Striking (31-07-24)
Striking
What makes pigeon sport so interesting for many are the surprises that often occur, things that one did not expect or cannot explain. A few examples:
P THEUNIS:
Years ago I suggested to W de Bruijn to watch the homecoming of the birds from Orleans at P Theunis.
Neither of us knew him, but we did know that he was doing very well with youngsters. Peter was the first to see a group of 7 pigeons approaching; low, fast and out of the right direction. Early birds, that was clear. Three trapped fast, the other four flew foreward in a straight line.
When I saw the results, I frowned. Three early pigeons indeed, starting with the 1st, but where were the others? Their home loft had to be somewhere right behind Theunis's, right? This was not reflected in the results.
There were no other releases, we didn't understand a thing.
H AND O
Lots of champions never got the recognition they deserved.
The combination of 'H and O' is an example. They lived against the big rivers, but played in a combine above the rivers, so they raced at the short distance.
It often happened that a pigeon that got down from a passing flock flew minutes ahead against sometimes huge participation. Again, where were the pigeons from the flock where the winners came from?
I myself experienced something similar in a hard race.
I waited and waited for the first bird to come. Finally, three came from the right direction, one of which behaved a bit strangely. As if it wanted to go down. Feint? I whistled and sure enough, he turned around and trapped.
No less than 5 minutes later the next pigeon, so 'bad result' I thought. But what a shock to see I won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th against 3.000 plus pigeons in the Fed.
Same question; What happened to those 2 pigeons that were with the winner? Others were not loose. Had they dramatically lowered their speed after that one got home? Changed direction maybe?
BELGIAN NATIONALS
How often do you hear about national winners in Belgium that were not alone?
Cyclists, runners, skaters and so on alternate. This is also true for some birds, but, allegedly, not for pigeons. The same ones continue to lead the flock. 'The same ones' are of course the good ones in form.
So they would set the pace. Hence a drop in speed after those good ones got home and the second choice was forced to take over?
On racing days here you see numerous groups of pigeons coming over. The former are the best, they set the course. The others are the followers who only keep an eye on the tail of their predecessors. So almost every bird in such a flock is wrong. Or all lofts should be in line with each other, which is obviously not the case. This may explain why pigeons that were with the winner were sometimes hard to find in the top results. They may not have been slower, but followed the wrong course. They should have kept a different flight line than the leader(s) of the group.
SPECIAL
If you raced pigeons for more than half a century, it stands to reason that you had pigeons 'out of category'. My 'Good Yearling' was one of them. In those days there was still a lot of pouling and quite a few villagers came to watch the birds come from the race. On a race day with nice weather, but with a strong tailwind, the ‘Good yearling’ failed to everyone's surprise. We all agreed that the bird had flown far overhead. "Can happen to the best.”
A short time later, much amazement. The super bird arrived.
But… Not 'from the back' as expected, but straight from the direction. Not hurt or anything. Just as fresh as a fiddle. I called him 'Prime' because his ring ended in 97. The highest prime number below 100.
ALSO SPECIAL
My 162 was also special. As a racer and breeder. With the descendants of this son Ace Four, Jespers v d Wegen outclassed an entire nation in the nationals. I called him 'Home Alone' because he once flew 5 minutes ahead from Creil against 13.037 pigeons in sweltering hot weather and headwind .
It was his last stunt. From then on he seemed to have forgotten how to win, he turned into an average bird and was kept at home. Fortunately, as it turned out. His father was also a special one. At the time, I once got eleven pigeons together that also won the 11 first prizes out of about 1,000 pigeons. Not so abnormal nowadays, but it was back then.
Two ‘watchers’ had noticed that one of those eleven was all the way through, sagging through his legs. 'You're not going to win the war with this one', they knew. He would later win a 1st in a tough 400 km race. Even then 'broken', while the birds that got home later looked fit.
The famous Sprint of Bas Verkerk, winner of that tough legendary Chateauroux, is a descendant of it and had the same flaw, Bas once told me. Well, 'flaw'.
LAST
Once I bought a son of famous Rudy. An expensive one, but 'a good one is never too expensive' as they say. The start was promising. A youngster had the highest speed of the provincie of Antwerp in its first race with the wind ahead and 31 Celsius. Even the press paid attention to it.
"If that wasn't a good one?" I wondered. No, it wasn't. I even got rid of it.
To be able to stay ahead of 10.000 or more birds in hard weather and later on less than average? In this sport there is not much that can surprise me anymore.