LONG DISTANCE RACING IN SOUTH AFRICA
Dr Jannie Snyman, Mossel Bay
I certainly cannot claim to know all about this subject as we have a very large country and one knows a limited number of fanciers. We do not have National races simply due to geography and once again you need to live along the coast or very far NW, NORTH or NE to get some distance. Many inland organisations battle to get beyond 600Km due to location or cost factors due to small membership numbers.
There are certainly a number of fanciers who are distance fanatics myself included. We are unfortunately experiencing a few headwinds. The race programmes are mostly short to middle distance with a few races further than 600Km distance and a real distance race above 800Km to 1000Km featuring perhaps once or twice in the programme of most organisations. Almost an afterthought. More of that later.
The second problem is the involvement of the SPCA who obtained a court order stopping a 900Km+ race from Matjiesfontein to Pretoria during October 2014. What boggles the mind is that another race by the same organisation on the same weekend proceeded from Leeu-Gamka which is about 850Km. The finding of the judge that is was across harsh terrain, hot and with little water along the route is certainly true of the second race as well. But the red lights are flashing and we can expect more problems. The fanciers are not blameless as many use this to rid the lofts of useless pigeons, which is unacceptable. And many fanciers fear overnight races as they use the wrong pigeons for it. It however also shows we are way behind UK/Europe in terms of having dedicated long distance organizations; it will be difficult in the country areas but the major centres should have done this a long time ago. I certainly envy my good friends Dave Padfield, Herman van Helmond, Jose and Nic Opsomer and Wim Muller.
There is one organisation in South Africa that has an excellent long distance programme namely the Federated Board of Homing Unions in Cape Town area. They are the largest organisation in South Africa and I personally would love to race with them but I am very far outside their boundries. They have 7 races from 600Km to 1040Km. You can live your dream with that when you have a loft of Padfield, Van Helmond, Opsomer and Wim Muller pigeons like I have and Terry Peart has written a few articles about my own distance achievements.
In the 1930s a Belgian by the name of Frans Putterie emigrated from Antwerpen in Belgium to South Africa. He created a strain from his imported pigeons named after him that simply blew away all opposition in short to long distances races which then were old English strains. This was followed by the Slimme family created by the late Sony Kippen and this family originated from a brother and sister imported from Antwerpen namely “Slimme” and “Boerin”. They were mated and bred phenomenal distance pigeons. The Putterie x Slimme cross made history and many, many RSA lofts still have this blood including my own. My friend, Monty Wheeler, in Pretoria still has a terrific family of these that win those long races. The history of the Putterie family was documented by the late Sony Kippen whilst the Slimme story was documented by the late Jock Duff of East Londen and I was lucky to know him personally. He was a distance fanatic and originated from Scotland. His uncle was none other than the famous Dr Anderson of Scotland.
In the WW2 era the Stassart strain made a huge name for itself especially in the Western Cape with quite harsh conditions during the wet winters. We have to race in winter time as it is simply too hot during summer. Many lofts still have Huyskens-Van Riel pigeons crossed with the above mentioned Putterie/Slimme pigeons and they certainly upped the game. But as time marched on the distance Janssens were introduced and later Jan Aardens. Although the Sun City Million Dollar Race is mostly a short/middle distance affair it affords one the opportunity to occasionally acquire good distance blood at the sales afterwards and I recently acquired via Monty Wheeler blood of the Menne and Tochters loft in Germany they have an outstanding distance record having won a number of International and National races. He by chance bought the cock at a SCMDPR sale and we crossed it with one of my Wim Muller Aardens. There have been many other famous strains used in RSA but in smaller numbers than above mentioned. Examples are Delbar, Cattrysse, Van Bruane, Van den Velde, Imbrecht and a few others.
We therefore have a good spread of our own and other famous strains in South Africa. It is rather worrying that interference or restrictions on this form of racing are increasing. My own opinion is that 1 race lofts are very bad for distance racing. People are seeking instant gratification and are not prepared to put in many years of hard work and take many disappointments along the way. They will never know the joy of the arrival of a true distance champion after thorough preparation and the building of such a family of pigeons over many years.
---
Elimar - February 2014
