RML International
 
LN 364
www.rml-international.org
POINTS MEANS PRIZES.

“PIGEON RACING IS INHERENTLY UNFAIR.”


I am sure you  will agree with this statement but how exactly is pigeon racing unfair? In order to examine this properly let us look at last years  NRCC races. The NRCC races provide a very clear picture of pigeon racing in the UK and show patterns that can be seen in every Club and Federation throughout the land. However before we begin perhaps I should very briefly explain something of the English system and the North Road Championship Club.

Pigeon racing has gone on in the United Kingdom for many years but its present day organisation was founded in the era of  rising  Trade Unionism. While pigeon racing was not confined to areas of industrialisation it was certainly very strong there and took  its structure from the fashion of the day. Trade Unionism of course has moved on.  Pigeon racing has not. The administrative structure is a story for another day but its hand is felt at every twist and turn and so you will find many threads, in what is to follow, that lead directly back to this inheritance. Governance is by simple democracy where every member has a vote in his clubs affairs. Clubs send mandated representatives to regions, which have a large degree of autonomy, but  in turn send representatives to the ultimate authority  the Council of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. The entire administrative authority hangs around Annual General Meeting’s from Club to Council with the whole year plan dealt blind from a pack of resolutions. Consequently the organisation rests upon a patchwork of amendment  each piece coloured by personal advantage. 

I said English system but there is no English system. English politics has always relied on  first past the post and so to has pigeon racing unfortunately in pigeon racing no one has yet described the post. So we have been encumbered by the primitive concept that the highest velocity wins and no body really takes any notice of anybody or anything else. A predominant  wind, from the West, has meant that Clubs have been easily dominated by one person or a small group and invariably this has led to the remainder leaving to form another Club where the same pattern is repeated. Now, when numbers have declined rapidly, we are left with a proliferation of small clubs and a small membership chasing after Firsts with scant  regard to quality  of opposition. There are no formal Championships at local, Regional or National level and no structure to establish them. 

Pigeons are raced from North and South in the UK, and at times East and West as well but the main routes are to race on the North Road from Scotland and the South Road from France and Spain. The NRCC is the premier Club on the North Road and was founded in 1901 to race from Lerwick, which it still does today. Other race points have been added over the years until it now carries out a seven race programme at semi National level.  Whilst membership is open to the entire Southern part of the country, because of the predominant wind, this is mainly focused in the Eastern coastal areas.


In 2001 the total Open Prize value to be won in the NRCC was almost £18,000. This consisted of the two cars at £6,000 each, a £1,000 Lerwick prize, a £1,000 nomination prize and other smaller cash prizes. How much of that prize value do you think got beyond the shortest sections,  A, B and C?  Well it was exactly  £150. That was one prize that went to one pigeon in one race. It just happened to go to a pigeon in Section F the Section with the largest membership, the largest number of members who send and the section that sends the largest number of pigeons. Interestingly both the £1,000 prizes were won in Section A, both the cars were won in Section B and  most of the smaller cash prizes were won in Section C. That means that 99% of Open Prize value was won in the short sections.  The distribution pattern is shown below where the Sections are shown diagrammatically in location order with the number of cash prizes won in each.                                             







Which ever way you look at it there is a decided advantage to the short and to the east.


Systems and determining factors.

Velocity.

There are two major determining factors in Pigeon Racing, Distance and Time and it is by the use of these two that we determine all races. We use them in a calculation to produce velocity and it is velocity that is the measure of all our races. Velocity is therefore the currency of Pigeon Racing. The higher the velocity the further up the scale and the lower the velocity the further down. Simple as that nothing else matters or at least nothing else counts.

Distance
There are of course two other major factors that determine races, together with a host of minor ones, but there are two other really major factors and we take no account of them at all. I say two but we have already mentioned one and that is distance. Yes we do use distance but only in relation to time. We do take the distance the pigeon has flown and compare it to the time it has taken but only to produce the velocity. We take no account of how far the pigeon has actually flown. In every situation we simply compare velocities and take no account  at all of the distances involved. Lets look at it in another way and lets look at you. I dare say most of you could walk a mile without to much problem and if we measured out the mile and the time it took you to walk that mile we could produce your velocity. Now what if we made that two miles instead of one? First of all I wonder how many of you would be able to walk two miles, easy,  OK well lets call it ten miles then, how do you think you would feel after walking ten miles and what sort of velocity would you achieve? Would you be able to walk ten miles at the same pace  you could walk one mile? Could you achieve the same velocity for those ten miles that you could for just one mile? Would you slow down a bit do you think or would you be able to make it at all? Distance effects performance, distance alone, without any other factor, has a direct effect on velocity and if you are not entirely convinced why don't you come for a walk with me right now and we will see.

Wind
The second of these two major factors is wind. We see it more dramatically in our pigeons than we would walking but it would still have an effect on walking. It effects  pigeons in a major way. Wind, really, is moving air and as the pigeons are moving through air and with the air it should not surprising that it has a major effect on them. Winds can affect in several ways. A head wind will slow them down while a tail wind will speed them up and winds coming from the side will move them off their course. Winds are not universal and so in one race it would not be unusual for pigeons to meet different wind conditions along the route which would have different effects upon them at different stages, but we take none of this into account, we make no allowance, we make no calculation.

Other factors.
There is a variety of minor factors which can on occasion have a major effect on performance. Drag, rain, mist, fog, electrical storms, telephone masts and a host of other phenomena can all play a part but again we take no account of them at all.

So here we are we have a sport which we judge upon two factors only, and then only in conjunction with each other, and we totally ignore a host of other variable factors that have or can have a major effect and wonder why it is unfair.

The Nature of the Sport.
The problems mentioned so far have an effect because of the nature of the sport itself. We set our pigeons off together at a single place and they each have to fly back to a separate and different place. Now how different varies from small Club racing, where the lofts might well be quite close together, on an allotment say or all within one small village or part of a town, to national racing where the lofts can be a hundred and fifty miles or more apart. Now it is this difference in location, this difference in distance and location that gives ground to our problems. When the difference in locations is less so the unfairness is less and when the difference in location is greater then the unfairness is greater. So it is in local Club racing that we have the least difference in location and the least unfairness and in National/International racing that we have the greater difference in location and the greater unfairness.

First past the post.
The final factor is our obsession with first place. I accept that we race to win, that is fundamental, but there is a considerable amount of luck involved in any particular victory.  We have already looked at some of the factors that are likely to effect either all the competitors or at least all those racing to a particular area. There are however many other factors which can effect individuals or small groups like getting baulked at liberation, getting set upon by raptors or shot at by hunters. How often I wonder do the fast pigeons set off in  groups forging out ahead while the plodders come on behind. Then the leaders, way out in front, run into some local difficulty which brings them down or makes them divert and so they have to take time to recover their course. By the time the plodders get to that point the calamity has passed and they plod on home to find to their surprise that they are now first, winners, heroes. We in our blissful ignorance applaud this great performance on “a very hard day” and just looking at FIRST, FIRST, FIRST breed from this plodder ignoring the faster pigeons that fell on hard times. This may sound a bit extreme but it is actually at the heart of the way we look at results.  What we should of course be doing is looking  at performances over several races, multiple performances, in one season or over several seasons to find the consistent performers and reduce the effects of chance. The trouble is unless we have a really outstanding bird that gets many high positions, and how many of them are there about, we will be looking at positions further down the list that, at the moment quite wrongly, attract no attention at all. First is a wonderful sounding word but it can mean very little. First does not tell us anything about the quality of the race, it does not tell us how many pigeons there were in the race and it does not tell us if it was a performance worth anything when it may be worth nothing at all. In the same way 20 Firsts or 30 or even 50 Firsts tells us little more because 50 times nothing is still nothing. On the other hand of course that First could be  a really outstanding performance. The problem is,  with our system, we simply do not know. So our obsession with First  can be quite misleading and even worse it actually prevents us from looking for what we should be considering,  multiple quality performances.

Summary.
We have a sport that is inherently unfair because of the nature of the sport itself and the way we produce results. The main cause for the unfairness is the difference in location of the participants which exacerbates the influence distance, wind, geography and a host of other factors have upon the pigeons.

Can we make it fair.

As far as I know at this time there is no known method of making Pigeon Racing totally fair. There may come a time when we have a better grasp of our environment, when we have a better way of tracking where exactly the pigeons go, when we have a more detailed picture of the conditions they encounter that we could make a calculation that took all of that into account and gave us a totally fair result. That may well come but it is not here today. So we must ask ourselves is there anything that we could do today that would make the sport fairer.
The answer is undoubtedly yes but before we start to look at how we can make it fair it is important to set out what it is we want to achieve, what we mean by being fair and precisely what objectives we want the system to provide.

Pigeon Racing is all embracing.

Pigeon racing, like no other sport I know, embraces all at one level. Beginners and old hands, professionals and those merely looking for a bit of company and a chat are all thrown together in one big pot and so it shouldn't come as any great surprise to find that they are not always compatible. In the UK in particular we are dominated by the view that if all cannot have it then none should and that everything should be geared towards the poorest amongst us. Whilst these are noble sentiments they are a practical disaster because they stifle enterprise and innovation discourage experiment and drown competition which really should be the life blood of any sport. So the first essential for any system that is to lift this sport back onto the high ground of fairness is that it should cater equally for the good and the bad, the professional and the amateur, the rich and the poor,  the beginner and the old hand, the young and the elderly,  the mob flyer and those with just a handful of pigeons. The next essential to my mind is that it should be able to identify the best individual pigeons, the best teams of pigeons and the best flyers. It should be able to identify these groupings within the varying distance we fly short, middle and long and treat them equally. It should be able to identify these categories throughout the country from any and all organisations and direction of flight. It should be able to identify these Champions on a local, regional and national level and so provide the basis for International competition. Finally though by no means least it should provide as level a playing field as it is possible to provide and as equal a chance for all competitors, flyers and pigeons, that it is possible to produce. In short it should:

1.Cater for all levels.
2.Identify the best individual pigeons
3.Identify the best teams of pigeons
4.Identify the best flyers
5.Identify the best sprinters
6.Identify the best middle distance
7.Identify the best long distance
8.Identify local Champions
9.Identify regional Champions
10.Identify national Champions
11.Provide a level playing field for all.     



Stage 1. Confine the difference.

One loft race.
The problem of differing locations can easily be overcome by having a one loft race and it is obvious why this sort of event is gaining popularity. One loft races do provide a solution and overcome all the problems of unfairness but they do not provide an answer if, as I , you want to keep your own pigeons and race them to your own loft. So what can we do? Just as the problem is created by differences in location so the solution lies in confining that area of difference and creating viable Race Units.

Viable Race Units.

Ideally we need a standard that can be applied across the country. Circumstances will of course vary and so the parameters cannot be to rigid but at the same time they must be sufficiently strict to ensure standardisation. For any serious competition the number of pigeons in a Race Unit should be about 1,000, say between 700 and 1300. Too small a number is likely to produce the sort of vagary in results that we are already familiar with, dominance by mob flying, so it is essential to have a sufficient number to overcome this effect. Having a larger number is not in itself a problem, because large numbers can be divided into smaller units, but it essential to keep the area as small as possible in order to limit the  differences in location.  The dwindling size of clubs means that Race Units will generally be Federations. Whilst I would suggest that the administration is dealt with at Federation level there is really no need for small clubs to disappear. Within this sort of structure small local clubs can provide the camaraderie and social contact that many require together with low level competition which is all that some will be looking for. At the same time they offer the gateway to the more serious competition that the Race Unit will provide leading on to regional and national level. This pathway will become more evident later.

You may well ask what difference is there between this and what we have now and the answer at this stage is very little. The essential difference is a move towards standardisation that can be applied across the board.  In my locality, for instance, we have three Federations and about twenty clubs competing for a membership and birdage that could more properly be applied to one Race Unit. On the other hand in the Peterborough and District Federation for instance  there is a large membership and birdage that could more properly be applied to four or even five Race Units.  How these units are administered is not in itself important as this could be as a one unit stand alone Federation, an amalgamation of Federations that form one Race Unit,  a large Federation consisting of several Race Units or a host of other combinations. What is important is the establishment of Race Units that are of a standard size in terms of birdage and as far as possible area.

National and semi National Clubs and racing fit into this same pattern. As a general rule these clubs are already divided into Sections and again as a general rule these sections could be adopted as Race Units. It may be that there would need to be some re structuring because what would be more important in this type of racing is geographical size and shape rather than birdage. This stems from three factors first the size of Sections would normally be larger than normal federation units, race distances are likely to be longer and the overall standard of pigeon is likely to be higher.  Having said all that it would be ideal for these sections to be as close to the required birdage figures as possible.


Stage 2. The New Currency.

Having established standardised Race Units we are still left working in the same currency, velocity. So if we try to compare pigeons across the Race Units we still have the same old problem. In  Federation racing how could you compare a pigeon racing South against a headwind with one flying North on a tailwind purely on velocity and in a national it is ludicrous to try and compare the velocity of a pigeon flying to Louth, or to Boston, or to Cambridge with one flying to Gillingham. It would be like comparing your velocity on the ten mile walk with someone who dropped out at one mile or two or five. What we have to do, in order to compare performances across the sections, is to find a new currency. I am afraid we have to join the Euro.

So how do we go about creating a new currency. Initially there is nothing new as the birds are timed and the velocity, old currency, is established in the usual manner. This will give  a full race result in the old currency. If we are talking about a National race or a multi Race Unit Federation, we can still produce all the Open positions so that everybody can see where their pigeon came in that result if they so wish. To create the new currency we treat each Race Unit as a separate race and convert the positions attained within the unit into points. The first pigeon in each Race Unit is awarded 100 points. Each pigeon after that is also given points in a descending scale until we come to 33% or 1/3 of the pigeons entered in that unit.  The race will close with the 33% so that all birds timed after that will not count and will not attract points.

Considering a set percentage of the entry and allocating points over that percentage is a way of taking into account differences in entries in the various race units. The birdage in Race Units could vary between 700 to 1300 pigeons, perhaps more in National races, and it is important that this difference is accounted for. Why 33%? Well it could be 10% or 25% or even 50% the actual figure itself is not as important as using the same figure across the board. There are several reasons for selecting 33% though. First we want to be able to identify the best pigeons and flyers and we want to judge them over several races or performances so it is important that we pick a fairly wide band. If we pick a narrow band we will miss some performances when the pigeon/flyer does not have a top day. Secondly  some of the competitions will involve nominated pigeons and while of course they would be expected to do well they do not always perform up to expectations and again we could miss them. Thirdly some of the competitions will be for teams of pigeons and again we need a wide band to catch all. Fourthly, and most important of all, we need to set a wide band so that winning points is an achievable goal for all members. One of the worst aspects of the sport currently is that we consider so few positions that one or two people can occupy all the winning places.  Those that come behind get nothing not even a mention. There can be little more demoralising than to try your hardest and, in your own terms do well, yet get no recognition at all. For beginners and those lower down the scale just getting into the points will be a first target and for all the hope of seeing themselves climb the scale will act as an ongoing incentive.

So only the first 33% of pigeons count and the  race is declared over when they have been timed. Converting the pigeons position in the Race Unit into points gives a quantifiable value that can be compared to pigeons in other Race Units and in other races. Up to now everything has remained much the same as ever but it is this transfer of a position into a standardised value that provides the new approach. The essence of that approach is to attribute a value to a pigeons performance judged against those competing in the same area. This means that it is a fair value because it is set against those facing the same circumstances and conditions. Then when we make comparisons across Race Units we are comparing like with like.

Again NRCC races provide a very good example of how this works in practice. In the young bird race from Berwick 2001 the pigeons were liberated into a North wind. The result will tell you that they encountered a Westerly influence on the way down because Section C, the shortest section on the Eastern side totally dominated the result and took 81 of the first 100 positions. The remaining positions, in the top 100, were taken by Sections F and I ,where they fly  longer but are also to the East. Section C took over 206 positions before the first bird from Section A was timed although they fly the same distances.  If this result was converted to points the first pigeon in both Sections would attract 100 points. They would both win these points because they were the first pigeon timed in their respective locality. They would deserve those points because they had been judged against pigeons flying to the same area, encountering the same circumstances. It is very much a matter of debate whether the Section A or Section C pigeons had performed best on the day. It is clear that Section C birds were quicker but it is also clear that they had a much easier time getting home. The Section A birds on the other hand had a tougher time and it could be argued that because of this they performed better. What is quite clear is that they encountered different circumstances which produced different results and so the only fair way to make an assessment of their performance is to judge how they performed in relation to the birds in their respective areas. It is only once that assessment is made that you can make fair comparisons. That is what the points system does.


Stage 3. The new competitions.

Once we have converted the performance into points we can look at how to construct competitions. Using the new currency a whole new set of possibilities open up. First and foremost we can actually establish what are the best pigeons. It is a very simple exercise to add up the points scored by any particular pigeon and compare them directly with those obtained by others. Clearly there must be some minimum criteria for establishing a championship and there will be various opinions and views about what constitutes a champion pigeon. Here are some examples to set off the debate. The Champion Sprinter  could be the pigeon that attracts most points from say 10 races up to 200 miles. That could be any 10 races in the season which could be with various organisation's as long as they were all established Race Units. A Champion Middle Distance Pigeon could be the pigeon that attracts the most points from six races all of which must be over 200  miles and two of which must be over 300 miles while the Champion Long Distance Pigeon would be the pigeon that attracted the most points from 3 races all of which must be over 400  miles and one of which must be over 475 miles. Clearly the number of races and distances is as variable as you would wish to make but again some sort of National standard should be applied because these Championships could then be applied to race units, multiple race unit Federations, Amalgamations, Combines, Regions and on up to National level.

How you establish the Champion Loft and Flyer is another great area for debate. In Germany they consider the best five, or Zahler, pigeons in a loft. They have  a complicated scheme that looks not only at points but the number of finishes within the 33%. Whilst most Germans that I know are quite happy with this there are those who think it favours large team flyers. In Holland they consider one pigeon out of very ten that are sent so if you send 40 the first 4 count for points. The total points are then divided by 4 so that you get the average of points which is the score. There are no doubt many other ways that the points can be used but  in looking at the best team and the best flyer we are looking at two different things. My personal view is that if we want to find the best team then we count all the points scored by a loft and divide them by the number of pigeons sent which will give a true average value for the whole team. If we are looking for the best flyer then I believe another element comes into play, one that we have not considered so far, the ability of the flyer to pick his/her  pigeon and one of the best tests of this is, I believe, the two bird nomination. Once again there are many views and opinions each with  good and bad points but the most important thing is establishing a common accepted standard.

Stage 4. Divisions and Leagues.

There has been talk over time about leagues and divisions to cater for the various levels in the sport. This has met with little real enthusiasm perhaps because it is difficult to visualise. The points system however not only makes it possible but opens up a whole new area for development. Once we have established standardised race units and expressed performance values in points we have a sound basis for grading flyers, lofts and pigeons and fairly dividing them into divisions. It is a simple matter to draw up a list of the best performing pigeons, flyers and lofts in each Race Unit going from top to bottom. We could then say that the top 5% of flyers in a Race Unit are its ACE Flyers and would go into a Division for ACE Flyers. We could then further subdivide the remaining flyers in bands of 15% or 20% or 25% to form as many Divisions as we wish. In this way each years points results within a Race Unit will determine which Division the flyer will be in for the next season.  Each season flyers can represent their Race Unit in competitions against equivalent Divisions in other Race Units.  So in any one race a flyer would be competing against those in his own Race Unit to gain points to win competitions in that Race Unit, he could also be racing to maintain or improve his Divisional position and at the same time he could be racing in competition with others in equivalent divisions in other Race Units within a league. This means that at whatever level the flyer is, beginner to ACE, there are a whole variety of competitions that he can participate in within Divisions that provide fair and relatively equal terms. It means that the best in one part of the country can compete against the best in  another part of the country on equal terms. More importantly it means that someone who is not very good and still in the lowest Division can still compete within his Division at a National League level and win high awards. The possibilities are endless and could be applied to pigeons as well as flyers.

Conclusion.

Adopting the ACE Points system and the competitions outlined above could make a major improvement to Pigeon Racing in this country. At the first level it can be introduced in parallel with our current system with very little change. Those who do not wish to participate in its competitions need not, those who wish to view it in operation before committing to it can do so and those who wish to go ahead can do just that because at the first level it is simply a matter of transferring results to points, an elementary computerised function. Once that transformation is made those who have no interest will ignore it, those beginners and lower performing flyers will look to see if they have got into the points, those a little better will eagerly seek out their positions while the best will laud it at the top. Even at that first stage it will have begun to cater for all.

With more races the best individual pigeons will become apparent as will the best teams and the best flyers and as the races progress so the best sprinters, middle distance and long distance pigeons and men  become known. From these results local Champions will be identified and comparisons made to establish Regional and National Champions. Then with the introduction of leagues the beginner in one Race Unit will be able to compete directly against the beginner in another as will those at all other levels up to the top and though they may be miles apart they will be competing against each other on a level playing field for the first time in the history of pigeon racing in this country. Within a very short time everybody would be chasing after points because POINTS MEANS PRIZES.


Nigel Lane


Section A Section B
 Section C
4 7 18
     
Section D
 Section E
 Section F
0 0 1
     
  Section H
 Section I
  0 0
     
 
Section G
    0
This pattern is even better illustrated in the distribution of the top 100 places when the advantage of short becomes obvious and that of the East becomes evident.
Section A Section B
 Section C
68 78 226
     
Section D
 Section E
 Section F
15 29 59
     
  Section H
 Section I
  0 23
     
 
Section G
    2
Most prizes go to the shortest and most favour goes to the short and to the East, a pattern you will find throughout the whole of North road racing. South road racing is a little different, for a variety of reasons, but similar patterns, though perhaps not quite as obvious, will be found. With such a bias we must all accept that pigeon racing is inherently unfair. So let us look at the various elements to see what it is that creates that unfairness.


Membership Distribution.

The first suggestion might be that the prizes won only reflect the membership and pigeons sent, but  is this really so?  There is of course some correlation between membership and results but this is probably more a matter of members reacting to results than it is an explanation for the results. We must all know someone who has moved location in order to get a better position to win or left a club because they have no hope of winning there.  The table below shows the members/birds sent by section in 2001 and although you can see  some similarity with the patterns above they do not match exactly.

Section A Section B
 Section C
168/2758 167/2782 202/3987
     
Section D
 Section E
 Section F
147/1403 385/1329 268/4102
     
  Section H
 Section I
  71/365 215/2357
     
 
Section G
    29/279
For instance Section A and B have almost identical membership and birdage but not results. Then in the next row Section D, which outweighs Section E in members and birdage,  only gets  half the positions. While Section F,  which has the largest membership and birdage,  gets nothing like the results it should if they were based on members and birdage alone. Section H and G are difficult to asses properly because of the small numbers involved. The table below shows how many pigeons each section had to send to get one position in the top 100.

Section A Section B
 Section C
40 35 17
     
Section D
 Section E
 Section F
93 45 69
     
  Section H
 Section I
  365+ 102
     
 
Section G
    139