NORTHERN Echo, the racing pigeon, scrambled any chance of winning the final race of her yearling season by stopping off to lay an egg.

Owner Peter Matthews had hoped it might have made her fly a little faster to allow her to lay in the comfort of her own nest, but she was unable to wait.

"She arrived back about an hour after the first birds home so she must have landed and laid an egg somewhere along the way," said the coal merchant from Cockfield, County Durham.

While Saturday's 270-mile race from Wanstead Flatts, near London, was a disappointment, Northern Echo did register a magnificent victory at the end of May, again from Wanstead Flatts.

Hens usually lay two eggs two days apart and, unbeknown to Mr Matthews, Northern Echo had produced her first on Thursday evening.

He said: "If the race had been a bit earlier on Saturday it might have been an incentive for her to get back that bit quicker. The timing was against us."

However, Northern Echo has proved fortunate in other ways, by simply surviving the season.

Out of 20 yearling hens kept by the 35-year-old, who races in the West Durham Amalgamation, five have been lost while another three were injured flying into overhead wires.

Now Northern Echo can look forward to a rest until the end of February, when she will begin to build towards the start of the racing season in April.

This season has been a learning curve for the hen, bought from a breeder in Oastelbeers, Holland, but Mr Matthews is confident of further success.

He allowed The Northern Echo the pick of his prime year-old hens to provide readers with an insight into the highs and lows of a racing season.

Mr Matthews said: "There have only been two of those yearlings win, so you did quite well to pick one of them."