English Chess Forum

Not chess this time. Pigeons.


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... ional[list][/list]

Never mind the cheating stuff: next step, an Amazon-sponsored pigeon-shaped drone, I'd predict. Just check out the prizes

There's a Ford Fiesta on offer for one race. That's c. £12,000 - rather more than the new British champion will win. Given that pigeon-racers must be at least as bonkers as chessers, and pigeon racing no more fashionable either, who would sponsor at this level? A quick poke about suggests that the few sponsors are pigeon feed suppliers, so no different from our chess retailers then. But the prizes seem larger. Odd

David Robertson wrote:Never mind the cheating stuff: next step, an Amazon-sponsored pigeon-shaped drone, I'd predict. Just check out the prizes

There's a Ford Fiesta on offer for one race. That's c. £12,000 - rather more than the new British champion will win. Given that pigeon-racers must be at least as bonkers as chessers, and pigeon racing no more fashionable either, who would sponsor at this level? A quick poke about suggests that the few sponsors are pigeon feed suppliers, so no different from our chess retailers then. But the prizes seem larger. Odd

What I don’t understand - and this is probably down to my complete ignorance about pigeon racing - is why every event isn’t won by a cheat. How would you ever know?

Jonathan Bryant wrote: What I don’t understand - and this is probably down to my complete ignorance about pigeon racing - is why every event isn’t won by a cheat. How would you ever know?

The pigeons are microchipped

Clive Blackburn wrote:

Jonathan Bryant wrote: What I don’t understand - and this is probably down to my complete ignorance about pigeon racing - is why every event isn’t won by a cheat. How would you ever know?

The pigeons are microchipped

As indeed they were in the story cited above - hence the title of this thread. That didn’t stop the cheating then. Why would it ever?

Jonathan Bryant wrote:

Clive Blackburn wrote:

Jonathan Bryant wrote: What I don’t understand - and this is probably down to my complete ignorance about pigeon racing - is why every event isn’t won by a cheat. How would you ever know?

The pigeons are microchipped

As indeed they were in the story cited above - hence the title of this thread. That didn’t stop the cheating then. Why would it ever?

I suppose they are supposed to scan the birds at the start but in this case it looks as though that didn't happen.

I once played a league match in the same hall as the AGM of the local pigeon racing association. It was sufficiently long ago that the main subject of debate was whether the association should invest in a mobile phone, which would apparently have prevented the debacle at Burtonwood. The debate was long and heated, but, presumably because the gory details were so well known and painful to recall, no-one ever gave any more information on the debacle at Burtonwood.

Little good chess was played that evening.

David Williams wrote:The debate was long and heated, but, presumably because the gory details were so well known and painful to recall, no-one ever gave any more information on the debacle at Burtonwood.

Outstanding. I may have to make it my life’s work to find out what happened.

Jonathan Bryant wrote:

David Williams wrote:The debate was long and heated, but, presumably because the gory details were so well known and painful to recall, no-one ever gave any more information on the debacle at Burtonwood.

Outstanding. I may have to make it my life’s work to find out what happened.

Burtonwood - if it involves the brewery, I'm willing to volunteer to help

I wasn't too far from there on Sat pm

The key question is did this happen pre 74 or after (i.e. was Burtonwood in Lancs or Cheshire at the time )

an update

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ional-race

Jonathan Bryant wrote:Not chess this time. Pigeons.


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... ional[list][/list]

Banned for life, according to today's (13 August) Times.