Loft report on National victory
Below the English version of an article that was published in pigeon magazine De Duif.
Peter Fox from Syndicate Loft England, thanks.
Combination Maegh-AS
1st Provincial Argenton 1,273 old birds
1st National Zone B1 3,383 old birds
It doesn"t happen often that the master is not surprised when one of his pigeons wins a 1st provincial or zonal. But that was really the case on Saturday with the race from Argenton. Ad Schaerlaeckens had predicted the victory to friends, and had even hinted at it on his website.
Afterwards, Roger Goyvaerts emailed him:
'Unbelievable, this achievement on Argenton. And even more unbelievable that you predicted it.'
But let us begin with introducing this combination.
COMBINATION MAEGH-AS
It was in 2006 that Ad Schaerlaeckens placed a round of youngsters with the brothers Victor and Willy Maegh and brother-in-law Roger de Vrij in Rijkevorsel, Belgium. At first the locals laughed about it. Because Dutch pigeons? Weren"t they supposed to be less good than Belgian? But they didn"t laugh for very long. The "ones" of Ad Schaerlaeckens (the rings all started with a 1 instead of a 6), performed really well, and straight away they won the 1st Championship Noyon in Sint Job. The next year they won 1st Champion yearlings. The year after that 1st Champion Middle-Distance. "They raced like comets", said champion Herman Bevers.
But then, disaster struck. Paratyphoid. Almost all of the best pigeons died or were lost. Among these was the 08-682 who, in just a few weeks, won 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th in ZAV against a large number of contestants.
And that these pigeons of Ad Schaerlaeckens in Rijkevorsel were of top quality was proved later. The sister "the 683" would become mother of "Den Ad" of Marcel Wouters (1st National Ace pigeon KBDB).
After this setback, they had to start all over again, and with success.
Already in 2012 they won 1st champion Middle-Distance young pigeons in Union and ZAV, and in 2013 and 2014 they also performed enormously well. This was noticed less because the combination only baskets a small number of pigeons for each race.
FORM
Again this year, the Ad Schaerlaeckens pigeons in Rijkevorsel display tremendous form.
Take last week for instance, 20 June (prizes always won in ZAV):
- Melun against 1,288 young pigeons: 1, 2 and so on with 16 of 19.
- Melun against 706 yearlings: 2nd against 1,130 old pigeons and 7 of 10.
- Gueret National zone against 3,693 pigeons: 15, 26, 57, 269 and 4 of 4. Therefore, all pigeons scored their prize. With the old pigeons it was 2 of 2, both at the top of the early prizes. All of this in just that one day.
Coincidentally (well...), that same day Luc van Mechelen won 1st and 2nd against some 1,700 pigeons with his famous sisters, who had earlier won 1st and 2nd, and also 2nd and 3rd against big entries. These sisters were bred out of a cock from Ad.
In the race from Montlucon the same Luc would go on winning with the 2nd National Montlucon against more than 27,000 pigeons with a pigeon bred out of a hen from Ad.
And that same day Falco Ebben won 1st against 2,600 pigeons, after the week before also having won 1st with a pigeon that he got from Ad as an egg. Besides, this pigeon also won 2nd, 3rd and 4th NPO.
There are not many better pigeons.
And it goes on and on: the day after Karel Boeckx won 1st Quievrain with his "Bas" (Boeckx AS). This pigeon has already won 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 6th and more this year. And as you can guess, also bred out of a cock from Ad Schaerlaeckens.
SO LAST WEEKEND
- Souppes against 1,351 young pigeons: 5 pigeons before the 26th prize, among which 3 of the 4 first nominated.
- Souppes against 546 yearlings: 4, 6, 10, 42 with 5 of 6 and the 2 first nominated before the 10th prize.
- Souppes against 855 old pigeons: 6, 9, 14, 29, 59, 61 and so on, with 9 of 10!
- Argenton National zone: 1 of 3,383 pigeons with 4 of 5.
Provincial also 1st, what a super bird this 006 must be. Andre Roodhooft won the 2nd prize provincial. He lives 12 kilometer closer and clocks 2 minutes later.
A 1st prize with the 50th nominated, Ad and his partners will never win, but their prize percentage is often 90 or 100%.
LINEAGE
Did we refer earlier to fantastic results in the region Antwerp with young out of Ad Schaerlaeckens pigeons, the zonal winner comes out of two new additions. But what additions! The father is the 08-250 from Marcel Wouters. Out of Extreem x mother Leeuw. Which makes him a half-brother of the "Leeuw". The mother is the 11-549, she comes from Rik Hermans out of mother famous Cow Girl x Zoon Di Caprio from Dirk van Dijck. The 250 has already produced several winners, and so has the hen from Rik Hermans.
Take Souppes on the 20 June. The winner against 1,288 pigeons also comes out of the 250 x the hen from Rik. This makes her a sister of the Argenton winner.
The 2nd prize winner comes out of the 09-541, a son of the 250. This 541, who has achieved enormously in the Netherlands, is also the father of an Ace pigeon. The hen from Rik is also mother of the 13-409, the pigeon that in the year of her birth flew from Nevers and Gueret among the first 10 two weeks in a row. Unfortunately, she then lost 15 minutes by sitting outside the loft, and later she was lost.
THE WINNER HIMSELF
And of course, when you don"t want many pigeons, you race the pigeons on total widowhood. This lead pigeon is a cock (summer young) of 2013, which flew Noyon twice as young pigeon. His major prizes, of course without doublings:
Souppes against 840 pigeons - 1
Souppes against 312 pigeons - 1
Argenton National zone against 3,383 pigeons ' 1
Souppes against 264 pigeons - 2
Noyon against 1,079 pigeons - 2
Noyon against 1,026 pigeons - 3
Gueret 2015 National zone against 3,693 pigeons - 26.
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The following long distance race from Chateauroux was won as well. Again only 3 birds were entered.
Imagine that: Two races on a row he beat the armies of Vercammen, Geerinckx, Roodhooft, D v Dijck, Wouters and so on with 3 birds in the race only. The race from Orleans one week later was destroyed as well.
Ad had entered 16 birds. He won again 1st from 748 birds, his sixth bird won 12thprize and no less than 13 birds were on the result sheet.
AND FURTHER?
The winner came for the right person at the right time. Just at the moment that it becomes very difficult for Ad to remain interested in pigeons because of physical trouble, the pigeons show exceptional form.
Ad really wants to thank Willy, Tor and especially Roger. Ad takes care of supplying the pigeons, and they are the coaches in the loft, under Ad"s guidance naturally.
Was there anything else special to report? "Not much", Ad says. "I don"t know much about pigeons, I just pretend I do".
But do you have to know a lot about pigeons when you have pigeons with blood of the "Extreem", the "Leeuw", "Cow Girl", "Di Caprio" and "dochter Kannibaal"?