2015 was the first Day of Champions which was born from my own visits to East Brabants Day of Champions in Holland, now ten years on and it is still proving popular, tough some it would be nice to see mor of our own members attending.
The NRCC was formed in 1901 which means that we are approaching our 125th year, so hopefully next year more of our own members will turn out to celebrate the clubs winners.
In my address prior to the presentation of trophies I said that NRCC is a proud club, some wrongly call it a ‘national’ of course we know we are not because we have a set criteria where we have to compete from and as we know it is 475 miles from Lerwick that you must fly and this prevents us from being a true national club, but we are in my book every bit as good as one!
The silver ware on the stage is surely testament to how credible the club realy is.
There are trophies presented by the Osman Family of the Racing Pigeon, the FW Mariot Trophy and so on and of course the King George V Cup. There are only three of these in the pigeon sport, The Irish NFC, The NFC and us the North Road Championship Club which surely endorsees the standing of the club.
I looked at the NFC prize money for their blue riband event Tarbes, the 1st prize was £141 in 2025. For our own Blue Riband event Lerwick first prize for 2025 was £616, plus a solid silver hand crafted exact replica of the Kings Cup and if you were to nominate into the trophies the prize pot for Lerwick could be pushing £3000
The futurity race run by John Parker pushes upwards towards £30,000 and only the week leading up to the Day of Champions we closed our online auction at just under £8000.
So we might not be the national but ‘we are not bad are we!’’ So what of 2025, more hold overs, none of us want them but I am sure you will agree Dave Petit your new convoyer done a great job with our new weather advisor Ray Luffman gave us great racing.
Merv Greatrix our driver retired last year but returned for his pilgrimage to Lerwick to assist Dave on his first visit and though many did not agree with the date we went to Lerwick it was one of the best results and races the club had witnessed for some years.
The Wilton Family flying 600 miles in the first 10, Terry Hayley 585 miles 3rd Open and many many more outstanding performances, Mr & Mrs Skinner who won Lerwick in 2023 were second open, yes some truly amazing performances that it goes to endorse just how great our fanciers are.
This day of course would not be possible with out our loyal sponsors Bamfords, PJ Lofts, Solosan and Harkers and the traders who support us year on year, Jayne Mitchell from Gold Bird, Kev Winter Pigeon Botanical, Max Nest Felts, Heart of England Auctions, Andy Colby Photographer.
The Champions Row was supported by many of the clubs section and open winners and is a great showcase for those that are not in a favourable position to shine on the day, so thank you for bringing your birds along.
