An under estimated super man
The name is Eddy: Fast Eddy.
There are no areas (provinces) in the whole world that have produced so many illustrious names as the province of Antwerp.
Since pigeon sport exists it has always been like that and it still is.
Think about Louis van Loon, Meulemans, Huyskens van Riel, Janssen Brothers, Hofkens, van Rhijn Kloeck Jos Soontjens in the past and think about Houben, Van Elsacker, Engels, Van Hove Uytterhoeven, Geerts and especially Dirk van Dijck and Geerinckx in more recent years.
Without exception these names owe their fame to outstanding results and not to shrewd publicity.
But' does this mean that these names alone had or have good birds?
Of course it does not.
There are scores of fanciers that were just as good or maybe even better but they are not so famous since their names did not hit the media.
The main reason that their names are not mentioned again and again in the press is that they are or were not 'sellers' and do not care about publicity.
Pedigrees?
Never heard about in most cases!
Pay for publicity?
No way!
The birds must do the talking for these unknown stars.
I want to draw your attention to 2 of these guys that are far under estimated in the pigeon world, to start with Eddy Janssens, or, like he is called in England 'Fast Eddy'.
As it looks now both he and Eddy Grootjans who are both pretty young and do not live far apart are the coming men in Antwerp pigeon sport,
'Fast Eddy' with Maggie Ku Taiwan
EDDY JANSSENS
Eddy (only 40) lives in Zandhoven; a town that was put on the 'International pigeon map' by Dirk van Dijck.
Eddy is a simple hard working bachelor who made his way to the top with little means but much brains.
- No own website.
- No 'love affairs' with the press guys.
- No sexy perfumed pedigrees.
- No brochures or catalogues and' lofts simpler and cheaper than his do not exist; they are not even cleaned because he has no time for that.
They are second hand lofts inhabited by first class fliers.
He won his first Big title back in 1995 when he became 1st Champion youngsters in the Antwerp Union and from then on one super result followed the other.
It was from the beginning of this century that his performances drew my attention.
He became 2nd Over All champion of Union Antwerp East in 2006 but what struck me was that his birds were hard to be beaten from the regional Quievrain races from100 kilometres AND were outstanding as well from the nationals at long distance.
As for the Nationals we are taking about tens of thousands of birds from pigeon country number one still.
FAMILY
What kind of family he has one may wonder?
Eddy did not want to spend fortunes on pigeons, so he had no other choice than to use his brains.
He got the good ones where they were to be found.
Initially the family was built up with birds from local champion Andre Bellens plus a sensational breeding hen from the late Dillen ('Witkop Joske'), a 1996 cock called 'Kerkstoel' and the old short distance strain from Dirk van Dijck.
The off spring of these birds made him a regional champion.
But his good luck was Dirk van Dijck, probably his best friend.
From Dirk he got a brother and a sister of Rambo, a daughter and a son of Bourgesand a brother of Kannibaal.
After he had crossed these birds with his old strain he turned from a star into a super star that won 1st prizes on all levels and was even the man to be beaten in many Nationals.
His basic pair is B-96-6288071 ('Kerkstoel') mated with B-96-6288131.
They became the parents of Miracle birds such as 'Kato','Bart', 'Sister Bart' 'Bart Junior' and so on.
Furthermore 96-071 x 96-131 became grandparents of that wonder hen 'Lore'.
The lofts of Eddy Janssen are simple, his birds are not.
TOP BIRDS
'Kato' 03-6086506.
Direct son of 'Golden Couple' 96-071 x 96-131.
'Kato' won:
- Noyon 975 p ' 1 (young birds)
- Melun 1.606 p ' 1 (young birds).
- In the 4 National races for youngsters (500 to 620 kms) 'Kato' won 4 prizes and 3 of them 1:25 so in the first 4%! There are not many such birds.
'Bart' 97-6393053.
'Bart is a full brother to 'Kato'.
It won no less that 60 prizes at Middle Distance. I wonder if there are more of such pigeons. 60 Prizes at Middle Distance means it was always in time in all kinds of weather conditions.
'Lore' 01-6380442
'Lore' is bred off 'sister Bart' (99-6438824) when mated to Bruno that is a son of brother of Kannibaal Dirk van Dijck.
'Lore' is a real special bird again.
She became 1st Ace Middle Distance in Antwerp Union, so none of all those famous names that compete in this province had a youngster that performed better than 'Lore' in 2001.
But apart from that it won 1st prize Quievrain (appr 120 kms) and ALSO 6thNATIONAL Argenton Long Distance (23,419 youngsters).
But Eddy Janssens has many super birds, Take 'Luna' and her nest brother.
'Luna' and 'Brother Luna'
The father of these stars, simply called 'Father Luna' (05-6337234) is a son of 'Bart' and 'Alida'. 'Alida' (02-6256906) is a granddaughter of 'Kannibaal' (95-005) Dirk van Dijck.
'Luna' won Marne 2,458 p ' 1st, La Souterraine Sint Job 616 p ' 1, ProvincialLa Souterraine 2,313 p ' 3rd and NATIONAL La Souterraine 13,965 p ' 8th.
Her nest brother won National Bourges 9,021 p- 4th.
In a daily magazine the author of an article on Eddy wonders if there are a brother and nest sister in this country that both won in the first 10 National.
'Father Luna' is a brother of 'Bartos', these birds are grandchildren of the basic pair mentioned before.
Bartos was a sensational racer that became 1st Ace pigeon Antwerp Union in 2005 and 2nd Ace pigeon in Antwerp Union in 2006.
Unfortunately it never came back after Eddy had let it out for training. It must have been caught by a hawk.
Also in the mother of Luna and brother is Kannibaal blood through the mutual breeding loft of J Hermans and Miel v d Branden,
OTHERS
The birds that I referred to are only part of Eddy's super team but it would lead to far to mention them all.
The first races in 2008 were hard races every weekend, warm and headwinds, and again Eddy Janssens' birds performed extremely well, since hard weather is what they seem to like.
For them the distance is not relevant and they perform both as young and as old birds.
It is the type of pigeons that any one would want and they are unbelievably pretty birds as well.
IN CONCLUSION
When 2 champions live in the same town they often cannot get along well.
With Dirk van Dijck and Eddy this is different though.
They are friends that both do a lot for the club.
Now half the world is after bloodline Rambo, Kannibaal and Bourges but Eddy got brothers and youngsters of these famous Van Dijck birds before any one had heard their names.
In fact it was Eddy who told Dirk to give his National Ace 96-005 the name of 'Kannibaal'.
It was in the time that Eddy (!) Merckx (what's in a name) stunned the world with his numerous victories as a cyclist,
The nickname of cyclist Merckx was 'Kannibaal' which means 'some one that eats the competitors'.
'Why don't you give your super racer the name of 'Kannibaal' Eddy Janssen advised his friend Dirk and so it happened.
Kannibaal and Dirk van Dijck are world famous.
For insiders Eddy Janssens and Eddy Grootjans that also started the 2008 season sensationally are the coming men.
The secret of Fast Eddy. Very few pigeons but very high quality.