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Food for thought again

Pigeons that we all dream about just do not exist.

I mean pigeons:

- That win from 100 miles, from 400 and from 600.

- That win with strong headwinds and with strong tail winds.

- That produce good babies only.

- That win 1st prizes at shows.

 

In Holland and even more in Belgium fanciers specialise.

One has good birds for sprint races, another one is good at Middle Distance and there are the so-called fond fliers;  the long distance racers.

Short distance (sprint) is divided in 2 categories and so is Iong distance.

You have:

 "little long distance"

and

"great long distance". 

 

One of the best racers at "little long distance" (around 550 - 600 kilometers) is my friend Andre Roodhooft.

Since he is the best you can imagine how proud I am to have beaten him (apart from all the others) 4 times with hardly a handful birds in the race, in HIS category, but anyway. 

 

One of the best racers at "great long distance" (racers farther than 750 kilometres) is Dutch van Ouwerkerk Dekkers who lives and races in Belgium.



Andre Roodhooft. We have been friends since long.Today he is second to 
none at races from appr 550 to 650 kilometers.  


THE SMASH

You may have heard about the smash from the race from Chateauroux, the first week of August. Chateauroux is about 550 kilometres and was a race for both young birds and old birds. Immediately after the release the birds encountered a zone of some 200 kilometres of rain and thunder.

On the day only 10% of the young birds got home and some never got a bird home. The "horror" was frontpage news in the daily magazines and the newsreaders on the national tv stations opened with it.

Even the government has meddled now.

Some talk about the greatest smash ever. 

 

Now it is a well known fact that "great long distance birds" will not easily get lost.

They are too late at Middle Distance but do come home.

The same thing happens when there is a smash. In a smash they are mostly the super birds that will never come back again. I often tried to explain this to outsiders but failed.

 

THE TWO CHAMPIONS

Let"s go back to our two Champions.

 

Andre Roodhooft:

Who is hard to beat from races as such from Chateauroux (550 kilometers) lost his 2 best old birds and his best yearling in the smash.

One of the old birds that he lost would have been National Ace of ALL Belgium if he had sent in the results in 2013. Te same birds had won 1st National in 2014 and understandably represented a fortune.

 

Van Ouwerkerk Dekkers.

So van Ouwerkerk Dekkers is a real big shot at the great long distance.

He had entered 50 youngsters for Chateauroux. He had not pooled any money since his birds can hardly win a prize from such races. They are too short.

He had just entered those babies to pick up experience for their future career from Barcelona, Pau and such races.

And guess what?  

While Roodhooft lost his best 3 old birds and several Middle Distance racers never got a bird back home, van Ouwerkerk Dekkers made his balance a week after the smash.

Of the 50 birds that he had entered only 3 were missing.

Few people could believe this, but I know Jaak Ouwerkerk:

Pigeons are definitely not worth a lie to him.   

Once more: Food for thought.