A day of two halves!

The birds were finally liberated at 12.15 from Swindon. I waited and waited then after 2 hours and 20 mins I had two birds arrive together. 74 and 78 both trapped immediately. I was quite disappointed as working out the velocity was just 964ypm. On arriving at the knock off, it was clear these 2 birds were not as bad as first feared. Many of the members were reporting very poor returns. 1/20, 1/10, 1/10 16/30 etc. It turned out I finished 9th and 10th club, 11 minutes behind the eventual winner but was very close to collecting 6th and 7th. I was quite chuffed with this result as they had not been training at all during last week. I just missed out on the pools this week (for the 2nd week running!) On returning from the club another 2 birds were waiting on the loft. So on the shut down of the loft tonight I am just one pigeon adrift! I am over the moon with today and this now gives me plenty to work with this coming week in preparation for Newbury (97 miles) next Saturday. So out of the 11 members that sent this week I was 5th. And out of the 146 birds that went I managed to achieve 9th and 10th. I am going to give the birds plenty of loft exercise again this week with hopfully 2 tosses thrown in to help sharpen them up and cut that 11 minute gap!