Ace Four Ever part 7
Pigeon Fever ~ ACE-FOUR-EVER (part 7) by Henk Simonsz
Voets
Before Ad Schaerlaeckens would make the ultimate coupling in 1995, he bought another important pigeon, already mentioned before, that would bring great success to many lofts. This pigeon was a pied cock out of the "Blauwe As" from Maurice Voets from Kessel who, at that time, was a real crack on the middle-distance. Descendants of this pigeon performed very well in especially the Netherlands, but also in Belgium were they very successful.
The coupling of Voets against the bloodline of the NL87-022 (directly out of "Zoon Jonge Merckx") produced excellent pigeons too. J. Ulrich from Arnhem played a key role in this. He had a lot of pigeons direct from Ad Schaerlaeckens, among which a real top couple, Vechter x Diana, that was put up for sale in 1998 in his total sale via sports magazine De Duif.
By chance, I had once held this couple from J. Ulrich in my hands, and I can still remember the birds well, in particular the hen "Diana". I found her one of the most beautiful hens for the middle-distance that I had ever seen. That pigeon was absolutely perfect in the hand, a real gem.
In 1992 Ad Schaerlaeckens really destroyed the S NATIONAL race from Chartres winning: 2, 3, 4, 7 and so
on from 4,252 birds. Bontje Voets won 3rd National.
Vechter x Diana
The father of the "Vechter" came directly out of "Zoon Blauwe As" from Voets, while the mother of "Diana" was a direct daughter of the 87-022. The 87-022 was the brother of the 87-021 ("Windfighter"). Both came directly out of the "Zoon Jonge Merckx", who also produced the 1st national Orleans (S3) of Ad Schaerlaeckens himself. Besides that couple, there were more descendants of the excellent Voets cock in the sale, of which among others Eric Limbourg managed to acquire one, a pigeon that would later breed his Olympiad pigeon.
The couple Vechter x Diana was sold for an, in those days, record amount to the combination Van Heteren from Doetinchem, who went on to be very successful with them. Already the very next season, they won the 1st national Orleans department 9 Oost Nederland with a child out of the Vechter x Diana in their own section against 4,656 pigeons. Incredible to have such a result with offspring directly from a bought couple within one year of purchase. Not only that, but also the 3rd prize national came out of this same couple, while in 2001 a grandchild won the race from Etampes in the department. But even in 2013, grandchildren still flew teletext results for the successful combination. Ad Schaerlaeckens already had pure gold in his hands at that time.
Smart Devil
At that same sale from Ulrich, Siebren Wierstra from Friesland bought all three children (hens) out of that couple, and descendants of these went on to win 1st prizes in large competitions. Wierstra also visited the combination Van Heteren and from them he bought a small cock from 1999, directly out of that same super couple Vechter x Diana. He coupled that cock ("Smart Devil") to a daughter of the "National King" from the combination Brouwers-Kodama. The "National King" was a real champion who won a 1st national Bordeaux yearlings and a 1st national Munich. This was twice national top in the lead, out of two different flight directions.
The first couple of eggs went to top fancier Henk Bussing, who ringed the young with respectively NL01-801 and NL01-802. The 802 became champion of the Kring and the 801 won a car against more than 20,000 pigeons. A son of that car-winner went to Alwin Petri, who named him "Santoro" (NL05-989). The "Santoro" proved to be another real champion, not only by winning 3x 1st, including one against 6,485 pigeons, but also by becoming the father of among others the "Santana", 2x 1st against 2,005 pigeons and 8,824 pigeons, and many more toppers.
Other champion pigeons out of the line of the Voets cock x the old sort of Ad Schaerlaeckens were among others:
- 98-1015141: 1st National Ace Long Distance, v.d. Zijde; 1st National Bourges, Braet.
- 95-5574642: 1st Ace, M. Brabant.
- 95-5574685: won 1st Provincial Chantilly against 4,113 pigeons.
- 98-1326808: won 5x 1st.
- 1st NPO Etampes 2001 (against some 17,000 pigeons), Hulkenberg.
Another famous pigeon out of this bloodline was the "Superstar" (93-1059834), which won St Quentin against 1,306 pigeons - 1st Creil against 1,038 pigeons - 1st St Ghislain against 1,163 pigeons and 1st St Quentin against 3,402 pigeons.
Frans van Heteren and his Betsie, very succesful with Schaerlaeckens birds.
Masterpiece
Even to this day, there are many pigeons flying around that have blood of the successful coupling Voets cock x the old sort of Ad Schaerlaeckens in their veins. It is therefore literally just a selection out of a group of performance pigeons, only mentioning 1st prize winners. After all, the story has to remain readable and not become just an endless series of result lists. That is why we limit ourselves to only mentioning the interesting performances of these pigeons.
However, the masterpiece of the most successful Ad Schaerlaeckens pigeons ever, both in his own loft as in others, had yet to come and this was heralded by a visit to one of the most famous fanciers of Belgium: Gaby Vandenabeele. A visit, as it turned out, with far reaching consequences.
(To be continued)