Falco and Willy Ebben
The Ebben combination consists of Falco (41) and his uncle Willy (67). Falco works as a pigeon photographer (he is the owner of Pigeon Pixels), creates pigeon movies and he is also one of the organisers of the One Day Long Distance Fondspiegel competition. Willy is now in retirement. The two have been racing together as W&F Ebben since 2001, with a home base in Willy's loft in Beneden Leeuwen. This has been a successful project from day one, with the team winning a total of seven first prizes NPO so far:
1st, 2nd NPO La Ferte Bernard 5,503 p. in 2004 1st NPO Freiburg 3,790 p. in 2007 1st, 2nd NPO Morlincourt 16,971 p. in 2008 1st NPO Châteaudun 9,959 p. in 2009 1st Nat Blois Afd 8/GOU 7,917 p. in 2009 1st NPO Blois 3,581 p. in 2012 1st NPO Orléans 4,000 p. in 2013
The W&F Ebben racing lofts in Beneden Leeuwen
Due to the team having a limited amount of space, they agreed to keep a team of young birds in Boven Leeuwen in Falco's lofts. This team of the Ebben Combination is raced under the name of their two sons Linus and Kerwin. This approach allows them to keep 12 pairs of old birds and 20 young birds under the name of W&F Ebben, while an additional team of 30 young birds and 12 breeding pairs is kept in Falco's loft, which is raced as the Ebben Combination. The best young birds are transferred from Boven Leeuwen to beneden Leeuwen every year (which are about 1km apart). They have been on excellent terms with Ad Schaerlaeckens (Baarle-Nassau, NL) since 1998, and their current team of breeders is largely based on the pigeon family of this grandmaster.
The racing lofts of the Ebben combination in Boven Leeuwen
The Ebben Combination has been particularly successful with their young birds in recent years; they claimed the following championship titles in 2016 alone:
2nd National loft champion NPO not nominated young birds 2nd Golden Pigeon Sprint June-July 5th National loft champion NPO nominated YBs 5th National pigeon PIPA ranking sprint YBs 7th National Ace Pigeon YBs WHZB/TBOTB. 1st Nominated Province 8/GOU YBs 5th Not nominated Province 8/GOU YBs 2nd Pigeon Champion Province 8/GOU YBs 1st, 2nd and 3rd NPO Laon 5,836 pigeons
2017 was another great racing season as well, as you can tell from the following results:
Geel 90 km 720 p.: 9-12-13-14-17-45-46-48-50-64-65-66-69-etc. (25/32) Tienen 126 km 4,344 p.: 1-2-36-40-414-143-145-etc. (18/30) Péronne 285 km 2,082 p.: 1-2-3-10-11-17-22-26-29-30-39-etc. (23/28) (3-4-5 Teletext 5,490 p.) Vervins 256 km 3,192 p.: 1-10-11-12-13-16-22-28-30-32-39-etc. (17/18) Creil 365 km 549 p.: 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-etc. (17/18)
All the young birds' results of 2017 of the Ebben Combination can be found here. The results above have enabled them to become 1st Champion Not Nominated YBs in Region 3. We will now take a closer look at the racing birds that won these top prizes.
NL17-1705923 Marnix
Marnix won no less than 10 prizes per 10 on a total of 12 races, making him 1st Ace Pigeon young birds in Region 3, as well as 4th Ace Pigeon young birds in Province 8. Marnix is a son of Edgar x Evolution, a pair that has bred four teletext prize winners together:
3rd NPO Mantes la Jolie 4,029 p. 5th NPO Troyes 6,376 p. 5th NPO Péronne 5,089 p. 10th NPO Blois 4,863 p.
Click here for the full pedigree of Marnix.
NL17-1705936 Madaline
Madeline was 1st Ace Pigeon YBs in the SFG (Super Fondclub GOU). She also became 2nd Ace Pigeon YBs in Region 3, finishing just behind her loft mate Marnix. The sire of Madeline is Icarus, a son of Ad Schaerlaeckens's Wonderduifje. Icarus is the sire of a whole range of successful racing birds, including the winner of a 5th NPO Troyes (5,342 p.) and a 5th NPO St Quentin (12,113 p.). The dam is Hadenna, and she is in turn a daughter of top breeder Cyrus, the sire and grandfather of nine top 10 winners NPO. Click here for the pedigree of Madaline.
NL17-1055946 Maximus
This talented young bird won no less than four prizes per 100 in the natour competition in four weeks' time, resulting in the title of 1st Ace Pigeon Natour in Province 8. His sister, racing hen 945, was quite successful as well, having won 7 prizes 1 per 10:
2nd Creil 549 p. 10th Vervins 3,194 p. 29th Péronne 2,082 p. (and 41st 10,280 p.) 35th Laon 1,542 p. 65th Troyes 1,660 p. 98th Nantueil 1,937 p. 192nd Laon 2,640 p.
The sire of the 945 and 946 is Fidel, and he is the winner of a 33rd Nat. Ace Pigeon TBOTB. The dam is a daughter of the 683 of Ad Schaerlaeckens, which is also the dam of Den Ad of Marcel Wouters (Westmalle, Be). Den Ad became 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon Shorter Middle Distance KBDB 2012 and 1st Olympiad Pigeon Cat. B Nitra 2013. Click here for the full pedigree of Maximus.
NL17-1055979 Mabel
The last pigeon in this list of successful young birds is Mabel. She won 7 prizes per 10, including four prizes per 10 and three prizes per 100. Her best result so far was a 4th NPO of 5,490 pigeons (as the 4th fastest of 10,280 p.). Her sire is a son of Cyrus, one of the cornerstones of this combination. The dam is Indy, which Falco considers to be the team's current stock dam. Click here for Mabel's pedigree.
A small loft with great achievements
That would be a good way to describe this team. They won the title of 2nd National Loft Champion NPO not nominated YBs last year, and they will be finishing high up in this year's national championships young birds as well. Like we said, the best young birds are transferred to the lofts in Beneden Leeuwen in the autumn, and a good example of such a transfer is racing bird Keizer, which won a 1st Feluy against 453 pigeons as a young bird, and proved equally talented as an old bird.
