Home of "The Ettington Ace"

Sunday 23rd November 2008

Hello and welcome to my web site, if you are re-visting then thank you for coming back, if it is your first visit then I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. Please sign the guest book before you leave.

THE COMPETITION FOR NAMING THE GRIZZLE FAMILY HAS NOW CLOSED - THANKYOU TO EVERYONE THAT ENTERED. I HAD OVER 112 NAMED ENTRIES. THE WINNERS WILL BE POSTED HERE ON SATURDAY 6TH DECEMBER. GOOD LUCK TO ALL. POSTED 01.12.08 AT 21.44PM.

The Questions and Answers page has been updated and the latest question of "Just wanted to ask, what do you think about love matches? Coming to the breeding season and not really having any results to go by for 2008 as I only raced one young bird race. I want to have love matches, to help me in racing for next year with the cock and hen being more in touch with each other but I don’t want my big pigeons breeding to big pigeons as last year I got a monster" Scroll down the menu of the left and click the "Questions" tab to read my reply.

Hope you are all working hard carrying out the required jobs on your lofts and working out your plans for the 2009 season. This time of year is a valuable time for all of us, birds should not be left for days without care or minimum care. Dont forget to look intently at the birds and their welfare. The smoother you can get the loft through this time of year the better for the following race year, in my opinion. You don't have to spend long in the loft but just make sure the time you spend is effective. My racing hens have been brought in from the avairy a couple of weeks ago and are now responding to me very well indeed. They will have another week inside learning from the "Boss" and then it will be back out for another month in the aviary bracing the cold weather.

I cleaned out the stock cocks yesterday as due to the short days I can only do this at the weekends as this is all my time will allow. Next weekend will all be about completing the electrics in the loft for the new year as I want to re-organise the lights in the loft and the way they switch etc.

I had a great night out at the Midlands National Flying Club Presentation last night and collected some lovely trophies, these will be on the articles page once I have sorted out the pictures etc. Many congratulations to all the winners involved and to all the hard working personal of the MNFC committee who all helped to stage a wonderful night. Special congratulations must go to Morgan and Elton who were the overall Combined Average Winners, a very well done. Also a special mention to Pat Frisby for winning the Combined Averages for the centre section, well done Pat. A list of the prize winners will appear this week some time in my articles section of this web-site.

People are still asking me, as many did last night, why I didn't do any good in the young bird National from Lessay as I was the clear winner up to this race and as I keep telling them - "I DIDNT SEND". I made the decision that I had raced enough during the Old Birds Season, 13 National and Classic races, and we all needed a family break, so I took my family on holiday to Turkey for two weeks instead.

Anyway thats it for now, I hope you enjoy your time viewing this site. I would like to say a big thank you to the people who have taken the time to write some lovely words, I have only had twelve vistors to my loft and to date ten of them have responded. A big thank you also to my wife for her ongoing patience and help with this project so far and to my children who have patiently watched and waited on occasions while I spend too much time at my desk.

One last thing the competition for the Grizzle family only has one week to go, if you haven't had a go yet please do. It runs until 21.00pm on the 1st December. Please check out the rules on the competition page (1st tab under the home page on the left) and try your luck. It is free with no strings attached. Best of luck all if you have a go.

Please sign my guest book when you visit, thank you, (use the arrow on the left hand menu to scroll down and locate the guest book).

kindest regards

Mark