Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club 2011 Dinner and Presentation - PDF document

Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club 2011 Dinner and Presentation Saturday 28 th January saw us back at the excellent Cairn Hotel in Bathgate to hold our annual Dinner and Presentation of awards. It hardly seems a year since we celebrated our last Presentation night in the Cairn but it has indeed been quite an eventful yet highly successful year for the club. Our esteemed guests this year were the RPRA Cumbria President Mr Jimmy Nelson and his wife Susan and the Cumbria secretary Mr Les Blacklock and his good lady Merril. On entering the function room in the Cairn you could not help but admire the elegance of the room with the outstanding floral arrangements on all the tables this is due to the hard work of Audrey Brown the wife of our senior vice president Ian I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the members to thank Audrey for all her hard work and compliment her on her impeccable taste which certainly added the final touch to this very stylish evening. Following the tradition of the SNRPC the quests were piped into the room to the top table by piper Duncan Brown, Duncan is a man of many talents apart from playing the pipes he is a renowned Scottish Artist, writer and historian. After an excellent meal our president George Wilson introduced our guests and top table, Mr Jimmy Nelson started the proceedings of with a very good speech and an entertaining rendition of this introduction to the sport at a tender age he then proposed the toast to the club. Les Blacklock followed with an equally impressive speech, Les and Merril love their trips up to Scotland, this the second time Les has been invited as our guest he was our main guest at our inaugural dinner in 2006 and has never missed one since, Les and Merril are held in high regard by our members and will always be made very welcome whenever they venture North of the border.

Mr Jimmy Nelson made the first presentation of the evening to the winner of the Peterborough young bird national Adam Luke of Dunbar this was Adam’s second national win in the SNRPC having won the Portsmouth Inland National in 2007 section winners followed to receive their medals Sect C Jim Benvie Kirkcaldy, Sect D Jim Jack Falkirk, Sect E Dr J Salmond Shotts, Sect F John Murdoch Greenock. Photo 3 Adam Luke 1 st Open Peterborough Jimmy then presented the silver medal to Hendry Brothers of Hamilton proud winners of the Wanstead Flats inland National with there popular winner “How the West Was Won” section winner s were Sect B Ben Veitch East Saltoun, Sect C John McKenzie Anstruther,Sect D Alistair McNaughton Falkirk, Sect E J Drummond & Son Clydebank.

Photo 4 Hendry Bros Hamilton 1 st Open Wanstead Flats Les Blacklock then took the floor to carry out the Arras National presentations 1 st Open was Peter Virtue with Grandson Brodie at his side to accept the silver medal and framed 1 st Open diploma, all our 1 st open winners receive a beautiful framed diploma featuring a photograph of their winner on it all the printing is carried out by Buchannan & McPherson of Hamilton, Ken Buchannan’s company and what a wonderful job they make of them. Section winners were Section C John Ellis Dundee, Section D Alistair McNaughton Falkirk.Section E John Callan Lesmahagow,Section FJohn Murdoch Greenock. Brian Kelly of Chirnside was then presented with the 1 st Yearling National Silver medal

Peter Virtue and Grandson Brodie receiving the Arras winner’s awards. Brian Kelly Chirnside 1 st Yearling Arras The next presentation was The Fontenay National our longest channel race Les Blacklock again did the honours and presented Kirkcaldy’s Dave Burns with the 1 st Open silver medal section winner were Section B Brian Kelly Chirnside, Section D John Mack Alloa, Section E W Davidson & Son Coalburn, Section F Ian Ross Kirkintilloch.

1 st Open Fontenay Dave Burns Kirkcaldy As always the club president has the great honour of presenting the awards for the Premier race the Reims National and this year was no exception George Wilson was very proud indeed to hang the Winners Gold Medal round a very worthy winner’s neck , that of Peter Virtue of Cockburnspath . It has been Peter’s ambition fo r many years to win the Reims National and the splendid Gold Medal that is part of the winner’s prize and now he has achieved his goal, the years of dedication have paid off and the Gold medal will have pride of place in the already overflowing trophy cabinet at Callander place. It was also fitting that the premier national was won by such an outstanding pigeon Virtues Pride he is a supreme Champion of that there is no doubt, if there is a better long distance pigeon in Europe at this present time I have yet to here of it. The section winner from Reims were C Davy Whyte Cardenden, Section D John Mack Alloa,Section E John Stokes Carstairs,Section F Ian Lowe Gartcosh

Peter Virtue receiving his Reims awards from president George Wilson The Champion Awards were next to be presented by our senior vice president Ian M Brown. The formation of the Champion awards was primarily down to Ian he was the inspiration and driving force behind the creation of these awards and they have been hugely successful within our club. The way channel racing has developed in recent years it appears to be increasingly difficult to find pigeons that can score consistently from the long distance events and when these pigeons do come along it is important that they and their owners be appropriately recognised. This year we had two Bronze Champions to be presented Peter Virtue and Dennis Dall and one silver owned by Dave Burns the final award the Gold Champion went to Peter Virtue for his Reims winner with 5 superb performances all from Reims. The section average winners were presented with their glass plaques by

Susan Nelson, the section B winner was Brian Kelly of Chirnside, section C Davy Burns Kirkcaldy, section E W Davidson & Son, section F Ian Ross Kirkintilloch. The extreme distance average winner Davy Burns was then presented with the Crystal Claret Jug. The Overall average winner was Brian Kelly who received the Crystal Decanter from Mrs Merril Blacklock. The John Trail Trophy was won fittingly by Davy Burns of Kirkcaldy who had a tremendous season. The final presentation of the night was the John Fairbairn Memorial Plaque and Reims winner Peter Virtue was asked to come to the floor once again to receive this award. Following this the club made two very special presentations one to our retiring president George Wilson who will be stepping down from office at the AGM in February after seven years at the helm, George was presented with a gift and was made an honorary member of the club in recognition for the time and effort he has given to the SNRPC his leadership will be greatly missed in the club but I’m sure he will always be on hand to advise if the need ever arose. Les Blacklock was also made an honorary member in appreciation for all the assistance and advice he has given the club, especially during the early days when the club was being formed. Brian Kelly Chirnside Overall Average Winner

Dave Burns Extreme Distance average Winner Davy Davidson of W Davidson & Son Sect E Average Winners

Ian Ross Section F Average Winner

Les Blacklock being presented with his Honorary Membership from George Wilson So ended the presentation for another year hearty congratulations to all the various winners and to the rest of u s well there’s always next year , quite a daunting task when you look around the company gathered for this occasion and see the calibre of distance fanciers in our midst we have the good fortune of having some of Scotland’s finest in our club. In conclusion it was another splendid night for the SNRPC and this was mainly due to the hard work and effort put in by George Wilson and Ian M Brown to make this as always a very special occasion. Duncan Knox Press Officer