THE LEGEND THAT IS FRANK TASKER
Part 2
by Gareth Watkins
In 1982 Frank was looking for a further cross into his already highly successful family of sprint/middle distance pigeons. The Haelterman pigeons had exceeded Frank’s wildest dreams as both racers and breeders of multiple first prize winners. Nevertheless Frank, on the advice of his friend and mentor Paul Haelterman, decided to introduce a cross of out and out long distance pigeons into his already successful family. These were the Alfons Bauwens family and they started to win out of turn from the off. Frank gifted some of the Bauwens to his good friend the multi National winning Geoff Kirkland and one of these gifts proved to be the sire of Geoff’s “Tony’s Boy” winner of 1st Midland National Angouleme he also sired “Blue Fiesta” the winner of 1st Midlands National Fougeres for the Kirkland loft. Many other fanciers who obtained the Bauwens pigeons from Frank also gained great success with them in hard long distance races. However, Frank’s butchery business meant that time away from the shop on Saturdays - race day, was at a premium as this was traditionally the busiest day of the week for him. As a result he was therefore unable, due to time constraints, to get the best out of the Bauwens pigeons in the races for which they were best suited. They nevertheless played an important role in strengthening the multi talented and super fast Tasker/Haeltermans.
Frank's extensive set-up
By the end of the 1980s, with the business doing well, Frank and Ann decided to make a break from life in Warwickshire and set out on what was to prove to be an abortive move to the Shropshire area. Everything was set for the move to a lovely property with plenty of adjoining land on which to set the range of lofts, with the ultimate aim of competing in middle and long distance National races with both the NFC and the Midlands NFC. However at the last moment Frank and Ann pulled out of the deal due to suddenly finding that several of the boundaries were not correct and several parts of the land did not belong to the vendor. Frank and Ann were left to look for an alternative site for their new home and lofts! After much deliberation they decided to move back to their native county of Lincolnshire on the east coast of England. The move to Croft near Wainfleet, a little village near the seaside resort of Skegness, was undertaken in 1989 and the lofts set up on land to the rear of Frank and Ann’s lovely new home, Oak Bridge House. The house is a large detached property set in the flat Lincolnshire countryside. Surrounded by arable land, it also has dykes that run around the perimeter of the property on which ducks, swans and moorhens can be regularly viewed, an idyllic rural setting. Once again Ann set about bringing the garden into fine order whilst Frank set up the range of lofts on the land adjoining the domestic garden.
Lofts now at Wainfleet
The lofts are extensive as can be seen from the photographs that accompany this report. There are two young bird lofts one of which houses the first round of young birds and a second for the later rounds. Next to these is a 36 ft x 8ft widowhood loft which is sub divided into three 12 ft x 8 ft sections, each housing 12 widowhood cocks. The stock loft is situated on the opposite side of the paddock facing the widowhood and young bird lofts. This has room for 40 pairs of stock birds with a large aviary to the front for the captive birds to enjoy fresh air, wind, rain and sun. The stock loft also has a small adjoining section in which Frank housed his small team of highly successful widowhood hens until the beginning of this season when they were moved to the loft that was used for the second round young birds. The whole set up is completed with a large quarantine shed come corn and basket store and all set around an ornamental pond with unlimited views over the Lincolnshire countryside.
Widowhood loft at Wainfleet
Once settled in at the new location, Frank was once again looking for some new blood to further strengthen his successful team. This new introduction came in the form of twenty specially selected pigeons from the loft of Andre Dierick of Rumbeke in Belgium. Once again Frank was extremely selective in his choice of fancier from whom to introduce pigeons, as at that time Andre Dierick was one of, if not the most successful middle distance fanciers in West Flanders. Included in the twenty pigeons brought in were direct sons and daughters of such Dierick aces as “Sultan” and “Crack. “Sultan” being 1st Ace pigeon of West Flanders and the “Crack” a winner of a sheaf of outstanding prizes at all levels of competition. These birds, when crossed with the existing family started winning immediately gaining outstanding results at club, Federation and National level. It should also be noted that on their move to Wainfleet the previously successful south road racers were turned 180 degrees to compete on the north road with the ultra competitive Peterborough Federation and the world renowned NRCC.
One of the foundation cocks
With the birds nicely settled, the house and garden adapted to Frank and Ann’s preferences, everything seemed set for a long, healthy and happy retirement doing what they both liked best. Unfortunately in 1992 Frank was diagnosed with throat cancer and a long period of hospitalisation and treatment ensued, with the result that very little racing was undertaken in the years 1992, 1993 and 1994. However as the saying goes, “You cannot keep a good man down”. This is certainly appropriate as far as Frank Tasker is concerned, as in 1995 he was back with a resounding bang, winning out of turn in club and Federation culminating in his first NRCC National win with a little blue hen name “Jennyanna” named after Andre Dierrick’s wife Jenny and Paul Haelterman’s wife Anna. This followed on from Frank’s earlier near miss when finishing 2nd section 2nd Open NRCC in the Berwick young bird race of 1994. Incidentally, this runner up spot was taken by a young chequer cock containing the Dierick Sultan lines crossed with the best of the old tried and tested Haeltermans going right back to the immortal Jonge Korte. This super racer went on to subsequently knotch up 10 x 1sts plus numerous top prizes with birdages of up to 5,000 pigeons.
Prior to his illness , Frank had done some research on the origins of the Dierick family of pigeons and noted that a pigeon named “Oliepot”, bred and raced by Jeff Verheye, the elder brother of the immortal Maurice Verheye, was prominent in the breeding of the Sultan line of the Dierick strain. Further research was to unearth the fact that a fancier named Willy Thas had been a major buyer at Jeff Verheye’s clearance sale. Now Frank has been an avid reader of all the Belgian pigeon journals for many years and he had already noticed the name of Thas on many of the provincial and National results. The next step was to arrange a visit to this elusive Belgian and this was to take place once Frank had been given the “all clear” from his oncologist. Yet again, Frank’s old friend Paul Haelterman was instrumental in arranging the visit to Willy Thas a shoemaker or cobbler as we call them in the UK. Willy at that time did not speak a word of English so Paul Haelterman’s presence was essential in the ensuing discussions. I should mention that Willy is now quite proficient in the English language and is certainly a bit of a character with a wicked sense of humour that makes time spent in his company very enjoyable! It is always good to visit him and his lovely wife Annie as the welcome is second to none. Frank was as impressed with the Thas pigeons as he was with the man himself and soon a select draft of pigeons were on their way from Melle to Wainfleet to add even greater strength to the Tasker team. These included a number from the Thas loft’s top breeder Pokke and two of his best sons, as well as retired top class racers such as the Dommen, Bulte, Favorite and Barney.
Willy Thas [L] and Paul Haelterman
It should be noted that Pokke contained the bloodlines of Paul Santens of Oudenaarde father of the Santens brothers, thus sharing a common ancestry with the foundation birds of the Menke/ Haelterman strain. Little wonder therefore that they should have an immediate impact on the Tasker loft, raising the performances to an even higher level. The winners of 1st NRCC Berwick young birds in 2000; 1st NRCC Dunbar young birds in 2003; 1st NRCC Dunbar in 2006 and 1st NRCC Old Hens 2006 all contain a strong influence of the Thas introductions. Back in Belgium the Thas pigeons were winning not only for Willy but also for many other fanciers who had introduced these bloodlines including Roger Vindevogel whose winner of 1st National Argenton in 1993 from an entry of 32,361 birds, was bred from a direct Thas hen. The reader can now see a common thread developing which links the original Tasker Menke /Haeltermans with the Andre Dierick birds and thence to the Thas pigeons. Top class pigeons with very similar base bloodlines brought together by a world class fancier and moulded on performance into a multi National winning family of all round racers.
Andre Dierick and a montage of all his super racers
And so we move on to 1997 and Frank was once again scouting for another introduction to even further improve his family’s performances. This next introduction came after a visit accompanied by Paul Haelterman to the loft of Maurice and Gregory Casaert of Nechin. Many top lofts on the continent had introduced the Casaert pigeons to good effect and so Frank selected a draft of six young birds to be delivered for 1998 with a further four to follow in 1999. The Casaert pigeons had won 3 x 1st in Belgian Nationals and this to a loft which boasted an old bird race team of just 36 widowers and a stock loft that housed no more than 12 pairs of breeders. The “Bronzen” line of Casaert pigeons has proved most successful when crossed with the existing Tasker family containing the bloodlines of Filmstar, Sultan and Pokke.
Willy Thas and his lovely wife Annie
Further introductions have been made from various sources in the intervening years, not all of which have proved to be successful. Those that have moulded in well with the established family are birds from Alain and Dirk Vanden Driessche which share a similar origin to the Tasker family as they too have a strong influence of the old Haeltermans in their make up. More recently in the autumn of 2005 the De Rauw Sablon bloodlines direct from Marcel Aelbrecht’s prize winning long distance family and also the late Jules Mannaert and later purchased at great expense at Jules clearance sale ,these have shown definite signs of their class as they are already responsible for a National winner into Northern Ireland for Frank’s close friends Paul and Stephen Gregg of Belfast.
This was one of Maurice and Gregory Casaert's top racers and stud cocks and children from him have proved to be top stock birds for Frank.
That then brings us up to the present day in outlining the foundations and further development of the Tasker strain. In the next article I will outline the methods of this master of sprint / middle distance races and give a brief outline of some of the outstanding performances achieved, not only by Frank Tasker himself but also those of many other fanciers who have benefitted greatly by introducing pigeons from this master fancier.
Frank holding Jennyanna and the NRCC trophy for 1st Open
To be continued...
