TEAM RML
 
Loft:   LN7913
National Flying Club:  R389E
British Barcelona Club: D279
B.B.C. Messac
Training Race No. 2.


Messac is a small town on the eastern bank of the River Vilaine, which it shares with Guipry on the western bank, and while the towns are joined by a bridge the river itself, and the port they share, forms a stronger bond. This area boasts links back to the Bronze Age with several remnants in the vicinity including standing stones and rocks used by ancient tribes some of which can be seen in the port at low water.
The liberation site is within the railway station just a little upstream from the bridge. 
From the B.B.C. Web site:

"19-05-10

258 Members have entered 1,892 birds for the Messac National - additional entries will be accepted on the day @ £4.50 per bird.


21-05-10

263 Members entered 1,966 birds for the Messac National.
Section breakdown -
A:50/360,B:58/425,C:66/471,D:32/308, E:30/207,G:13/115, and H:13/80."
Twenty cocks entered and marked for Messac that is the 19 that came in reasonable time from Vire plus the one yearling that I failed to send to Vire. The yearling that came really late has still some body weight to put on so will consider sending him to the NFC Messac in two weeks. Marking times at Walkern have changed as the earlier start is not really justified by the pickup time so it now runs 1000 to 1300.  Weather looks good for the weekend so hopefully they should get a good workout.



From the B.B.C. Web site

"Saturday Morning

Good news the birds at Messac were liberated at 0645 hrs in a very light East North East wind. I will update this site with the early times and provisional result as soon as possible this evening. Good luck."

Steve Appleby's Weather for Pigeon Fanciers


UPDATED SATURDAY 22nd MAY AT 09:00 HOURS.

A large high pressure system centred over northern Europe will be responsible for fine dry conditions today. A cool start before temperatures rise, probably to a maximum of 25C which is quite warm. Using the NOAA satellite looking down from the sky just the southeast is affected by cloud cover. The remainder of England and northern France is under clear blue skies. Several areas inland and over the channel are affected by early morning fog which will soon burn off. Having spoken to the Met Office forecaster early this morning I have been informed that fortunately this fog in the channel is only shallow in nature, reaching a maximum height of about 300 feet. Any fog that does persist will not be an obstruction to the pigeons as they will be racing well above it. Winds will come from the east or north east and will be light in strength over land. Over the open sea they will reach force 3 possibly force 4. So to sum up, conditions today are good for racing and good luck to all my visitors.




Well quite a hard Messac, for TEAM RML at least, with GB07R44109 being the first pigeon to arrive at about 1645 and the only one thus far. Not verified and treated as purely a training race.
When the provisional result is published   the first 20 will be mapped on here to give an idea of distribution.


The Provisional Result can now be seen HERE. and the top 20 below.

View BBC Messac in a larger map
Well it was a hard race for TEAM RML with only 7 from 20 on the day and a further 4 up until 0900 today. Before going any further I would like to acknowledge the really good performance of  Gosling  & Jarvis out at Mountnessing with a pigeon over an hour in front of TEAM RML’s 109. I spoke to Mick at the Marking Station and he said he was having a go and clearly he meant it.


Will go into detail about the pigeons and arrival later when I have taken all the details from the clock but you get some idea of the race from those that came on day one. We got the two best pigeons from Tarbes last year and the two best from Perpignan as well as the best performing yearling from last year. The other two were a pigeon that got injured as a young bird and came late from his only race as a yearling and the seventh was the yearling that got out of the basket and so did not go to Vire. Make of that what you will. 
Loft Position Ring Time Velocity - mpm.
1 GB07V44109 16-47-05 737.51
2 GB08R45967 17-18-08 701.34
3 GB08R45937 18-40-58 620.20
4 GB07V44141 19-18-39 589.19
5 GB05N07222 19-41-08 572.12
6 GB05N07250 19-52-27 563.90
7 GB09J31666 20-16-25 547.24
  Timed Day 2.    23/5/10  
8 GB08R45984 07-21-43 420.21
9 GB08R45953 07-34-04 415.36
10 GB08R45948 07-44-39 411.28
11 GB09J31665 07-51-29 408.70
12 GB05N07249 09-18-25 378.42
13 GB08R45966 10-01-53 364.90
14 GB09J31664 10-06-02 363.66
15 GB08R45928 10-47-13 357.80
16 GB05N07237 10-58-17 348.74
Race Review.

Below you will see the times and velocities of all the pigeons that returned. Velocities are expressed in meters per minute because that is the way the International races are expressed and so that is the way the software is set, 109 for instance was doing about 800 yards per minute.
Those that failed are:

GB08R45902 who came 9th and 14th from Falaise and Alencon as a yearling and was 9th from Vire.

GB08R45947 who came 16th and 15th from Falaise and Alencon and was 5th from Vire.

GB08R45951 who came 19th and 13th from Falaise and Alencon and was 13th from Vire.

GB08R45987 who was not raced as a yearling but came 19th from Vire.

The finishing order, in what was quite a hard worked race, gives some clue to the order they should go on the race entry sheet for their target races subject of course to what happens before then. The NFC Tarbes Single bird nomination, GB08R45966, is not exactly showing himself as a leading light but let us not give up hope yet.



B.B.C. Messac Final Result.