10th place its team Malta recording their second pigeon on 11.12.32.00 for team victory lofts Malta.
After the arrival of the main batches the trailing pigeons were well split and returned throughout the day however by nightfall over 300 of the entries were still unaccounted for and a bit disappointing for some from such a short distance, but on speaking to Jose Ledesma on Tuesday evening he was confident that there would be pigeons early the following morning and a high number would turn in during the following days, Wednesday morning and as morning broke a steady flow of pigeons came throughout the day and with the last remaining game pigeons turning in on Thursday morning the final number of returns stand at 2,032 pigeons from the 2277 entered had returned giving a returns percentage of 89.24%, which will now go forward into race day 10with 9 training races overcome its time to take a look at the averages for the first time this year and its team uk and team Scotland and William Donachie who holds pole position but as we all know things change on a daily basis.
Tom Harris
