Down and Inside
(Internet Published) Nov 2000
The fastest hour, the most nerve wrecking hour, is the hour when the
contesting Tippler man declares his time and starts to try and get his kit
of Tipplers down. He has 60 nerve wrecking minutes to get all of his kit
members down within bounds and inside of his loft otherwise he is
disqualified, and there are no tolerances. A very, very harsh and severe
rule if the tolerance is only a few minutes in excess.
Great Tippler men have fallen foul of this rule and have suffered the
penalties and consequences. They have my sincere and deepest sympathies.
In certain cases, such men have been subjected to hostile or severe
supervision, which is only fair if all other competitors are subjected to
the some kind of supervision. I am unhappy to say that they are not.
Apart from that there is a problem that all men have who fly the several
issues of so called high flying pigeons will encounter. For some reason
understandable or ridiculous these pigeons will fly erratically and often at
a ridiculously high altitude and run out of daylight, perhaps to be lost
overnight or forever. Sometimes a man may get them down pretty close to the
loft but cannot quite coax them into the loft - certainly not within the one
hour time limit, and all to often such idiots are out all night. A man may
put it down to extreme nervousness, lack of control, lack of training,
overfeeding, or stupidity.
Nevertheless, when a man flies into dark or bad light he must expect some
kind of trouble as there is no logic in the mind of Tipplers and most other
pigeons. That much I can guarantee.
It is proven that the very best and most honourable fall down on the "Down
and Inside" rule within the allowed hour. They have certainly flown the time
but have fallen down on a technicality. Nevertheless, it's a hard and fast
rule, as most rules are!