G M Preece & Son - International Sea Pigeons

15/09/2026

🏆 THE STAN BISS CUP 🏆

It is fantastic to see a full leaderboard published for this year’s BICC points. Congratulations to M.Gilbert on a thoroughly deserved victory and to every loft that earned points in one of the most challenging competitions in British pigeon racing.

Leaderboards like this create real interest and motivation for the following season. A live table updated after every race could add even more excitement and tension as the competition unfolds. Perhaps we could see something similar for the Ace Pigeons too.

These are all ideas to consider over the close season. It could easily be done through our own website, although once racing begins, we tend to have tunnel vision for the races themselves! We will have to think of a system.

We are extremely proud to finish 2nd overall this year with 128 points, making it three consecutive runner-up finishes after also placing 2nd in 2025 with 242 points and 2nd in 2024 with 253 points.

What makes this trophy so special is that it rewards the quality and depth of each loft’s results. The rules established by Stan Biss decades ago remain just as effective with the BICC today:

“Awarded to the Champion of the BICC for the highest aggregate of points in all races—25 points for 1st position, reducing by one point down to 25th position.”

International racing into the British Isles is hard. It always has been, and it always will be. That is what makes this trophy so difficult and so meaningful to win.

We are immensely proud to have won the Stan Biss Points cup five times: 2015, 2016, 2020, 2022 and 2023.

Looking back at our first victory in 2015 was a real special one. We began that season with just 13 old birds—five hens and eight c***s. Including yearlings.

It was no ordinary team:

🕊️ Jack Jones — 13 (International) National prizes
🕊️ Wiggins — 12 (International) National prizes
🕊️ The 156 — 10 (International) National prizes
🕊️ The 792, a son of The 156 and Gr.son of Jack Jones — 12 (International) National prizes
🕊️ The 44 White Flight
🕊️ Alongside several other outstanding pigeons whose performances were sometimes overshadowed by the legends around them.

A small but exceptional team that left a lasting mark on our loft and began a proud association with one of the BICC’s greatest trophies.

Five victories and now three consecutive runner-up finishes—plenty of motivation to try again next season. 🏆🇬🇧

G M Preece & Son

06/09/2026

21/08/2026

🏆 8 INTERNATIONAL PRIZES — BARCELONA 2026 🤩

From one of the toughest races in the world

🕊️ 5 International prizes in the Old Birds 16,257p
🕊️ 3 International prizes in the Hens 4,586p

Racing 665 miles / 1,071km from Barcelona to Dover, across the Pyrenees, the length of France and finally the English Channel.

To achieve eight International prizes against Europe’s finest marathon pigeons is something we are immensely proud of. 🇬🇧🏆

16/08/2026

https://www.internationalseapigeons.com/the-dna-test-vs-the-channel/

What four years of testing LDHA and DRD4 taught us about breeding marathon pigeons We hadn’t given much thought to LDHA and DRD4 testing for several years. Between 2019 and 2022, we tested pigeons within our own loft, deliberately formed breeding pairs around the results and, most importantly, rac...

08/08/2026

https://www.internationalseapigeons.com/a-brighter-future-for-uk-channel-racing/

As the curtain closed on the 2026 old bird season, we made a decision. Rather than accepting the post-Brexit barriers that have dramatically reduced Channel racing opportunities for British fanciers, we decided to look for a solution. Our aim was simple: to create a club capable of transporting raci...

08/08/2026

We had one of our OLR entries found decayed alongside the local mere in Booths Hall, Knutsford, Cheshire. The mere has a blue algae warning. There were deceased ducks, geese and other unidentifiable birds along this mere. In the screenshots below you can see the amount of confirmed blue algae zones. ⚠️

Blue-green algae are a type of bacteria, known as cyanobacteria, which can produce toxic chemicals that are very harmful to the health of people and animals. These algae naturally occur in all freshwaters, especially lakes, reservoirs, canals and slow-moving rivers. They are microscopic but, when abundant, grow to be visible small green particles or flakes.
In calm sunny weather, they can rise to the surface and form thin wispy streaks, or thick paint-like scums on the water surface if
they get very abundant.
Shoreline scums and surface blooms (see ID guide in app) pose severe health risks, particulart to to animals that swim or drink the affected
water.
Blooms of blue-green algae are most commonly seen during summer and early autumn months, particularly in calm and sunny weather, but they can linger in freshwaters into late autumn. They occasionally occur in winter and spring months. Most blooms are green but sometimes turquoise blue patches are seen on the water or along shorelines when the blooms start to decay. Some blooms are coloured red, dark brown or black.

02/08/2026

2 year old c**k full of it after arriving from Perpignan. He already achieved 21st National Barcelona 2026. Currently sitting 10th National from Perpignan 2026. A great start to his International career 👏🏻

30/07/2026