The Golden Duif Awards - 2010 Presentation

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willie reynolds
Posts: 6785
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2008 4:44 pm

The Golden Duif Awards - 2010 Presentation

Post by willie reynolds »

‘Golden Opportunity’

Having returned from a Welcome invite to attend the ‘Golden Duif’ Awards evening held on Saturday 27th of February in Belgium, I was met by pleasant news that Promotion is imminent within my current area of work. In the current economic instability work is hard to find and promotion is even harder and must be grabbed by both hands. Unfortunately this will put pigeons and all personally connected with it on the back burner for a while with the prospect of 90 – 100 hour working weeks looking considerably nearer having not long ago left one line of long term employment of similar hours hoping for somewhat an easier opportunity in the business world, but with a young son and teenage daughter under my wing, sadly my time must stay focused with the guaranteed income.

One of the main projects/events to suffer will be the planned http://www.pigeonnetwork.com Quiz Night of the Year planned for Friday 26th of March at the Lisburn Rugby Club. (Sorry) But don’t despair I have already re-planned the above event for Friday 6th of November and booked annual leave at work so for sure get that date marked on your calendar, my sincere apologies to the many fanciers and many supporters who have made enquires for tickets and offered gift birds for our annual auction and not forgetting the organised star studded panel who I might add have all agreed to attend on Friday the 6th November. It will be a night not to be missed with presentations of both the N.I Fancier of the Year, Cornish Connection Cup and a couple of new Pigeonnetwork.com & Irelands Own Pigeon Auctions sponsored awards. (More on this at the start of the O/Bird season) but these new awards will only be able to be competed for if your Club is one of the 200 already listed on pigeonnetwork.com for the start of the fourth coming O/Bird & Y/Bird seasons, of course you still have time to register your Club on our results board, its active and already put in place for the 2010 seasons with both 2009 and 2008 seasons archived for your own personal use, which means you can refer back to any listed Club and see who won any said race during the last couple of seasons, due to the high level of info for each year, when you request archived years it my take a minute or two to down load so be patient.

For all of you that are missing the chance to have you Club results listed on pigeonnetwork.com give ‘Homer’ or myself a call with your Club result on either a Saturday evening or Sunday morning and we will do the best we can to have you listed. Remember Old News as far as results are concerned is old news. With full participation from all Clubs in Ireland there is no reason why the Open and Section results for all organisations can’t be worked out on a Sunday evening, rather than waiting a week or even longer for same. This was one of the main reasons for myself purchasing pigeonnetwork.com a couple of years ago. The internet is the future, but we can all concede it will take some years before we are all using same. But as mentioned to make sure your Club result has reached us just not for the website but for the BHW and RP who work hard along with us to make sure every Club is covered and to them I am truly thankful, give us a ring and we will do the rest Before Monday Lunch Time due to publication deadlines, telephone numbers ‘Homer’ 028 256 44683, or mobile 07939684876, or ‘Adie’ 028 92 604778 or mobile 07702492410.

My weekend in Belgium gave me the opportunity to catch up with a number of good friends during the course of the weekend and one of them was Ian Gibb from my home town of Lisburn, Ian is in partnership with Henry Byrne from Dublin and between them own one, if not the largest and most up to date studs in Ireland. With many top pigeons from many of the European Elite as well as being home to one of the largest collection of Jos Soontjen pigeons anywhere in Europe.

During my weekend away I had the chance to catch up with Ian on his racing exploits over the last couple of years since my last article and also I had the opportunity to meet a lot of his elite contacts during the course of my 4 day trip to Belgium. In this article I will give a small report on the fanciers visited with Ian but will carry the majority of info in next weeks report on the Gibb & Byrne Stud.

The main objective for the weekend away was a visit to the Golden Duif awards night held in the town of Antwerp. Guy from Belgica De Weerd who was on the last panel of our pigeonnetwork.com quiz night in 2008, was to organise everything for us for the event including the presentation dinner prior to the evening events, unfortunately due to a couple of loft visits running over time. First up was Danny Van Dyck 4 x 1st National Ace Pigeon in 2009, only 8 awards possible. A superb set up and no surprise to see him booked out for the next two years based on the quality of birds handled including the Ace ‘Cannon’ a winner of 3 x 1st plus an Ace pigeon Award more so his nest mate an Ace Award Winner also. It was no surprise to learn that Ian Gibb was months on the ball and pigeons already on their way to the Emerald Isle with immediate effect from what is regarded as one of the Crack lofts in Belgium in 2009.

Wim De Troy was next up for us on Saturday afternoon, and as we approached the very modern house Wim was standing looking into the sky, for moments earlier a batch of O/Birds had come over the house and lifted almost ½ his Y/Bird team for 2010, in Belgium the O/Bird season for some, starts around 6 weeks before ourselves in Ireland. But not deterred Wim went on to treat us exceptionally well during our visit with many pigeons at stock, Wim is one of the Ace lofts that Ian Gibb was directed to a couple of years ago and once again going by what was handled by myself during the short visit it is no surprise that he is back for more. One of the best over-all teams handled in some time, the lofts were immaculate as where the pigeons, and as for the pigeons in the nest, we would be thrilled to produce a pair in most nests that are spilling out over the nest bowl.

It was trip back to the Hotel to get freshened up before a Taxi ride to the Golden Duif was in order. Having heard plenty about the event, nothing could have prepared for what was to meet me on arrival to the venue. First thing was the sheer heat inside the venue obviously attributed greatly by the vast number of fanciers within the complex, both seated and standing. We arrived well in time to handle some of the pigeons put forward to Auction, obviously from some of the European elite. They are over flowing in Belgium and had the organisation a pigeon from them all you would be at an Auction simply all night, so this has to be capped at a reasonable total namely 50 on this occasion.

I must thank Cully Owens for his help in compiling the list of prices for all concerned in Euro of course. Gebr Herbots 3,000; Marginus Oostenbrink 2,100;

Andreas & Walter Drapa 1,200; Geert & Anton Kouters 1,500; Jos Thone 1,000; Willem De Bruijn 1,500; Antoon & Luci Van Der Wegen 1,600; Jan Hoogmans 12,000 yes 12,000 remembering that the same fancier sold two recently for 96,000 & 36,000 Euro; J & L & N Houben 1,800; Peter & Dr Hans Peter 1,300; Gerard & Bas Verkerk 2,300; Comb Atema 2,000; Gaby Vandenabeele 1,200; Gebr Brugemann 3,600; Jespen Van Elsacker 1,200; Johan Brans 1,600; Michael & Didier Desbuquois 1,600; Albert Derwa 3,000; Danny Van Dyck 1,600; Leo Hermans 1,600; Jan Theelen 1,100; Dirk Van Dyck 2,000; Co & Piet Verbree 1,100; Filip & Norbert Norman 1,000; Gerard Koopman 2,300; Etienne Meirlaen 1,200; Roger & Eddy Grootjans 1,200; Cor Leijtens 3,330; Comb. Kurvers-De-Weerd 2,600 (Quest last year at our pigeonnetwork.com Quiz); Eddy Janssens 1,600; Van Hove-Uytterhoeven 1,600 (Guest last year at our pigeonnetwork.com Quiz); Peter & Vanbastiaan Verbeek 1,250; Koen Minderhoud 1,300; Proos Roosen 1,300; Kees Bosua 2,400; Gebr Kuipers 3,000; Eric Berckmoes 1,300; Cor De Heijde 3,000; Luc, Bart & Jurgen Geerinckx; Henri Van Venrooij 1,300; Rik Cools 1,300; Peter Van De Merwe 1,300; Hok Jos Vercammen 1,000; Chris Hebberecht 1,100; Guy Van Der Auwera 1,300 (Guest last year at pigeonnetwork.com Quiz); Arien Verreckt 1,000; Dr Ferdi Vandersanden 1,300; Luc & Hilde Sioen 3,000; Rik Hermans 1,300; Hermans Hoekstra 2,400.

Some money raised even with a recession. The continent to be fair continues to produce the top prices for pigeons you only have to log onto pipa to see what the pigeons are making, with a huge influence coming from the Far East.

I was fortunate enough to have lunch one of my days in Belgium once again with Henk De Weerd who has a very informative formula about the economy currently and how he see’s it evolving over the fourth coming months, when sitting in the company of Henk, it is one of a number of occasions in Europe which can be very enthralling by simply his education and wisdom of the many day to day things never mind Belgica De Weerd products.

A loft that I had privilege of going to on Sunday was that of Karl Van De Brande & his Frans, of course you could call with Karls uncle Marcel when their for he lives next door, now I know that this is the loft that they are going mad about in the UK, anybody that are lucky enough to have the pigeons are winning big style. They race in the same area as Lambrechts, in the last ten years the Van De Brande loft has come out on top in the Federation no less then 7 years out of the ten, this is the first year in the last seven that Lambrechts have beaten Van De Brande, it is little wonder when you consider the money Lambrechts is getting in the UK that Van De Brande is sold out for the next three years. But as usual the Gibb & Byrne Stud have the pulse and have purchased a great number direct from Karl’s stock loft and these are already housed back in Ireland, on top of this they have number of the rounds purchased for the next three years. What struck me about the Van De Brande set up was how small it was, you will see by the pictures, when you compare how small it all is and the winning that is being done in England & Ireland, without any doubt amazing. (see the photos).

To finish this weeks report is a true example of how in life some things fall into your lap, like as somebody said to me if you fell into the river you would come out riding a new bike.

Our last visit on Sunday was to what can only be described as the cleanest butcher I have ever seen in my life, now take on board, having served my apprenticeship with the British Army in Aldershot, I know how regimental some things should be especially in a kitchen/restaurant, but the shop of Alfons Slaets in the Lint area of Belgium has to be seen to be believed, with 15 staff working in the shop you would swear a chop had never been cut on the property although first opened in 1966. This was to be some indication as what to expect in the loft, and for sure disappointment was not the word that came to mind THE BEST EVER ‘FACT’. The Gibb & Byrne Stud had already booked a round of youngsters from the best, even though it was a small set up, Alfons had bred a National winner in 2009 against 44,000 pigeons in the Y/Birds. But the Gibb & Byrne homework has been done as usual look at the list of fanciers who owe their fame our at least part of it to the Alfon Slaets family. The famous Slaets family goes right back to the 1985 bred ‘Swart Panter’ who in turn was direct from the ‘Zwarte Panter’ of 1981 of Verstrete when paired to the 1981 bred ‘Kadetije Meulemans” the basis of the family also includes Pros Roosen, Karl Meulemans, Van Den Bosche going back to Belg 67/ 6729926 & the 1966 bred Janssen 6122023. They in turn produced the famous 1972 bred ‘Kadet’ for Meulemans who in turn is the G/Sire to the 1985 bred ‘Zwart Patrick’ a Black Cock. It does not matter where you go in the Alfon Slaets lofts you see the famous Bronze coming just not through on the Dark pigeon but also the Slatey simply it has to be seen to be believed and what a back these pigeons have, I handled every one of the youngsters including full brothers and sisters to the Sire and Dam of this years National winner going to the Gibb & Byrne Stud AWESOME. I don’t say this lightly but the BEST. Of course time will tell, but if I where to start up again, where would I go simple answer, Gibb & Byrne, why not Slaets? Well during our time at the loft Alfon decided that he was going to call it a day due to the demands of the butchery business and named his price to our interpreter, it was big money to say the least for 45 pigeons, that was the complete O/Bird, Stock Team. When we phoned the following morning the deal had sadly already been done with China. Ian Gibb being Ian Gibb secured the deal for all remaining youngsters and eggs that the pigeons where sitting on to go back to Ireland and the rest is history or will history be in the making. Now I will list the fanciers who credit Alfon Slaets to their glory and indeed some of the reason why I truly believe you will be reading about these for years to come. Ludo Classens – Guido Loockx – Richard Verdonck – Luc, Bart & Jurgen Geerinckx – Jos Vercammen – Henri Custers – Gebr. Van Landeghem – Henri Hans Verschueren – Frans Van Tilborgh – Sus Auwers – Jos En Robby Boons – Robert Vernijns – Paul Mens- Marcel Van Vondel – Geert Philips, just a small number over the years.

Adie McCormick

Ireland’s Own Pigeon Auctions
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com
email celestiallofts@aol.com
Tel: (028) 92 604778.

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Ian Gibb pictured with Alfons Slaets prior to a complete clearance to China the following day.
Ian retaining everything in the nest for Ireland.

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Ian Gibb pictured with the man who’s bird they are all after
Karl & Frans Van De Brande.

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The Stock loft of Karl Van De Brande sited in his uncle Marcel’s garden holding only 8 pair.

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The Racing loft of Karl & Frans Van De Brande.

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The local Northern Ireland loft of Dennis Lyness pictured during the
Golden Duif event with John Withers of Glenavy.

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One fancier who always draws a crowd Peter Fox
accompanied with his wife to the Golden Duif Event in Belgium

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Ian Gibb of the Gibb & Byrne Stud pictured with Linda & Stefan Steenbergan,
one of the Ace lofts in Belgium 2009 and also a previous guest during the
pigeonnetwork.com quiz in 2008.

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What a turn is Brian Bolton of Premier Stud now living in Belgium,
and not shy in buying a drink for Ian, John & Adie during the ‘Golden Duif’

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Yet another purchase Wim De Troy pictured with Ian Gibb.

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John Withers, Ian Gibb, Danny Van Dyck and Adie McCormick,
pictured on a visit to Danny’s following his winning of 4 x1st National Ace Pigeon in 2009.
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