COMB POELMAN

of The Netherlands

by Les Parkinson

When compiling loft reports we are always thinking of things to write differently and to this end, we ask, do you know the story of the Phoenix? It is a mythological bird, which, when growing old, throws itself into the fire and arises from the ashes as a wonderful new bird. I had to think about this legend when they asked me to write an article about Ep Poelman. For those readers among you who have not practiced pigeon racing as long as I have, I will explain who Ep Poelman is. Ep is the son of the late Roef Poelman, who worked almost his whole life as a milkman in the village of Erica, located in the south-east of the province of Drenthe, in The Netherlands. Roef was a fancier all his life and he had fantastic pigeons to reckon with! Roef was a great fancier who knew how to handle his pigeons and he was a first class champion in this sport which was so different then. Well, we move on in time and the sport has changed, of course. Ep Poelman, though, like his father Roef also has had pigeons all his life and, like his father, is obsessed by pigeons and the pigeon racing sport. The apple does not fall far from the tree because Ep’s son, Harco, is also fanatically involved in every aspect of the sport.

But let us go back to Ep, who this story is all about. From his childhood Ep used to help his father out in the loft, so we are actually speaking about a father-and-son loft, rather than a single fancier loft. We cannot say that in those years Ep made his father champion and neither was it the other way round because they just complemented each other. Ep did learn the profession and I am sure pigeon racing is a profession - from his father, who certainly knew all about racing pigeons. But, like most pigeon fanciers, Ep got married and went his own way and raised a family. But Ep was never far away from the pigeons because in the 1980s Ep was taking care of the loft for the father and son partnership of G. Doek & Son.

It was not long before Ep made this a champion loft, so to speak, and there were two real top class pigeons, ‘44’ and ‘45’, from the Doek loft that became legends. Gerard Koopman, also a top fancier, is eager to confirm this. At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, Ep took it in his mind to race his own pigeons and started his own loft. Not with large investment because at the time money was somewhat scarce and what they did have was needed for his family. Instead, Ep went to his fancier friends in search of decent pigeons and created his own tribe, with the eye and hand of a master-breeder. It was not long before some fantastic pigeons occupied the loft. With only 20 widowhood cocks and 35 young birds to fly with, Ep had remarkable results, especially in the middle-distance programme.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances surrounding, among other things, the illness of his wife, he had to sell his entire team from what was recognised at the time as a top loft. The famous Gerard Koopman bought the cock, Black Power, well-known as the father of the two super pigeons Amore and Emperor Qin, at this entire sale. Black Power produced some very good children such as Emperor Qin, 1st World Champion youngsters 1998; and Amore, 1st National Ace Pigeon Long Distance 2002 and Olympic pigeon Long Distance Lievin 2003. Then there was Black Emperor and grandfather Kadir, plus so many other great pigeons that came from this loft. The winners continued, with children from Blackpower Lady: Wonder Lady, who won 1st National Orleans being three minutes ahead; and Lei, who won 2nd National Bourges, 7,155 pigeons, 2nd Maaseik 3,522 pigeons, 3rd Reims, 2,792 pigeons. Lei is mother to Young Dream and in turn Young Dream is mother to Adara and Vita Olympic Pigeon Lievin Long Distance 2003 and 8th Asduif Ned. LongDistance and granddaughter Blackpower Lady and mother to Panini2. Also the 1st Ace Pigeon of the Netherlands is a grandchild of Blackpower Lady and father of this 1st Ace is a half-brother to Amore.

There were other top fanciers who also bought these pigeons including Foppe van der Meer and Harm Vredeveld. Among those bought by Foppe van der Meer was the very well known ‘SUPER AS 660’, which became 1st Ace Pigeon Provincial F 1996; 1st Ace Pigeon Combine De Veenstreek 1996; and 2nd Ace Pigeon Combine De Veenstreek 1995. This was an exceptional breeding cock that became the father of many super pigeons over the years. Jos van der Kolk, who has supplied most of the information for this report, also bought a late-bred hen for a very decent price. This was a direct daughter to Black Power and she played a very important role in the construction of Ep Poelman’s current team.

As with pigeon fanciers, times changed and a new partnership was formed, which combined the lofts of Poelman and Van der Kolk. Ep had moved back near to the village of Erica, to a place called Zuidbarge opposite Grote Rietplas. By this time he longed to have racing pigeons and because he had no pigeons of his own at all, he started to visit a near neighbour a few doors away, Jos van der Kolk, who had a good team of long-distance pigeons. A partnership was formed and Ep was the man who mostly looked after the pigeons because time was limited for Jos. It was not long before Ep got the loft up to a high standard of racing and they started to achieve many top class performances. In the early years of 2000 top national results were achieved with wins such as 2nd NPO Limoges; 11th NPO Limoges; 5th NPO Limoges, 864 km; and 9th Nationaal Sint Vincent 1179 km. All this with ‘24’, a pigeon which flew in one year to achieve 2nd in Beek 120km/75 miles Club; 2nd Etampes c00 km/320 miles and 9th National Sint Vincent, 1200km/770 miles. This cock is still alive but is unfertile due to his age and will stay in the loft to the end.

But after a while, it became too much for Ep to continue to go up and down to the loft and the decision was taken to start a combined loft in Ep’s own back garden. The Poelman-van der Kolk combined loft slowly changed and they constructed a loft with pigeons for the one-day long-distance races, which were unequalled. The accommodation is neat and tidy, but does not compare with the impressive scale of lofts such as those of Gerard Koopman. This was due to a lack of finances to build such a professional loft. Because of his busy work schedule and his preference for overnight long-distance races, Jos van der Kolk eventually left the combined partnership. The combined loft still exists, but is run now by Ep Poelman and his son, Harco.

In the present-day lofts there is room for 27 racing cocks and 20 racing hens that are raced entirely on a traditional widowhood system. Every year they breed 100 youngsters for the racing season. They have 24 pairs of breeders and 16 pairs of feeders. Nowadays three-quarters of the breeding pairs are based on the Black Power line, crossed with the Bourges line of Dirk van Dijck. The creation of the combined Poelman of Erica loft steadily developed around a winning team and this was done with accuracy and consistency. The foundation was based on their own Black Power line, in which they never lost their faith and confidence, not even for a second. They also searched for strong additions to bring into the breed. Everyone who knows how to breed knows that you cannot continue inbreeding forever and so they visited some hard taskmasters in the sport including both big and small names. In recent years Ep & Harco have been very successful with pigeons for sprint-, middle- and long-distance races from the following fanciers: Siebren Wierstra (exchange breeding); Herman Dijkstra (Beckum 6 children, Super Son Borges); Gebr. Appelmans Belgium; Frans Rondags Belgium; Rudi Diels via Thomas Schwarze Duitsland; and Leo Heremans via Comb. Kroesen. With these new introductions Ep & Harco did it again and their results continued to improve. In 2014 they achieved the following results: 2nd NPO, 4,387b; 3rd NPO, 4,387b; 4th NPO, 4,387b; 4th NPO, 9,042b; 4th AFD 10, 5,579b; 5th AFD 10, 9,496b; 6th AFD 10, 9,496b; 9th NPO, 9,042b; 9th AFD 10, 4,663b; 14th AFD 10, 9,496b; 15th NPO 6,885b; 15th NPO 5,606b; 15th NPO 4,387b; 15th AFD 10, 8,229b; 17th AFD 10, 8,229b. These are only the top results - there were very many more in lower catagories.

The pair of new super-breeders made their mark. The cock NL101135664, de Wondere Arrow, and NL101222875, de Fleur, are parents and grandparents of many winners at all levels of competition including many of those already mentioned. Also they are parents of their best cock in 2014, the GENERAAL NL121990273. He received a prize in 11 out of 11 races and theirs is a first class pigeon Club. GENERAAL was 1st Champion pigeon long distance Club; 4th Ace Pigeon Old birds CC; 5th Pigeon Champion CC; 1st, 2331b Quievrain; 19th 11,260b NPO; 4th 5,579b Quievrain; 39th 5,606b Gien NPO. This cock was certainly the star of 2014. This pair of super-breeders go back to the roots of the Black Power strain that are the old lines of Ep & Harco and also from the lines of Herman Dijkstra and his Super Son Bourges. These lines together are the real deal: the first and second generations have already produced first prize-winners in the Combine, Provincial and National races. To cut a long story short, Ep Poelman, together with his son Harco, have succeeded again and continue to climb to the top. It is an art and a skill to stay at the top but you do not have to tell this to these two champion fanciers. If there is such a place as a heaven for pigeon fanciers, I guess the old Roef Poelman will look down with great satisfaction on the results achieved by his son and grandson.

Many thanks to Jos van der Kolk for his help in compiling this loft report on these fast rising stars in the racing pigeon scene in Holland.

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Elimar - January 2015