ANDRE DEREERE
A SMALL TEAM MARATHONIST
by Liam O Comain
I'll return to the 70s of the 20th century to provide an insight into a family of our thoroughbreds who were the athletes of the Barcelona route into Belgium. A pigeoner who kept few birds but whose pigeon husbandry shone like a star in the darkness. His name - Andre Dereere of Oostduinkerke, in Belgium.
Our subject participated in the shorter distances prior to 1970 but in about 1971 he decided to concentrate on the long and marathon distances. Then, via his decision to specialize, the lofts in 1975 won 3rd International Barcelona at a distance of 650 miles against a convoy of 8,300. Of course long distance must have been in his blood for at the tender age of 12 years living in Ostend Andre had timed from Barcelona. However the 2nd World War arrived and most of his birds were killed except for a few hidden by his brother. The latter were of the Van der Espts strain, of which our subject was particularly fond. It was not until 1965 when he and his wife retired to Oostduinkerke that there was a return to the sport.
Upon his return Dereere bought some Van der Espt mainly from M. Vandevelde and in due course brought in other strains and families such as Delbar and Bertels Janssens. However the backbone of the Dereere's were the Van der Espt's. They were mostly blue bar, chequer and silver in colour of medium size and well muscled. In fact the colony was built upon a Van der Espt cock bird named De Vale Asduif Vooruit - a prepotent sire with a powerful violet eyesign.
The Dereeres had many successes inspite of the poor health of our subject who had experienced a heart attack where he had retired too. This did not prevent a dedicated pigeoner from conquering the heights of Barcelona with a few birds. To name a few the Silver 076 who was 3rd International Barcelona, the Blue Barcelona who scored from the Spanish racepoint 5 times. And others such as De Vooruit and the Klein Vaal Barcelona who conquered other racepoints and the marathon of all marathons in their stride. And again I emphasize a specialist with a small number of racing pigeons.
Dereere did not over race his young birds for he was dedicated to shaping them into Barcelona candidates and winners. The yearlings also did not have a hard time of it but the old cocks had a tough programme. Our subject treated every bird as an individual because he was a small team flyer against the mobsters of the sport. A pigeoner who loved his pigeons and who cared for them for he knew from experience that they would respond in return. Incidentally, in conclusion, a compatriot namely W.V. Troughton raced the Dereeres and won the Irish National from Nantes in France into the north of Ireland.
10/11/06 10/11/06
