Borders bird race bosses doo the right thing

Enthusiasts celebrated the start of a new season of pigeon racing earlier this year, including Borders Distillery founder and director John Fordyce, with Borders Federation secretary Harry Keddie and president Mike Upton (picture by Bill McBurnie)

Normal service for homing pigeon devotees was resumed last week with the Scottish Borders Federation’s young bird race taking place from Otterburn.

The convoy of 611 birds was liberated at 9.45am into a west south west wind.

The winning pigeon went to W. Gray & Son at Birgham, timing in at 10:28 to take the kindly-sponsored bottle of Clan Reserve Whisky from the Borders Distillery, based in Hawick. Results:

1 and 2 W. Gray & Son (Birgham), 3 D. Crees (Birgham), 4 and 5 J. Neil (Walkerburn), 6 A. Simpson (Lauder).

Among the fanciers, nine members of Earlston & District Homing Society sent 25 birds to Otterburn and the results were:

1 and 2 W. Gray & Son 1303.61, 3 D. Crees 1274.77, 4 A. Simpson 1109.58, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 S. Martin 1109.51, 9 R. Blake 1104.73.