Informative relevant articles relating to racing pigeons.

THE NEW WAVE OF EUROPEAN PIGEONS

 From 1990 to about 2005 we have had 15 years of legal importation of racing pigeons into Australia, a period in which could be termed as the “First Wave”, with many strains coming in, short, middle & long distance. Strains such as Janssen-Arendonk from many, many sources, Dr Linssen, Achiel Leus, Cobut, Meulemans, Desmet Matthys, Jan Aarden, Van Wanroy, Van Der Wegen, Delbar, Berlangee, Stichelbout, Wim Muller, Van Breemen, Van Loon, Verheye, Imbrecht, Catthryse, Verstraete,  DeCroix, Mattheeuws, Van Wildermeersch, Van Reet, Houben, Van Hee,  Casaert, Engels, Vandenabeele, De Weerdt, Silvere Toye, Verbruggen, Rene De Mann, Jos Soonjens, Robert Venus, Herbots Bros., Broeckx-Van Hees, Huyskens Van Riel, Busschaerts, Wal Zoontjens, Claes, Jos Thone, Kirkpatrick, Dr Anderson’s Bricoux, Kirkland, etc., etc., just to mention a few.    

Most have had some success here in Australia, as they should as they are all pigeons bred by top European fanciers & Studs, but three strains stand head and shoulders above the rest as far as success in Australia is concerned. No, head & shoulders in an understatement, perhaps a “Galaxy apart” would be closer to the mark. These three strains are the Janssen’s, Van Loons and the Janssen- Van Loons.

 Since 2005 to 2010, and remember we had nearly a two year break from importation due to the re-occurrence of Bird Flu in England on several occasions, apart from the Janssen’s & Van Loons which are still flowing in, there seems to be a bit of a switch in the type and strain of pigeon that is being imported. I shall mention four strains that are being sought after by Australian importers. They are short distance birds which should perform well up to about 650 kilometers and should also cross well with the Janssens and Van Loons. The strains I am talking about are Gerard Koopman, Heremans Ceusters, Dirk Van Dyck and Marina Van Der Velde. These are very similar pigeons and have common ancestors to a greater or lesser degree. They are nice looking pigeons, broad chested, strong backs, single feather width tails with powerfull wedged shaped bodies.

C & G KOOPMAN

This family was started by Cornelis Koopman who sadly passed away only recently on Monday 11^th January 2010 in his 95^th year. Many years ago was joined in the sport by his youngest son, Gerard. The original Koopman pigeons came from a Mr Annema of Friesland, and later Eefde. He owned a colony of original Janssen Arendonk pigeons and when Cornelis crossed them with pigeons from the Mariman breeding centre it hit immediately and success was gained at the highest level. Later Gerard became a great friend of Louis Van Loon of Poppel  from whom they purchased splendid pigeons. A year or so later they also visited the Janssen Brothers in Arendonk, coming away with purchases direct from the “fountain”.  They also obtained a cock from a Mr J.H. Amein of Niew Dordrecht and together with the Janssen & Van Loon pigeons, formed the base of the present Koopman strain.  This Mr Herman Amein (mentioned above) had a super racing cock, the “48” NL 78 1342748 and was almost unbeatable.  Unfortunately he had to give the sport up so it must have been in the early to mid 1980’s that Gerard purchased the “48”. The “48” was 75% Janssen blood. His father was a Janssen x Delbar cross and his mother descended from the lines of Wout Smeulders legendary “Kanon”. He also proved to be a super breeder and fitted in as one of the foundation pigeons of the Koopman colony.

The latest additions to complete the Koopman strain as we now know it were obtained from Ep Poelman of Erica, near Nieuw Amsterdam and from Marijke Vink, the woman who became world famous with her own pigeons.  Poelman owned two crack pigeons whose racing performances were close to impossible. They were called “Black Power” & “Black Power Lady”, brother & sister. When Poelman decided to have an entire clearance sale, Gerard purchased both of these pigeons.

From Marijke Vink they also purchased some pigeons. Her birds descended from the “Kleine Dirk” a grandson of the “Kannibaal” of Dirk Van Dyck. The lines of her foundation pair “Tips” (grandson “Kleine Dirk”) x “Geschelpt Kannibaaltje” (granddaughter “Kannibaal”) impacted on the Koopman strain.  Marijke Vink totally sold out in November 2005 and “Tips”is now in the Eijerkamp stable at Greenfield Stud. The sire of Tips is “Aladin” who in turn is from “Kleine Dirk” x” Daughter Beatrixdoffer”. The dam of “Tips” is “Last Lady” a sister to “Klein Dirk”. Her parents are “Gentil”, an original Koopmans pigeon x the fabulous “Golden Lady”, daughter of “Kannibaal”.   

Just digressing for a while, as I often do, “Aladin”, who is arguably the best son of the “Klein Dirk”, was purchased at the auction of Marijke Vink by Jung & Seelbach of Eberthausen in Germany, now known as Jupid Lofts. They also purchased “Last Lady” & “Rosalinde”. “Last Lady” & “Aladin were paired together and provided super pigeons including “Tips” & “Last Baby”. “Aladin” has not only equaled the breeding performances of his father but may well have exceeded them.  Seebach-Jung also have 8 brothers & sisters of “Tips” at stud.  Another son of “Tips” sold at the auction was “Reza” and he went to Mr Kijima of Japan for E85,000. He is possibly the best middle distance pigeon ever raced, 3 times winning first prize national, i.e., !st National Peronne against 28,382 birds, 1^st National Chantilly 21,892 birds & 1^st National Chantilly 10,589 birds. His grandfather is “Aladin”, son of “Klein Dirk” x daughter “Beatrixdoffer”, original C & G Koopman.                      

So it can be seen that the Koopman pigeons are basically Janssen Van Loon with the infusion of several other champion birds including close up ancestors of Van Dyke’s famous “Kannibaal”.

HEREMANS-CEUSTERS

 Hans Eijerkamp believes that the Heremans-Ceusters birds will be the new Janssen pigeons of this century.

Leo Heremans started pigeons in 1986 with his then partner Marcel Mols. Marcel died of cancer in 1997. As Leo has suffered from bird fanciers disease since 1994 he needed another person to help him. That man was Charel Ceusters, a fantastic fancier and a new tandem formed. A few pigeons from the former partnership were the base for their restart. Among these was a granddaughter of “Sony” from the Houben family. The “Goede Witpen” which had won 18 x 1^st prizes was another very successful base pigeon but other introductions had to be found. They went to Gert Lauwerijs where Leo noticed 2 full brothers to Dirk Van Dyke’s famous “Kannibaal”. These two birds were not for sale but they agreed to breed together with the best hens that Leo had. At the Auction of Jan Diels of Vorselaar, Leo purchased two fantastic hens and with both hens he had great success. Leo also visited Gust Jansen of Beerse where he tried to buy the “Olympiade”, who was 2^nd National Ace pigeon short distance KBDB in 2002 and also represented Belgium at the Olympiade in France.  A very large offer was made but Gust would not part with him. In a second visit an arrangement was made for the “Olympiade” to breed one month at Gust Jansen’s and the month after he bred children at Leo Heremans. This arrangement was still in place late in 2009. While at their top Leo was still on the lookout to improve and at the total auction of Patrick & Guido Claes he purchased the “Figo” who was 1^st Ace pigeon in the Union of Antwerp for the middle distance in 2004 & was also joint winner of the 2^nd National Championship yearlings KBDB.  So basically the Heremans-Ceusters pigeons were a combination of Houben’s “Sony” lines, Van Dyke’s “Kannibaal” lines, Jan Diels, Gust Jansen’s “Olympiade” and the “Figo” of P & G Claes.

March 2007 saw the total auction of Heremans-Ceusters birds. It had all gotten too much for Leo. Late in 2006 thieves broke into his loft 3 times to steal 19 valuable pigeons. He could not sleep soundly anymore and the health of this wife, who was diagnosed with cancer and needed to go to hospital for treatment more often, forced this decision upon him. The auction made a fortune with Hans Eijerkamp & Sons buying most of the crème de la crème, including the star of the auction, the famous “Euro”. The entire clearance of this super colony of pigeons realized more than STG 300,000 with “Euro” bringing in excess of STG 26,000.

Since then it has been good to learn that Leo Heremans is back in the sport and racing again.

DIRK VAN DYCK

Van Dyke got his first pigeons from his uncle Jos Dillen, They were short distance birds that excelled from Queivrain, 113 km. In 1986 he decided to change to middle distance racing with his birds. In Europe, middle distance is generally considered as events from 350km to 550km. To get the extra distance from his birds he purchased at auction a cock bird B 88 6240603, a son of Gummar Leysen’s crack racing & breeding cock B 86 64114203 which won 11 x 1^st prizes as a yearling and was 1^st Ace pigeon in the Hafoclub in Lier. He paired this cock “603” to a hen from Marien-Royberghs, B 89 6202092. Her mother was the sister of “Autogewinner”, which had been paired to a son of “Asduif von 77”, B 77 6419658. The pairing of “603” to “092” produced the well known “Rambo”, B 93 6621023. In 1994 “Rambo” won 3 x 1^st prizes as a yearling in the Antwerp Union and was put straight to stock. Coupled with B 90 6652120 “Het Laatje”, a hen which originated from Van Dyck’s short distance stock via Jules Verbeecke of Nijlen, he produced “Bourges”, B 94 6323005, winner of 2^nd National Bourges against 40,401 birds, beaten out of first place by a mere 3 seconds by a bird flying a distance 108km shorter. “Bourges” also went straight into the stock loft.  Besides this “Bourges”, “Rambo” and his mate “Het Laatje” also produced the star of the loft, the phenomenal “Kannibaal” . In 1996 he won 12 prizes as a yearling, of which nine were in the top 11, including 4 x 1^st prizes. Competing in a provincial race from Orleans, flying into the sun & a difficult head wind, he won 7^th place against 5140 birds, a fantastic performance considering the cream of the whole province was basketed for that race. After the Orleans race he was taken out of racing and put to stock and later that year he was crowned National Ace pigeon, Belgium’s best middle distance pigeon. The “Kannibaal” has become a super producer and his lines are now eagerly sought after by fanciers worldwide. For example, the Koopmans of Holland have a daughter of “Kannibaal” called “Golden Lady”.  She bred “Kleine Dirk”, a grandson of “Kannibaal” , one of the best birds ever owned by Koopmans. This bird won 1^st National Troyes, 530km against 17,883 birds, 1^st National Bourges, 700km, against 7155 birds and 1^st Maaseik, 196km, against 3522 birds, plus other top prizes.

So to sum up the stock that Dirk Van Dyck created his strain of today, his first pigeons were from his uncle,  Jos Dillen. He later added some birds from Gummar Leysen of Pulderbos from the lines of his famous “03”. Then “Laatje” via Marien-Royberghs of Berlaar, as well as Jules Verbeek of Nijlen. Later a white pigeon from Van Looy-Somers of Vorselaar and a hen from Marcel De Maere of Puidelde. Other pigeons were added from Georges Van Riel of Zandhoven, one of which is “Ailda 500”, and a hen from Marina Van De Velde of Grobbendonk. In 2001 Marina Van de Velde won 1^st National Argenton against over 23,000 birds with “Samson”. Finally some pigeons were bought from Frans Van Beirendonck of Zandhoven and Jozef Hoylaerts of Herent, mostly all excellent local birds from his neighbourhood. ‘Rambo” is also Great Grandsire of 1^st National Souillac, 5985 birds for Antoine Jacops and nowadays 70% of Van Dyck’s stock birds are from the “Rambo” lineage.

 It’s quite remarkable how Van Dyke assembled assembled a number of very good, sound & well bred local pigeons from fanciers in his own area and produced a dynasty of champion racers and breeders, commencing with the “Rambo”. From “Rambo” came the “Bourges” and his more illustriously known brother the “Kannibaal”. “Kannibaal” went on to sire the Koopman’s golden breeder “Golden Lady” who in turn produced their world famous “Klein Dirk”. From “Klein Dirk” came “Aladin” who some say is even a greater breeder than his famous father and from “Aladin” we perhaps have the greatest member of this family of all, “Tips”, the sire of 11 x 1^st Nationals to date when paired to, Geschelpte Kannibaaltje”, a granddaughter to “Kannibaal”, and the parents of other such children as “Farah Diba”, “Reza”, “Drum”, “Marjike” & “Dutch Master, just to mention a few. In the last few years we have seen the birth of a new dynasty of super sprint to middle distance pigeons that are being sought after and spread worldwide, just like the dynasty of the “Famous 05” and his nephew “ James Bond” in the late 1980’s & 90’s. And don’t forget, this earlier dynasty is still winning everywhere by ancestors who are now  quite a bit further away from the original foundation. Hans Eijerkamp believes the Heremans Ceusters pigeons will be the Janssen’s of the 21^st Century. He should know as he is at the “coalface” of the sport in Europe, but as a writer from afar here in Australia, I would not be at all surprised if this Van Dyke dynasty of pigeons take this title.      

 MARINA VAN DER VELDE

Marina Van Der Velde hit the European pigeon headlines in 2001 when she won 1^st National Argenton against 23,419 birds and better still, had the fastest velocity of the entire convoy of 33,097 birds, with her pigeon “Samson”. She resisted many huge offers for “Samson” who was put into her stock loft along with 25 of his children. This “Samson” has gone on to prove himself as a great breeder as his children and grandchildren are winning top honours. “Samson” when paired to a daughter of Van Dyck’s “Kannibaal” is sire of “De Hercule” winner of 6 x 1^st prizes plus 1^st & 2^nd fastest of all Antwerp, “De Sterke” 6^th Provincial Orleans 14,373 birds, 9^th Provincial Limoges 3322 birds, 11^th Provincial Argenton, 1^st Provincial Argenton. With grandsons of “Samson” Robert Callaghan of Ireland won 1^st prize against over 4,000 birds, Klaus Ingerhart of Germany 1^st prize against 2782 birds and Heremans-Ceusters of Belgium won 1^st prize against 2702 birds. 

The sire of “Sampson” is “Leo”, a gift bird from Leo Heremans of the partnership Heremans-Ceusters.  “Leo” is from the “Goed Witpen”, winner of 18 x 1^st prizes by “Gertje”, a hen that won 2^nd National Ace pigeon in 2000. The dam of “Samson” is “Bobientje”, 26^th Provincial Orleans against 13,237 birds.

“Samson” is not the only good bird in the loft of Marina & Paul Van Der Velde. Another of their stars is “Toursman” winner of 1^st Provincial Tours, 4^th Provincial Limoges and 1^st Ace Pigeon Fond Club Antwerp 2003, the winner of 34 prizes including 1^st Provincial Argenton, the “Oude Kool”, 1^st Ace Yearling Pigeon Kempische Fond Club, 2^nd Provincial Limoges, 18^th National against 23,550 birds.

No doubt the success of “Samson” prompted them to attend the entire clearance sale of Heremans-Ceusters in 2007 where they purchased a pigeon called “Jan”, winner of 6 x 1^st prizes, 1^st National Ace Sprint Pigeon Young Birds, 2^nd National Ace Sprint Pigeon 2003 and 2^nd National Ace Sprint Pigeon 2004.                                    

Another new colony of pigeons of similar type & capabilities to the above mentioned, but originating from entirely different sources, are those belonging a flyer often referred to as “The Magician” or “The Wizard”:-

MICHEL VAN LINT of ZOUTLEEUWN

After racing in Belgium in the 1960’s & 70’s with moderate success he then spent the next 20 years in Taiwan before returning to Belgium in 2002 and re-commencing racing in 2003. From 2004 to the end of the 2009 racing season he has had possibly the most spectacular results of any flyer in the history of the sport. He has won 16 Nationals in this short period of time at distances ranging between 350km & 620km with birdages from 875 to 32,724. What is the composition of this incredible strain? Incredibly it wasn’t put together until around 2002 so it is truly a strain of the 21^st Century.

His first birds were a draft of 50 youngsters from the Dutch flyer Willem De Bruijn of Reeuwijk.

Also 24 from Herbots Bros of Halle-Booienhoven, 15 from Olivers-De Vos of Kumtich and 18 from De Keyser of Erps-Kwerps, via Herbots.

Then 12 months later 30 more from De Brujin and another 15 from Herbots.

All of the above were raced and only the best made it to the breeding loft. A total of 152 pigeons of various strains. Just what I have been telling new fanciers to the sport here in Adelaide not to do. It takes too many years to sort them out and quite often they are never sorted out. Obviously there are crucial differences in this case. Firstly, all of the youngsters would have been of the highest quality from top pigeon men so it would have been a case of only the best of the best making it to the stock loft. Secondly is the man himself, Michel Van Lint, a complete master, a wizard or magician as stated earlier.

Now let us look at the above mentioned breeders and the makeup of their birds. First we will look at Willem De Bruijn. In 1985 he purchased 40 late breds from De Witt Brothers of Koodekerk. For 25 years they were amongst the best fanciers in Holland. They owned pigeons from Jos Van Limpt (De Klak) and as everyone knows he was the Dutch branch of the Janssen Brothers-Arendonk. (There’s that name again). De Klak owned nothing but the best of certain lines of the Janssen-Arendonk pigeons and many say the De Klak Janssen’s are purer than the Janssen Brothers pigeons themselves.

In 1989 he introduced pigeons from Karel Stikkelorum which provided ace offspring and later again bought in pigeons from Steven Van Breemen. It is well documented that Steven Van Breemen started his strain with 16 grandchildren from the World Famous “Klaren-46” owned by Desmet-Matthys, combined with Janssen’s from Van Erp plus a blending of Tournier and Meulemans.

The Herbots pigeons are a mixture of just about everything. One of their first champions was a pigeon called “Ieverige” B 75 5239278. He won 96 prizes, 65 in the top ten, 9 x 1^st prizes. He was Ace pigeon as a yearling in 1976. His sire was from the loft of Dendooven and contained the bloodlines of Desmet-Lippens hence Van Bruane, Norbert Norman, Stichelbaut . The mother of the father of “Ieverige” was the “Boerinne”, a full sister of the “Motta” of Van Hee. His dam was from Fabio Carlens. She was a chequered hen that won 8^th, 26^th & 45^th International Barcelona and 25^th National Bourges. Her mother was “Mona Lisa”, 1^st International Barcelona 1973. It is stated that the old lines of the “Ieverige” can still be traced through to their current birds.  Looking through the pedigrees of some of their later champions we find the strains of Grondelaers, Verbruggen, Houben, Janssen, Pros Roosen, Clerinckx, P.Schroder, Scheers, Jan Theelen, Westerhuis, V.D. Eijnden and Hofkens. Grondelaers feature heavily in many of the pedigrees.

As for Oliviers-De Vos and De Keyser, I don’t know what they were as I can find nothing written about them. If it is Roland De Keyser, and quite possibly it was, he raced the old Willequet long distance strain and in 1994 was 1^st Champion of Belgium on Long Distance races. In 1996 was 1^st International Marseille against 15584 birds. Also in 1996 was 1^st Provincial Barcelona, 22^nd International against 20,129 birds.  

So you can see that the pigeons of Michel Van Lint are a mixture of a huge number of strains and birds of short, middle & long distance capabilities. But it doesn’t end there. Names of other strains also appear in some of his pedigrees such as Maurice Vandevelde, Verbeke-Limbourg, De Witt Bros., Nauwelaerts, Schaerlaeckens and Sterckx Begijnendijk. These have obviously been in the pedigrees of his four main sources of pigeons.

It is interesting to note that the owners of all five above mentioned strains specialize in sprint to middle distance racing i.e., 115km to 620km and none of them appear to compete in races much above this distance. They are no doubt very fast pigeons over the above mentioned range of distances whether it be tail, side or headwinds. I also assume they will prefer clear conditions with a larger percentage of blue sky, similar to many of the Janssen pigeons but we do know that certain lines of the Janssen’s will score up to 1,000km. Certain lines of the Van Loons will also score from the distance and they often are not deterred by conditions that are a bit scrappier and tougher. The Van Lint’s may be a little different as they have such a vast number of strains in their makeup, including a number of long distance strains. Depends upon whether Michel has weeded out these longer and slower distance types which are bound to appear from time to time in favour of 100% sprint/middle distance types.

I think these new pigeons will do well in all states of Australia where Federation races commence around the 350km mark and therefore giving them quite a number of Fed races up to around 700km in which for them to compete. They should do well in Adelaide as well but it is a different situation there. Federation or Association races don’t commence until around the 530km mark. This gives them only about 10 races each year at top level in which to compete at their favoured distance and as the SAHPA race week about on two opposite lines of flight, N/NW & SSE, it only gives 5 races on each line of flight. Then there is the fact that the SSE line will be flown during the depths of winter and early spring. This may result in scrappy starts due to fog, mist, & low cloud; or strong winds & rain from low pressure systems & vigorous cold fronts from the Great Southern Ocean that pass through this coastal area quite regularly. There are always the ten club races which range from 250km to 350km for them to shine in but in Adelaide, club winners don’t get anywhere near the same level of recognition as an Association win or high placing. They are good headwind pigeons but it will be interesting to see how they handle the other conditions as described above. In fact it will be interesting to see how all types of pigeons handle this new line of flight into Adelaide as it is the first time a complete schedule of races has been programmed in this particular direction.