MARGINUS OOSTENBRINK
by Les Parkinson
I am always looking at fanciers on the continent to see who is going to be the next superstar of the sport because that's often where they come from. I have seen some real good fanciers on the continent with real good winning pigeons who win more than their fair share and they come quietly into the UK and win well but do not get that so called superstar status. Then there are those fanciers whose reputation precedes them but when their pigeons come over here they do relatively nothing other than command high prices.
Although there are fanciers about who may know the fancier who I am writing about others will not. So I am now introducing to you Marginus Oostenbrink from Spier, a well known name in the sport and famous in the north of the Netherlands. Marginus was born in 1952 in Hothe, a small town in the province Drente, where he also spent his youth. Living on a farm early in his life he came into contact with all kinds of animals including pigeons. At first there were show birds and later, due to the influence of a friend with racing pigeons, he joined the club De Straaljagers in Westerbork. The love affair with the club has lasted because right up until the present date he still is a member of that club.
Marginus
Right from those early days he had a talent for the sport and at 17 years old Marginus was champion in the youth competition and through the years he always stayed up with the champions. That is except when he was drafted into the army and, like so many others, for a short period after he married Zwaantje. In the early 80s Marginus and Zwaantje went to live in Spier and that is where he restarted with the racing pigeons and he was soon in amongst the winners, in fact success came very quickly, showing that he had not lost any of his talent with the pigeons from those early days.
Marginus' brother-in-law Henk Jager from Gennep introduced Marginus to the brothers Schreuder who were living in Germany in a place called Goch. In those days they had a team of Horemans birds that were practically unbeatable, so 4 young birds eventually moved from Goch to Spier. This was a good move because one of them became the 1983 best bird in the competition WHZB. After this success more birds went to Spier and the success continued. Marginus won several championships in the Middle Drente and former Department F. Then things started to go wrong and a disease struck and the result was a short period in the hospital so Marginus decided to sell all his birds at the end of the 80s. Of course that wasn't easy because as they say, blood is thicker than water and once infected with the fancier-virus it did not take long before a restart in the sport came about.
The loft set-up
Ambitious as he is, Marginus made the decision to go to two champion fanciers to get the best birds to suit his needs. Cees Suijkerbuijk from Eefde and Tonnie van Dam from Hattem were the fanciers he chose to visit and obtain his stock from. With talent, effort and good birds it went very well and just two years later Marginus was crowned champion of the section and up until now he is still the man to beat. This is a case of if you have got it with the pigeons then winning comes relatively easily.
The current team housed in these lofts are based on those from Tonnie van Dam from Hattem, W. A. de Bruin through H. H. Oving Bijter x Visje from Comb de Vries in Klazienaveen, Marcel Sangers through Tom Klomp from Emmer-Compascuum, Adri van Rhee through Martin Trompetter from Staphorst from the lines Wondere Dirk and Gaby Vandenabeele through Anton Ruitenberg, plus the pigeons of Jan van der Pasch x Marijke Vink through Van der Pol from Amersfoort and pf Geert Munnik from Noordbroek and birds direct from Gerard Koopman out of Abelle and also through H.H. Oving a grandson of the famous Beatrixdoffer. The genes of this bird are to be found in most of the present pigeons in the lofts of Marginus and take note, he has not gone after a well known name but a selection of good fanciers. This is how you build a good team of pigeons.
He is a super pigeon fancier being a golden duif winner and you have to be a superstar of the sprint middle distance to win the golden duif. He has recorded fantastic results against thousands of pigeons. He has won many classifications such as general champion, provincial champion, winning 13 combine races in the last 3 years with his champions and of course the golden duif winner of the Netherlands with his champion "Olympic Leon" winner of the 1st Hasselt 10,276 birds, 1st Boxtel 7,651, 2nd Pommeroeul 12,126 birds, 3rd Pommeroeul 9,727, 10th Boxtel 9,209 birds, 18th Lessines 18,253, 4th Duffel 1,399 a real champion.
Leon is not the only champion at Oostenbrink’s. Just study these pigeons and note the birdage they are competing against. Cindy NL061618860 - 2nd National ace pigeon W.H.Z.B won 1st Genned 14,889 birds, 1st Boxtel 9,209 birds, 1st Gennep 1,944 birds, 1st Lommel 1,841 birds, 3rd Duffel 1,514 birds, 5th Heteren 1,121 birds, 7th Boxtel 1,307 birds, 9th Hasselt 10,410 birds, 3rd Pommerouel 1,149 birds. Anouke NL061618857 - 1st Lessines 18,253 birds, 13th Zuiphen 15,365 birds, 13th Menen 12,246, 4th Nijvel 2,651, 6th Duffel 1,514, 7th Orleans 1,214, 9th Ablis 1,125 birds. Champions 2013: 2nd Short distance not nominated section 5 (85 members). 1st Middle distance not nominated section 5. 1st Middle distance Ace pigeon NL 10-1133774. 1st Middle distance not nominated department 10 (1750 members). 4th Middle distance nominated department 10. 3rd Middle distance Ace pigeon NL 10-1133774. 2nd Middle distance national NPO (23,000 members). Champions 2014: 7th Short distance not nominated section 5 (85 members). 13th Short distance nominated section 5. 1st Middle distance not nominated section 5. 2nd Middle distance nominated section 5. 3rd Middle distance Ace pigeon NL 09-1694516. 2nd Long distance not nominated section 5. 2nd Long distance nominated section 5. 2nd Young birds not nominated section 5. 10th Young birds nominated section 5. 7th Young birds Ace pigeon section 5 NL 14-1481678. 1st Natour not nominated section 5. 1st Natour nominated section 5. 1st 10 Ace pigeons Natour section 5 (The Best = NL 10-1133774). 2nd Overall Short general championship not nominated section 5. 3rd Overall Short general championship nominated section 5. 4th Overall Short Ace pigeon NL 12-1099431. 6th Overall Long general championship not nominated section 5. 5th Overall Long general championship nominated section 5. 2nd Middle distance not nominated department 10 (1750 members). 10th Middle distance nominated department 10. 9th Young birds not nominated department 10. 2nd Natour not nominated department 10. 2nd Natour nominated department 10. 1st, 5th, 9th, 10th, 11th & 15th Natour Ace pigeon (The best = NL 1133774). 5th Overall Short not nominated general championship department 10. 6th Overall Long not nominated general championship department 10. 11th Long distance national NPO (22,000 members). 14th Best loft middle distance National NPO (22,000 members).
As you can see, the loft is a winning one and I was tempted to go back a few more years but space does not always allow and we don’t want to overpower the page with too many results.
---