Last updated 19:45, Thursday, 29 May 2008

TINNION brothers and Aitken had pigeon fanciers reaching for the record books after Saturday’s Derwent Valley Federation race from Marlborough.

The Flimby partnership took the first four positions in the Federation, something which does not appear to have been done in an old bird race in living memory.

The four pigeons were clocked in the space of two minutes and the first home became the loft’s sixth Federation winner.

Lawrence and Geordie Tinnion and Bill Aitken have been flying together since 2000, although the brothers were in partnership four years earlier. They come from a well-established racing family and Lawrence describes his elder brother, the late John James, as his mentor in the sport.

The partnership first topped the Federation from Wollaston in 2004 and in 2006 won three Feds in a five-week spell - Portsmouth twice and Cheltenham. Last year they won from Portsmouth.

Bill has been ill and has just finished a course of treatment, so Lawrence has dedicated this latest win to him. Lawrence said: “This Fed win has really given him a lift.”

The winning bird is a yearling blue hen which, along with the second and fourth pigeons, was bred off two pairs Lawrence bought from Keith Rafferty four years ago. They are Carl Boeckx breed.

Runner-up was a chequer hen, off the same pair as the winner (but a different nest) while the fourth bird, a chequer white flight, was bred off the other pair bought off Keith Rafferty.

The third pigeon is a four-year-old blue hen which Lawrence bought at the Lowca Breeder/Buyer sale and it was entered by Peter Rushford, the highly successful Flimby fancier who left the sport last year.

That pigeon was second Fed, second Combine from Marlborough and then fourth Fed and 16th Combine from Le Mans, earning a meritorious award off the Cumberland Social Circle.

The loft was winning for the fifth time this season in the strong Flimby HS club and of the 27 birds sent, only two are unaccounted for. The four ticketing birds were all raced on the roundabout system.