“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.
LOFT VISITS IN EUROPE (PART 3.)
Andre Vermote of Ostend, Belgium.
A name that had been at the forefront in the Belgian pigeon fancy in the 1970’s was that of Andre Vermote of Ostend. Andre was born in Ostend and started up in the sport of pigeon racing in 1963 at the age of 18, with 17 youngsters from friends. He joined the Gistel club, but had very little success with his original ‘All Sorts’ pigeons. He then obtained some stock from Mons Vandevelde of Ostend and began his climb to the top rung of the Belgian success ladder. His main successful family all started with his ‘ace’ stock pair, ‘Spreeuwtje’ and ‘De Oude Blauwen’, which were called the ‘Miracle Pair’, being responsible for many champions the world over. ‘De Oude Blauwen’, a blue cock bred in 1964, was a Cattrysse / Deweerdt cross and ‘Spreeuwtje’ was 75 % Van Der Espt blue pied hen bred in 1967. This pair bred many champion racers direct, including ‘De Wringer’, a 1968 bred slate blue cock and winner of many top prizes including 2nd prize Chateauroux in 1970, 1st prize Dourdan and 1st prize National Cahore in 1971. Another great champion closely bred to the ‘Miracle Pair’ was the blue cock, ‘De Atleet’, winner of 2nd Ace Pigeon of Belgium in 1971 and his sire was half-brother to ‘De Wringer’. Andre said that all his top performers in his loft through the years are bred down from the ‘Miracle Pair’. The blue cock, ‘Perpignan’, winner of 1st International Perpignan for the Vermote loft in 1976 was a great grandson of the ‘Miracle Pair’. ‘De Barcelona’ was a son of ‘De Wringer’, whilst ‘De St. Vincent’ and ‘De Sprinter’ were bred from brothers of ‘De Wringer’, all outstanding racers. Andre Vermote said his pigeons did well pure or crossed with other top performing strains.
Andre had a lot of help from his great friend, Emiel Denys, when he started up and the Denys pigeons have crossed well with the Vermote pigeons over the years, producing some first class racers. Emiel Denys paired up the Vermote loft for Andre one year. The Vermote loft was world famous for its countless performances in International and National races through the years including: 1971: 1st National Cahors, 1976: 1st National Perpignan, 1st open International Perpignan, 1981: 1st National Perpignan, 1st open International Perpignan, 1985: 1st National Limoges. In 1999 the Vermote loft won in the Kampion Schappen 1st National Marathon, 1st National Superprestige, 1st National Decathlon plus many other premier positions.
Andre said good loft design should have feeling and fanciers who never visit the prize table have no patience or the wrong strain of pigeons for the job they want them to do. He paired up his 14 pairs of stock birds and 50 pairs of racers in February and bred about 150 youngsters each season. Like most of the Belgian masters he raced on the widowhood system, with the International and National races in mind. Andre maintained his pigeons excel from 200 to 700 miles. He raced the widowhood cocks up to 700 miles, the hens up to 300 miles and the yearlings went through to 400 miles. For training the birds flew out at 06.00hrs and 17.00hrs every day. He liked inbreeding but not too much and liked to cross with another inbred winning family. He liked late breds and said the ‘Miracle Pair’ were late breds and when he selected breeders he liked a nice rich eyesign.
The late Jan Olav Thrana of Norway.
I received a phone call from Ova in Norway to inform me that his brother and my good friend of mine, Jan Olav Thrana had lost his year long fight against cancer and had died in mid-July. I spoke to him only two days before he died and although he sound very weak, he still talked about the love of his life: long distance pigeon racing! He was a good hard working lad, who loved life and would think nothing of making the 2,000 mile drive to the UK to pick up some new long distance stock birds. He was a good singer and was a member of a premier singing troop, and did regular concerts around Norway.
I received a phone call from my good Norwegian friend, Jan, about once a month as he worked on the oil rigs in the North Sea and was away from home, sometimes up to a month at a time. I remember he returned home from two week stint on the rigs and rang me with brilliant news that he was the 2007 Long Distance Champion of Norway. We had a mutual admiration for the wonderful long distance pigeon family created by my late great friend, Eric Cannon of Godalming, and Jan won this award with two Cannon pigeons. He recorded 1st and 2nd Hamburg in Germany, to win the long distance championship, which he had previously won before in 1986. Jan had been waiting for some time, with it being a hard race from Hamburg and had to go to ‘spend a penny’ in his house, and when he returned to the loft the two pigeons had come together, clocking themselves on the ETS. The two birds were only second apart and were 40 minutes in front of the next pigeon in the race. Normally the Norwegian Championship is based a three long distance race average from Owce Aasa (450 miles) and Trond Heim (380 miles), but because of the 2007 ‘bird flu’ restrictions in Norway, it had to be won outright from Hamburg. I think it’s true to say that Jan probably had one of the best lofts of Eric Cannon pigeons in the sport and I for one, was highly delighted that he had secured the 2007 Championship with two of Eric’s pigeons. He had a fantastic stud of Eric Cannon pigeons and won at the premier level with them. Brilliant stuff! The Hamburg winner was a mealy cock grandson of Champion ‘Culmer Gold’ and Eric’s famous stock pigeon, ‘The 19 Cock’. This game cock was sent sitting ten day old eggs and had two 100 mile races on his build up to his Championship win. Second bird on the clock was a blue hen, also sent sitting ten day eggs and she was Champion ‘Culmer Sam’ bloodlines. A wonderful performance!
This Norwegian long distance racer, Jan Olav Thrana, came over to this country just before Christmas 2006 for a week’s holiday visiting friends and pigeon fanciers in the south of England. He stayed with us at Claygate for most of the week and I took him on a couple of pigeon visits, including judging at the Spelthorne Sunday morning open show. I first met Jan in October 2000, when he came over from Norway for two of Eric Cannon’s dispersal sales and he stayed for a week at my home. He bought me over a Danish pigeon paper and it contained a two page article on my ‘rabbit hutch’ loft system and I was amazed where they got the photographs and information from! Jan came over to England a second time with his brother, Ova, and his wife, Sonia, for the Silverstone F1 Grand Prix and they spent a day with us at Claygate to view the loft and pigeons.
Jan lived in Kristiansand on the south tip of Norway and they race pigeons from the north east, but because of the massive hawk problem in that area they have gone more northerly and race from the mountains. Jan told me two of their recent races were from the skiing centre at Hoven, 3,000ft. up in the mountains and they were very successful, with the birds recording very good velocities over the 100 miles races. There are two clubs in Jan’s area of Norway, one at Kristiansand and the other at Arendal in the north and both have no club radius, with some members living 100 miles away. Jan’s club at Kristiansand has a membership of 15 fanciers and they fly a ten race programme each season. There are about 550 pigeon fanciers in Norway and the nearest club to Kristiansand, apart from Arendal, is 100 miles to the west at Bergen and this area hosts the largest number of fanciers in Norway.
Jan said the winters in his area of Norway are to severe and they pair their birds up at the beginning of March, and start racing at Rysstad and the longest race is from Hudijsval in Sweden, about a 420 miles fly to Jan’s loft in southern Norway. The young birds get four races, with the longest being from Dokka (200 miles). Jan raced on the natural system, because he worked on the oil rigs on the North Sea, and the system made it easy for his friend to look after the pigeons while he was away working. Jan liked long distance racing and kept several families to do this job, mainly pigeons obtained from the late Eric Cannon of Wormley. Jan had direct children of all Eric’s champions and at the dispersal sales he purchased several premier pigeons including, ‘The 19 Stock Cock’, ‘Culmer White Flight’ and Champion ‘Culmer Marion’, winner of 1st open N.F.C. Sartilly for the Cannon loft in 1990. He said a direct daughter of Eric’s champion stock cock, ‘Culmer Producer’, had bred well for him, including a hen that was the only bird on the day in the club from Ostersund (430 miles). Jan had recently spent a lot of money at the late Jim Biss dispersal sales and several premier pigeons were imported to his loft in Norway. He had won many premier prizes in long distance events through the years and had had some good success with his Danish family, which he obtained in the mid 1980’s. Jan housed his 50 pairs of old bird racers in a four section, 25ft. loft and bred 150 youngsters every season. The Norwegian fanciers have to breed a lot of babies and have big racing teams, as the losses to Hawks are so heavy. The old birds started training two weeks before the racing started and then they were given one toss during the racing season. He kept 20 pairs of stock birds and the young birds were only normally trained up to 80 miles and not raced. Jan liked hens sitting 12 day old eggs for the long distance events and when he picked out stock birds prefers pigeons to be small to medium in the hand. In Norway most fanciers use the Electronic Clocking System and Jan told me, he was one of the first fancier to obtain the system in his country. There you have it my good friend Jan Olav Thrana, the Norwegian long distance champion! He is great missed!
Well, that it for this week! We will be looking at some more very soon. To view some old video footage of some of these fanciers and their birds go on to my YouTube channel. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters on telephone number: 07535 484584 or email me on:
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
