Presidents Newsletter June 2023

JUNE 2023 NEWSLETTER
Greetings all SNFC members,
So here we go with communication number four, and I am going to start by saying how saddened I was last night at the Alencon Gold Cup race marking, to hear the news that Davy Donaldson of Glassford had passed, Davy was considered by many including myself, as one of the all-time greats in the SNFC, his small back garden loft housed some the best pigeons to compete in the SNFC races, particularly in the cross channel events, he raced for many years in partnership with his wife Mima as D&M Donaldson of Glassford, and lately on his own. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Mima and their immediate and extended family. REST IN PEACE Davy Well the Gold Cup convoy is en-route to Alencon, and we wish the convoying team of Rab Baird and Jim Lennon a trouble free and safe journey, It would appear that the numbers are up on last year, so we hopefully are heading in the right direction, which leads me to say, don’t listen to the Doubting Thomas’s, who are saying that the SNFC and channel racing is finished, it’s far from it, and we will do our best as a committee to drive the cost of Vet visits down for 2024, which was a factor in the reduction of membership, and I think this can be done through ‘’ economy of scale ’’ and developing contracts with the vet practices for each region. You the members can also help by convincing one pigeon colleague to get back into SNFC racing, if you consider, we had 281 members send to the Brighton1 national, if 10% of those members can convince just one their friends to join back up, we can again top the 300 - membership mark, please give it a go, there is nothing to lose by trying.
Remember there is no other race in the Scottish pigeon race calendar that come close in comparison with the SNFC Gold Cup race.
Also, in this communication I want to pay tribute to the hard working committee members without whom, we would not be racing at all, they are the ones who organise the rank and file SNFC members who are willing to give up some of their valuable time to make sure the marking stations operate, I don’t want to mention names, in fear that I might miss someone, but only to say a ‘’ BIG THANK YOU’’ for your help. We are almost halfway through the race programme, and it would be amiss of me not to mention how well Donna and her partner Scott have coped so well, the trials and tribulations of producing a timely result, well done to both of you. Well, that’s all for now, and I hope these communications are still meaningful, and that they keep you informed with what is going on.
Cheers, John Leggate