ROGER VANDYCKE

of Belgium

with Les J. Parkinson

Another visit

Whenever we go over to see Frans Rigole and his family we very often end up at another loft somewhere around the country. On this trip we had been to one loft but had trouble finding it so Frans decided to try out one of these satellite systems that take you to the door and it worked, so this trip was far easier than the last one that we made. We hear so much about the continentals so any loft visit is taken seriously and then we make our own judgment on the loft as an individual and not on what has been written in the fancy press. If you take a trip to Belgium then you should look at the lofts that are not written about too much because you can find some good winning lofts that are not heard of. Neither Frans nor I had been to this loft before so did not know what to expect, Frans had selected the loft for a visit because at the time he had won 1 st National Asduif G.Fond.

First sight

As we drew up in front of the bungalow we could just about see the lofts at the bottom of the garden so I thought "Yes a traditional type English loft" you know the lofts across the bottom of the garden with an aviary. We were invited in and sat down for a cup of coffee; I made sure that I sat where I could see the lofts and birds. By the way I must mention that we had taken Derek Woodward with us on this trip and with him only having a limited amount of experience with trips to Belgium it was mostly new to him. One of the hurdles was that Roger did not speak English and Frans can get things over but when he is in the company of other Belgium fanciers he does tend to forget and in this case Derek, Elizabeth and myself talked mostly between ourselves. To be fair with the number of times that we have been to Belgium I should have at least tried to learn the basics of their language. The continentals have always had an advantage in this area because they do learn more on languages at school, when I was at school there was no such thing. This learning curve for the continentals has always been to their advantage and it is good to know that they are always prepared to learn our language. The point being that we should learn more than we do and we would probably understand more on the pigeons that they have, its alright if they speak English but they don't all so at times we miss out.

The start

Roger was a 12yr old when he first became interested in the pigeons and like many more having a brother they decided to have the pigeons between them. It is the same old story where mother prefers their offspring to have pigeons in the back garden so that they know where they are and they are not out at night wandering around the streets. The early days saw a bigger interest in the sprint races, which is where most fanciers start, but they soon extended their aim to a few middle distance races where success was achieved. A few years' later pigeons gave way to football and Roger spent most of his spare time on the football field instead of in a pigeon loft so they went. The next stage, which again many of us have gone through was getting married and there was further change for the next 8yrs with family life being the priority. I sat 8yrs because in 1965 Roger started to take interest in the pigeons again and the lofts were set up at the matrimonial home. The lofts were now in place and the new generation of pigeons were about to be bought in.

The lofts

As mentioned we sat having a coffee and I was looking at the lofts through the window, fine the tradition lofts were there but when we walked outside into the garden and turned around there they were the Belgium lofts that we used to see years ago but not so much nowadays. The main widowhood loft was there above the living accommodation and I couldn't wait to go up and see them. First we had a look at the garden lofts that were for the hens, stock birds and young birds with all having plenty of space. We then went into the garage and up the steps into the widowhood lofts and the first thing that I noticed was how clean they were, it was as if everywhere had been hovered but we knew that it had not. We went along the back of the widowhood loft to an entrance at the end that led us into the main compartments for the cocks. Again there was plenty of space and the birds looked very well indeed, the conditions of these lofts obviously suited the birds.

The birds

The first introductions were from Deschmidt Bros of Knokke, these pigeons were successful and won Roger the General Champion in his local club during 1970. Roger soon found that he wanted more from his pigeons, the distance races beckoned so he went out looking for additional birds. Those birds were from Descamps Van Hasten and Noel Peiren who were well know for their top class pigeons in the distance events. The next few years saw Roger's enthusiasm and performance improve in these events and by the end of the 70's he became one of the best long distance racing lofts in the area. The 80's saw the birds getting better and in 1985 he had a very creditable performance from probably the most prestige's race on the continent, the Barcelona International. Just four birds were entered for this race that produced the excellent result of 3 rd 21 st 89 th 689 th National against 8467 birds. The international was also an excellent result with 5 th 34 th 136 th 1082 nd International 17.060 birds and remember from an entry of only four birds. Roger sold these birds to Japan, which then led to him having his present home built, and as you can see from the photo it was with pigeons in mind. I must also add that Roger did not sell the stock birds as they were retained for the future. The new house and loft were built with a team of 60 widowhood cocks in mind and that is the team that he now has to race. The 90's saw a further change for the pigeons housed because Roger became friends with Gaston Devooght one of Belgium's most famous names in pigeon racing circles. It did not take long for these birds to record wins that were of the calibre that Roger always aimed for but then tragedy struck. Roger let the birds out for their daily exercise and there was a sudden change in the atmosphere and the fog rolled in. somewhere in the skies were 27 widowhood cocks and some were top class National performance pigeons. These were the pigeons that Roger was building his new team on but not one came back. Roger then decided to bring in a few more pigeons and went to a few well known lofts such as Desmet-Matthys, De Smet, Verscheure and further introductions from Noel Peiren and Gaston Devooght. No matter what family of birds Roger has turned to they have performed well for him, this is the sign of a good fancier.

Championship performances

What exactly has Roger won; there are many performances that have led to 1 st National Marathon. 4 th National Champion, Grote Fond KBDB. 1 st National Steeple Cup. 1 st National Champions league. 2 nd National Asduif Fond. 1 st National Asduif Grote Fond 1 st Algemeen Champion BV. 1 st Zesdagen BV. 2 nd Criterium Der Azen BV.

Winning pigeons

Some of the winners include "Blacky" 53 rd Nat Dax, 135 th Nat Cahors 11,800b. "Kennedy" 35 th & 68 th Nat Perpignan, 87 th Nat Marseille. "De Limoges" 8 th Nat 11,574b. "Genaaiden" 31 st 87 th National others include "Senna" "De Rappen" "Nilis" No matter what any of the other champions have achieved "Kartouche" is a real star with 18 th 86 th 80 th 81 st National but 2003 was the year this pigeon became a real Champion with three races that stood him above the rest. They were 14/6/03 7 th reg, 33 rd Beide VL, 40 th Inter Westvl, 198 th Inter Prov 4769 birds. 12/7/03 2 nd reg, 8 th Prov, 4 th Drie Prov, 9 th National 23 rd International 19420 birds at Dax. 2/8/03 1 st reg, 6 th Inter Westvl, 3 rd Drie Prov 18 th National 43 rd International 16800 birds.

Kartouche breeding

The breeding of this excellent pigeon is very good with a winning line that has carried on and is no one off performer. His sire is "Roald Kweker" broer 1 st Olympiad Duif Fond 1997whose sire is "Roald" winner of 21 st Nat Montauban 6814b. 146 th Nat Narbonne 5929b. 212 th Nat Cahors 8078b and is bred from "Domien" 19 th Nat Narbonne 4668b. 37 th Nat Perpignan from Gaston Devooght. "Roald" was paired to "Annemie" also a Devooght pigeon and dam of 14 th Nat Narbonne 5006b. 14 th Nat Narbonne 3229b. 34 th Nat Narbonne 5929b. 33 rd Nat Montauban 6814b and is also a daughter of a sister to 1 st National Dax. Dam of "Kartouche" is "Fiolette Kweekster" also mother of 6 th Nat Marseille 3137b. 5 th Nat Brive 2314b. 1 st Nat Asduif KBDB.

I would like to thank Roger and Frans for their time and I must say that I was impressed with the birds and the widowhood cocks racing loft. no doubt we shall call again when we are in the area of Lissewege, Belgium.