The Roose & Pyra combination has been one of our sport's top names for quite a few years now. Many fanciers would not even dream of getting such impressive overall results, but it has become the order of the day for this team from Bekegem, West Flanders.
Noel Roose and Roger Pyra are part of a combination that has found the key to success: they have dominated the field almost on a weekly basis, and for many years in a row now. The two neighbours have quite a few championship titles on their palmares, and they were impossible to ignore in the 2020 KBDB championships as well. They claimed the following provincial titles: 1° Prov. champion KBDB shorter middle distance olds + yearlings, 2° Prov. champion KBDB shorter middle distance YBs, 4° Prov. champion KBDB All-Round YBs, 5° Prov. champion KBDB All-Round olds + yearlings, 6° Prov. champion KBDB long distance YBs, 8° Prov. champion KBDB longer middle distance olds, 16° Prov. champion KBDB sprint YBs, etc. And this in turn resulted in a title of 3rd General Provincial Champion KBDB 2020. As such, Noel and Roger finished on the podium in West Flanders for the 5th time in 6 years. The combination was one of the top performers at national level as well, as 10° National ace pigeon KBDB shorter middle distance long distance YLs and 18° National champion KBDB longer middle distance young birds.
Some of the team's most important members
The main reason why the Roose-Pyra combination has been such a success story is the fact they have some truly fantastic pigeons in their ranks. Some of these pigeons are clearly in a league of their own, and we start to understand why some of their opponents are almost about to give up.
We start off with Den Dirk (BE16-3023702), a terrific racing bird and 1st Provincial ace pigeon KBDB All-Round in 2018. He has an impressive 10 victories to his name, including a 1° Prov. Chateaudun of 1,255 p., a 1° Clermont 573 p., 1° Fontenay 565 p., 1° Chateauroux 350 p., etc. Den Dirk is a son of De Wouwer (BE-6048751), a Gaston Van de Wouwer descendant from the line of the world famous Kaasboer.
The aforementioned De Wouwer (BE15-6048751) is an exceptional stock breeder. He is the sire of Den Dirk and of many other strong racing birds, and we reckon most pigeons would not even come close to his breeding potential. As his name suggests, he comes from Gaston Van de Wouwer from Berlaar. This pigeon was involved in a joint breeding project with Decru-Devriendt for a number of years, and the results were great. De Wouwer bred the highly talented Den Dirk, but he bred several other successful descendants too, including De Wouwer 028 (BE17-3001028). This 028 has an impressive palmares in the middle distance: Fontenay 1/266 p., Chateaudun 1/298 p., Fontenay 2/565 p., Tours 3/317 p. (5° Prov. of 2,669 p.), Clermont 6/608 p., Fontenay 8/559 p., Fontenay 7/869 p., etc.
National success despite their location
The Roose-Pyra combination does have an exceptional team of super class pigeons, and they benefit from their strength in numbers: they have a wide range of top quality strains. This is what makes this combination such a feared opponent. They had some tremendous results at national level as well, despite the unfavourable location of their pigeon lofts. One of the birds that really stood out was Senne (BE15-3018916), a fantastic athlete and winner of a 4° national of 29,580 pigeons in Chateauroux. He finished in second place at provincial level of 5,614 pigeons, while claiming victory at club level against more than 400 pigeons. The race from Argenton was right up his alley, and he claimed a 1° provincial of 1,871 pigeons, as well as a 1/876 p. in Zone West. Senne has been very successful in shorter distances as well, winning for instance a 2/385 p., 6/844 p. etc. in Pontoise at provincial level, as well as a 2/245 p. in Clermont and for instance a 4/528 p. in Fontenay. That is what makes him a genuine Roose-Pyra pigeon: he is among the early finishers in every single race.
The list of top quality pigeons of Roose-Pyra goes on and on. If your pigeons know how to win ace pigeon titles in major competitions, you can rest assured that your breed has what it takes to dominate the field. A good example would be Noel and Roger's Provincial Ace 915 (BE15-3018915). This full brother of Senne, a black and white racing bird, won a title of 1° Provincial ace pigeon KBDB shorter middle distance olds + yearlings in 2016, followed by a 5th Prov. ace pigeon in the same category. His palmares includes victories from Chateaudun, Tours and Fontenay, which goes to show that Provincial Ace 915 knows how to make it back home as quickly as possible. He is related to the pigeon breed of Eric Honore from Snellegem. His "black" strain has been very successful both at home and abroad.
We also really wanted to include the bloodline of De Bever (BE10-3099870) in this brief overview. One of the descendants of this strain is Grote Bever (BE15-3018960), another racing bird that is notoriously tough to beat when he is in top form. He was 2° Provincial ace pigeon KBDB already as a young bird, and he continued to deliver as a one year old, taking his place among the best pigeons in the province in the All-round category.
Dominant display with the help of an exceptional group of breeders
For the past several years, Roose-Pyra has been synonymous with dominant display. And that is in large part thanks to the Kaasboer bloodline of Gaston Van de Wouwer; their 'Wouwer' bloodline stands for top class breeding and racing birds. Meanwhile, Noel and Roger have continued to look for additional reinforcements to try and raise the bar further. Their most important pigeons are related to such names like Cor Leijtens, Koen Van Roy, Marcel Sangers and others. These pigeons, combined with the winning mentality and the strict selection strategy in Bekegem have led to the creation of a pigeon family that has pretty much gotten used to their spectacular overall results and their many championship titles.