The Europa Classic complex at Cardiff as of March 1st 2010

Well the old bird race has turned out to be a total disaster! And it is time for us to try and make sense of what has gone on, and this is our view for what its worth. But first of all the result Firstly congratulations to GHS Syndicate on winning the Europa 500 with the only bird in race time, the following is a list of the birds that have returned outside of race time.
2. Thailand Tigers GB09N19578
3. Rainstorm Boys WHU0801867
4. P Goodright & Ptnr WHU08B01084
5. GHS Syndicate GB09Z58664
6. Unpaid venturer GB09F26454
No pool birds in race time so all £2000 in pools will be returned to owners as a credit to activate young birds, pool young birds or as a cash refund on request. The £9000 first prize goes to GHS Syndicate with WHU09N05719 that also won 3rd Open Welsh Grand National a fine performance but not quite up our 1st National of last year but very creditable all the same.
2nd prize of £2000 3rd prize of £1000 4th to 10th prizes of £500 each and 11th to 20th prizes of £250 each which totals £9000 will go into 3 nomination prizes of 1st £4000
2nd £3000
3rd £2000
To be flown for in next years old bird race, these additional prizes for the 2011 old bird race will only be open to those who had birds in the old bird race of 2010, and of course will be free to enter nominations for those involved, full details are to follow.

Now why the hell was it such a bad race? Don't get me wrong if I was offered 3rd National at the start I would gladly have taken that! but for the National to get only 4 birds in 4 days is just not acceptable, I never have nor never will get involved in race controller and convoyer bashing! it's a thankless task at the best of times, and lets remember it was not just the Welsh National that let go in Thurso that morning, but also the London North Road Combine the Kent Combine and the Derby and Nottingham Federation, needless to say they all had shocking returns LNRC none on the day and only 30 odd on the second day from almost 1000 birds a real killer race all round. None quite as bad as the Welsh National but we are probably the worst located of all.

HIND SIGHT IS WONDERFUL THING AS THEY SAY AND ITS NO GOOD TAKING A DEEP BREATH AND SAYING THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN UP 2 DAYS LATER! Anyway us like any other loft enter a race entrust our birds to convoyers race controllers and the British weather, and hope for the best, but as we all know sometimes you hit a smash race and this was one of those. The fact we have one bird reported in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands has nothing to do with and weather in the south of Scotland it was just one of those crazy unexplainable Smash races!

However for a number of years now, North road racing into Wales has been very hard at the distance not helped I am sure by the shrinking number of birds on that route. That not withstanding it is probably time for us to have a change! And with this in mind negotiations are already under way with South road organizations with a view to be flying South in 2011.

This radical departure for the Europa Classic YB and Europa 500 OB will also coincide with new management for 2011 which will see Derek Nicholls relinquish control of the Business to a new management structure, and a new Loft Manager in charge of the daily running of the place while he spends more time away from home, in particular at the racing lofts he is involved with in Belgium and Yorkshire.

The young bird race of 2011 onwards will be South Road but of the same distance, that being 240 miles approx but over the English Channel. The old bird race will be of about 350 miles from Tours or somewhere similar. The reason is we really do not want to run races where we have a load of visitors for the main race and you just don't see any birds on the day! it's great when it works like last years Thurso where they tumbled in from 500 miles but as we have seen this year you can take a real bashing from that distance! so we think 350 miles is long enough to test them without risking another smash race, this also helps people when they select birds to send to the race I am sure it will in the future become clear, that you want a classic middle distance racer not a sprinter not a distance bird but a specialist middle distance bird to win the Europa whether it be 240 miles for youngsters or 350 miles for old birds. Anyway, this is the vision that will be taken forward by the new management team, who will hope to carry with them all the existing Europa customers, and hopefully a lot of new ones as well, all inspired by the challenge of winning Classic Big Money races, while competing for national honours over the English Channel to home here at Cardiff the capital of Wales.

WE WOULD NOW ASK ANYONE WITH CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS NEW WAY FORWARD TO SEND THEIR VIEWS TO US BY E MAIL CLICK HERE

BEST REGARDS

THE EUROPA TEAM

The Old birds are at the final race of 500 miles from Thurso, with the Welsh National, Our team of 139 birds is just over half of the birds we started the year with. So not a bad average but the amount we get home with the weather conditions they face this weekend is a moot point, however we have entrusted them to the National and after a first day holdover we like you, await news of liberation!!!! The first prize for this race is now up to £9000 and we still have several birds left for anyone that is interested, as always its £250 each or buy 2 and get another for free!! Also additional pools are open up to 10 hours after liberation and even though the field is small they are way past four figures already!! So jump onboard.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR LIBERATION NEWS or call the usual numbers.

As for the young birds as previously mentioned we are 3 weeks behind on previous years and the reason for this is, We have simply not been able to get the birds this year to range away from the loft when flying, Sure they have been flying for up to 2 hours but never ever really lost sight of the loft, this worries me, as they have just not learned the local geography as they always have in previous years, and we have waited and waited but we can wait no longer! So the 2010 Europa Classic birds have started training, and indeed have been out to 10 miles today, a list is on the Web site here under training, however no times or positions are included as they are being liberated in groups of 400 at this stage. This list shows what is in the loft today, and is about 120 birds short of what we were sent to start with, that equates to 90% of entries still here after early training, the breakdown is about 30 lost to sickness 30 lost of the loft top, and 60 lost in early training. Not our best ever figures but not bad especially compared to some other one loft races.

However we need to be very cautious with these birds, they will be OK, but we know when birds need the hammer and as you know we are not afraid to train birds VERY HARD VERY OFTEN, but we also know when time is needed!!! To that end we are going to give these birds time, we will have them up to 40 miles in 2 weeks and publish training daily, when we get to that point, however this puts our dates out completely so here is the revised race programme for 2010.

HOTSPOT 1 FRIDAY 30th JULY
HOTSPOT 2 FRIDAY 6th AUGUST
HOTSPOT 3 FRIDAY 13th AUGUST
HOTSPOT 4 FRIDAY 20th AUGUST
HOTSPOT 5 FRIDAY 27th AUGUST
All race points/distances are as per the original programme

MAIN RACE from HEXHAM SATURDAY 11th SEPTEMBER
Same day and same place as the Welsh Grand National! Best of luck to you all; come to see the old bird's race home from 500 miles this weekend! Enjoy a beer and a burger, and take a look at the 2010 young birds for yourself! As always we are always open and everyone is always welcome.

THE EUROPA TEAM

Well as you can see from the results the old bird second hotspot from Crieff was a very fast affair, with clear blue skies and a tail wind it is amazing how 2 birds can pull away by a clear margin but that's exactly what they did, after a 0600 liberation I thought we could get birds in 6 hours for the 337 mile journey to us, so the 1100 young birds I had flying out at the lofts I got in at 1130 but about 40 were playing hard to get and were still out at 1140 when up as high as dot in the sky the gathered fanciers from as far a field as Norfolk shouted here's one! after some early disbelief it was clear this was the first bird and after this lovely mealy pied cock flew over to the young bird loft to drive about at the babies left out he clapped over to the old bird loft and clocked in at 1143 there was then a quarter of an hour gap with nothing, and after a few phone calls including National Verification it was clear 2 pigeons both flying into Cardiff were well clear and it looked like we would be pipped and have to settle for 2nd National then just before 12 noon I saw a batch diving for the loft sure enough all from Crieff a group of 15 together all down and in the clock in just 73 seconds!!!!!!!! These were then followed by birds at the rate of one a minute for the next hour and a total of 147 birds home ready to fly the main race from Thurso in 4 weeks! RACE DAY FRIDAY JULY 9th pool sheets are in the post. The final result of the Crieff National will be published in due course; however we can report that we have 16 birds in the first 25 Open National prizes a truly great result for the Europa Birds again!!

With less than 100 paid birds in the race with projected prizes based on 500 paid birds That's only 20% full and therefore we will pay 20% of the published prizes, which makes the first prize for Thurso £5000 however with 63 unpaid venturers still in the old bird race we will pay another £100 to the winner for every bird paid for out of these venturers! If they are all paid that's an additional £6300 to the winner so a potential first prize of £11,300 so if you fancy a flutter its £250 a bird for any of the venturers on offer, or as before buy 2 and get a third for FREE that's a 3 bird team for £500! An expensive entry I know but with over eleven grand to win a race that only has 140 birds in it and 20 other good prizes is a decent gamble so get on the phone!!!!!!!!!!!

All 1178 young birds are now out flying well, with zero health issues, but as we kept taking birds up to June 1st we are a bit behind with the training, and we will not rush these babies as that is how you get big losses we still have 1140 birds here today of the 1178 we were sent!!!!! We may however put back the first couple of hot spot races for them to give us a chance to catch up; a definite decision will be made by early July.

Next training for the old birds will be Liverpool 150 miles Wednesday June 23rd
Best of luck to you all.

The Europa Team
07810 323827 / 07900 131592

The loft for the intake of 2010 young birds is now closed, with a final head count of 1278 birds for this years Europa Classic. A disappointing total again being just 1 bird more than last year, but I suppose in these very bad economic times any growth at all on last year should be welcomed and indeed we thank you all for your support, and look forward to putting on another great race to follow up on last years super final event, more details to follow soon, starting with the inventory that will be posted on June 15.

In the meantime we have the small matter of the old bird race to conclude, and to that end today we basketed our 185 remaining birds at our local National marking station, for the second hot spot race to be flown this Saturday June 12 in conjunction with the Welsh Grand National FC from Crieff 340 miles, the birds have been flying well on our roundabout system, but truth be known they could have done with another 10 days to have had them perfect for this race! so being towards the top of the National result may be a bit beyond us on this occasion, however as long as we can get them home from this race in good time we will be a lot more confident about a good performance from Thurso 500 miles in 4 weeks time, by which time the birds will be ready to fly for their lives!

Anyways in our own loft here they all have the same chance of winning the prizes in this hotspot as well as the main race of course that is as long as the birds have been activated/paid for! there are still plenty of unpaid/venturer birds obviously any of these early in the result will not qualify for the prizes on offer, and I am sure these will be snapped up when they complete this Crief race which is always a difficult race, however those that make it home will be well worthy of a tilt at Thurso on July 9th. As usual all are welcome at the loft to await the arrivals from Crieff we expect the birds to be up about 0700 and home between 2 and 3 pm but with Crieff you never can be sure !!!!

Best of luck to you all.

The Europa Team
07810 323827

Young Birds are settling well, with 900 birds flying out, and the last intake in the settling aviary. We will take late entries into this batch up to the first of June so if you have a few spares send them down!!!We are again confident of being the best One Loft race in Europe this year, as we were last year!

The old birds in the Europa 500 have been in great form on the many 50 and 60 mile training spins they have had, with just 3 lost up to early May however since then we have had a few set backs firstly a toss at 100 miles on May 18th our first at the distance where we would normally publish the result on the internet, was a very sticky affair with 70 birds having a night out, half of those have since returned but we did lose over 10% of the birds! a blow to us and the owners. The result we have not been able to publish as the one loft clock we have, and the Racing clock we have. We have been trying to combine, to get us a clock that shows all our one loft information, Syndicate names etc. at the same time as be able to be used in the Nationals, this has been very problematic.

However I am assured by the Boffins who have visited again today Monday May 24th that they will be back tomorrow Tuesday May 25th , and that the whole thing will be up and running ready to use by Thursday this week, to that end and due to the fact the birds have had a set back in training the following is the revised programme for the 2010 Europa 500.

Revised Race Programme 2010 Old Birds

Training 130 miles Thursday May 27th

Hotspot 1 Ripon 200 miles Bank Holiday Monday May 31st

Training 110 miles Sat 5th June liberated with the New North road Federation

Hotspot 2 Crieff Sat June 12th with the Welsh Grand National FC

25th June Training 110 miles

1st July Training 110 miles

9th July main race Thurso 500 miles with the Welsh Grand National FC

As per last year all are welcome to watch the birds come home!

Pools will only be run for the main race as per last year.

Good luck to you all

Good luck to you all
The Europa Team
07810 323827

Things at the young bird loft are proceeding nicely with the first 1000 birds Now arrived, and over half of them already flying out strong. Very few health problems this year, is always a good sign for a top race again this year hopefully as good as last years super event, don't forget we are open until late May so you have plenty of time still to get your young birds to us. Many of the actual previous winners have come in May and indeed Edd Sittner from Las Vegas has one of the best records in this race and he sends his birds in May every year!

The old birds of which we total 277 are flying well and are rearing youngsters at the moment and will begin road training in May short training spins will not be put on the website, but all events over 70 miles will be published on www.europaclassic.co.uk.

The birds will fly 3 Nationals from 240 miles 330 miles and 500 miles the first will be flown natural and the 2nd and 3rd will be flown on the round about system, if you check the site at news 500 the full list is there about half are paid up birds and the other half are venturers which are available for anyone to buy as per the rules of the race. At the moment they are all listed under the names they flew under last year, these are birds we bought back out of the Europa Classic young bird auctions to give us some spare birds in the old bird race so you may see a bird of yours listed in the race that you have not entered! These will remain in that name until sold to a new owner and the name changed to that owner, however the fancier listed will get first chance to activate the bird up to the first of May after that date the bird will be listed as a venturer and sold on a first come first served basis so come on guys don't let someone else take the glory with your bird and give us a call to activate them in your own name.

Best of luck to you all
The Europa Team
07810 323827

Well after another hectic Blackpool show followed by the annual visit to the Million dollar pigeon race at Sun City South Africa, which was another tough but fair race when I was able to meet up with friends old and new from around the world, enjoy the sunshine and take in some new tourist stuff like a visit to see the new soccer stadiums just built for the forthcoming world cup and indeed a visit to the site of the famous battle of Rourkes Drift all in all a very pleasant holiday.

Anyway it was soon back to work at the lofts in Cardiff, firstly to clean and disinfect the young bird loft and then to oversee the construction of the new old bird loft, we were hoping to get this done by one of the professional loft builders in the UK, but as the quotes we were getting were up to £60,000 !!!!! I was convinced we could get as good or infact a better job done by using local tradesmen under the supervision and design guidelines of our own management team, for a good deal less than this, and indeed it has cost us a lot less than even the cheapest quote we had from the loft builders. Is it better than we could have bought well I certainly think so, but we will let you decide yourself, however every single visitor has had nothing but praise for it and we at the Europa are indeed very proud of another top class facility we have provided for our owners top class racing pigeons! We have 250 old birds (150 paid and 100 venturers) all now paired up to breed a youngster each to settle them into this purpose built roundabout loft of 141 nest boxes in three sections and 150 hen perches in 2 sections all connected by corridors and an aviary, With entry and exit through one rear way out and one front trap in fitted with a Unikon timing system separate from the Europa Classic young bird system. The main race for these old birds is Thurso 500 miles with the Welsh Grand National To be flown Friday July 9th with hotspots from Hexham 250 miles in May, and Crieff 330 miles in June both also flown with the Welsh Grand National.

Anyway back to the Europa Classic 2010 young bird race the first intake of a hundred and odd birds are now out flying and the second intake of also a hundred and odd are in the settling aviary we are open this Friday for the third intake which is when the bigger numbers start to arrive as the first couple of intakes are just for the very early breeders amongst our fliers wheras the vast majority send us their birds in April and big numbers arrive right up until the final entry dates in mid May this year again we have entries from China, Australia, and from Dave Clausing in Florida as well as all the usual countries that compete each year, in this the biggest and longest established one loft race in Europe, indeed the European race with the proven track record, it is also a matter of public record that we had the best race on many levels in 2009 in the entire world our 2009 race was best of all not only in Europe but I also include the whole World and such great races as the top races of South Africa China the USA and Thailand we without doubt had the best race in particular our percentage of birds entered that we actually get to the main race consistently over the years is the best by miles. So get yourself a nice 3 bird team picked out and get them and your £200 sent down to us at the Europa Classic remember YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT.

Just as a footnote if I could add to the advice given by RPRA Manager David Bills recently who says you should be careful in your choice of One Loft Races that you enter, I would endorse this whole heartidly but add to this, choose your race from one that has operated over several years with consistent good results and good management, that has always paid out prizes at least to an amount described in the rules and in many years indeed more than those promised, and steer clear of any race that consistently loses up to half the entries before they even get the birds trained to 50 miles.

Best of luck to you all for the 2010 season
THE EUROPA TEAM
07810 323827

Europa corridor in the newly finished section for the Europa 500 old birds

Derek & grandson Finn putting the final touches to the platform of the new loft

Derek's grandson Finn taking a break

Landing strip for the 2010 young birds

New loft for the Europa 500 birds

Inside the new loft for the Europa 500 birds

Old birds trapping into the new lofts

Overview of the extended Europa lofts

Inside the new hens' section

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