Henri and Hans Verschueren - Zingem
by Les.J.Parkinson

Many years ago we went on a minibus trip to Belgium with a few of the local fanciers and on that trip met a young enthusiastic man at the Dufky-Elite factory. Little did we know that many years later we would cross paths again with the German One Loft race as a interest to us both. We have since visited the winning lofts of Henri & Hans Verschueren on a couple of occasion's to see the pigeons and lofts that have turned the partnership into National winning competitors. The start of the new Millennium has been good to these lofts and they are achieving their goals with the pigeons and the best result achieved to date was when they picked up the best result of all Belgium in the Argenton race flying 504 kms; achieving 1st & 11th National. Then at La Souterraine 542 kms; 1st and 5th Provincial East of Flanders - 1st and 5th Semi-National Zone West 9th, 23rd, 47th National.

They selected their widowhood cocks by racing in one of the hardest clubs of Belgium. At both the Argenton and La Souterraine National races, father Henri and son Hans Verschueren, who live in a place called Zingem in East of Flanders (18000 fanciers), achieved at the highest level that they have ever seen. The excellent condition that these birds were in had already shown up at the National Bourges race in which they also had a very good result but not the top results that they strive for. On this Bourges race, it was their best friend Geert Phillips who won the 1st National Yearlings. This pigeon recorded the highest velocity of all competitors, which means in total 57.000 pigeons in the old bird's category Geert & Clara also won 1st and 2nd provincial, starting in the National list at the 15th position. Of course Geert and Clara Philips are conditioning their pigeons on the Interlabo products of their best friend and Director of the Interlabo Company Hans Verschueren. Whom this report is about. Moreover they are in contact constantly with Mr Heinrich Renz who is accepted as the number one loft manager in Germany and is also the man who developed the Interlabo range of products.

Heinrich did a fantastic job with the German One Loft race so is no fool when it comes to conditioning and racing pigeons. Back to the old birds and Champions Henri and Hans Verschueren who this report is about. They race in a club called Union et Liberte in Gent. This club is known all over the county to be one of the toughest to compete in as this club boasts about 10 real professional lofts. These include Andre and Patrick Desmet (who I am compiling a report on) the D'Hondt family, Gerard and Marc Santens, Eddy Leutenez, Luc Waldack, Hok Derweduwen etc. During the last five years Henri and Hans have been trying to compete against these lofts more and more.

During this five year period they have been selecting their pigeons stringently and the ones that can't follow the right rhythm have had to go. Last year they won several top results, 1st Argenton and top results on Bourges, Chateauroux, Vierzon etc so they are now on the right track with 2000 being their best to date. Having said that they are about as keen as they come and take great care when preparing their pigeons. Hans said "Honestly l have seen so many people running out of this club because they could not compete with these professional lofts. That is totally wrong because if you are going to get the best results you have to do the opposite, stay and try to beat them". Argenton National; 12 widowhood cocks as previously mentioned above won 1st and 2nd in the club Union et Livert'e in Gent 1st and 5th Provincial East Flanders, 1st and 11th National against 3,224 pigeons.

What do they consider to be their key to success at the highest level. Henri and Hans both swear by their breeding system of crossing which they started trying out in 1993 namely crossing the pigeons they got from Geert and Clara Philips with the world famous "Paula 5000 line" of Remi Demey. You may recall that the "Paula 500" represented Belgium on the Olympiads twice which is unique in the International pigeon sport. This hen won 13 first prizes in the short distance races and became 1st National Ace pigeon K.B.D.B, 3rd National Ace Pigeon, 7th National ace pigeon and 9th National Ace Pigeon this is more than unique in the international pigeon sport. Out of this "Paula 5000" Hans bought a granddaughter in Germany with a very good friend who kept a son off her. This son has since been bought back by Remi Demy himself later on. Out of this hen crossed with the purest "Panter" - pigeons Henri and Hans obtained from Geert and Clara Philips, they bred several top winners that are in turn producing their like. Hans "I think we are the only one who tried out this cross achieving great success see the results of our "Billy Boy" as an example.

This in fact means that we developed a new strain because we have several pigeons in our breeding loft out of this crossing. At the moment we have about 10 grandchildren of the world famous "Paula 5000" 5 of them are direct Demey pigeons". Here are some of the results of "Billy Boy" of 1994. He is a son out of Henn & Hans top breeding pair "Bliksem" X "Remilde", because of his excellent results they decided stop racing him this year. "Billy Boy 4157174/94" St Denis 9/129, St Denis 11/159, Dourdan 11/307, Dourdan 16/394, Vierzon Semi-National 110/7.056, Chateauroux Semi National 235/7.671, Chateauroux Semi National 364/6.094, Blois Provincial 104/1.855, Argenton Provincial 290/3.333, Argenton Provincial 239/3.114, Montlucon Provincial 71/3.464. Results in the Bourges National are 198/10.652, 297/24.612. 346/21.170, 606/19.396, 819/10.872. 866/10.520. Again Bourges National 143/11.118 (this year). When at Angenton Henri and Hans had 5 pigeons clocked, 3 brother's were included 2 full brothers of "Billy Boy" and one half brother out of the same father.

So the pigeon that won the 11th National is a full brother of "Billy Boy" as well. The National winner is a direct Pros Roosen pigeon. In 1997 Hans bought a young bird off Pros Roosen for �200, he raced this young Blue cock because Pros Roosen told him to do so. This pigeon became a real winner he best results are, Dourdan 5th/916 pigeons. Bourges National 37th/13.118 pigeons 8th Provincial /2.100p, Argenton National 1st/30224 pigeons. This National victory and his previous results made him one of the best middle distance pigeons in Belgium. This pigeon has the purest "Soontjes -blood" in the veins, although this is the pure short distance blood. They raced this pigeon in the Limoges National this year when he won 909th National against 11.279 pigeons. 2 WEEKS LATER; BINGO AGAIN. Then 2 weeks after the National victory they basketed the same widowhood cocks for the National La Souterraine race, just the "Pros" National winner and "Billy Boy" stayed at home.

Two days before basketing Hans noticed that his pigeons had found that their pigeons had reached real top condition again. When they were out exercising a group of about 200 young birds come through and at that moment particular time their cocks had already been training for 1/2hour . But what happened next gave Hans a lot of courage as they disappeared for another 15 minutes. This is rather unusual at the end of the racing season when you expect them to be content with a short exercise period before they start to land. The result was more than satisfying; 1st in the club of Gent again 1st and 5th Provincial 1st 5th 10th 18th 55th 74th in Zone West (in the Nationals Belgium is split up into 3 Zones). On the National list that covers the whole of Belgium they won 9th 23rd 47th 97th. The strong west wind brought them a disadvantage against the Antwerp and Limburg Provinces but they still came good. The 1st Semi National winner comes out of another crossing of Bol-line of Geert and Clara Philips with a son of the "Maestro" which is the nest brother of the famous "Vooruit" of Louis Deleus. Tony Deigner bought this "Maestro" from Germany for a price of �5.000.

So Hans is only looking after the real top pigeons and as the results go he obviously proves to have a good eye in finding the top breeders he also has the feeling to bring a pigeon in top condition and motivate them. The main widowhood race team used to be in the attic but have now been moved to the lower level of buildings at the rear of the house. There is also a good young bird loft that is the traditional wooden loft as in the UK. There is also a very good stock loft and aviary where the birds have plenty of room that helps to keep them in the healthy condition that all the birds are in at these lofts. This is a loft that we shall be hearing a lot more about in the future because they do not miss an opportunity to bring in the best pigeons available. At the German One Loft race Hans purchased the winner because of the breeding and this excellent performance.

Over the next few years I expect Henri & Hans to achieve an even higher level of performance because of their dedication to their pigeons. Both Elizabeth and myself would like to thank the whole family for their hospitality and we shall be back shortly to see the new arrival that Cindy no has to look after, a son to follow in the footsteps of dad maybe.