Tjeerd and Jouke Elzinga (Harkema, NL)
Meeting the expectations
We happen to have written another report on the Elzinga combination last January, which we ended as follows: "Will 2017 be just as successful for Tjeerd and Jouke Elzinga? We think so. They have an invaluable team of breeders and an outstanding racing team, so the expectations are as high as ever." As it turns out, they have more than met their own expectations. This is clearly a very talented team, with such consistent results every season. Below is their impressive palmares as General Champion Entente 'De Eenheid', which has 300 members:
2013 1st General Champion 2014 1st General Champion 2015 8th General Champion 2016 1st General Champion 2017 1st General Champion
Championships 2017
They won several championship titles again this season; here is an overview of their most prestigious prizes:
1st General not nominated Entente de Eenheid (300 members) 1st General not nominated Rayon de Walden 1st General Lang Entente D Province 11 Friesland 1st Youngsters not nominated Entente de Eenheid 1st Youngsters not nominated Rayon de Walden 1st Jong onaangewezen Samenspel D Afdeling 11 Friesland 2nd General Lang Province 11 Friesland 2nd Youngsters not nominated Province 11 Friesland 2nd One Day Long Distance not nominated Rayon de Walden 2nd Youngsters Friese Fondclub 4th Long Distance not nominated Entente de Eenheid 4th Middle Distance not nominated Entente D Province 11 Friesland 4th One Day Long Distance not nominated Entente D Province 11 Friesland 6th Natour not nominated Entente D Province 11 Friesland 7th National loft champion youngsters One Day Long Distance
Founded on top class pigeons
For a team to perform at such a high level for such a long period of time, it takes a very solid foundation. And the Elzinga combination has such a foundation. Their breeding lofts are home to the type of pigeons that enable them to achieve great results, and we will be taking a closer look at a few of them.
Esmee, Comb. Elzinga (Harkema,NL)
Tjeerd and Jouke owe a lot to their super class pigeon Esmee. She was a very successful racing bird before eventually developing into an exceptional breeding hen. She bred numerous talented racing birds, especially when paired to Harry. We take you back to her racing career, in which she won some outstanding first prizes: Esmee came to the fore in 2014 winning a 1st NPO Province 11 Friesland in the race from Châlons-en-Champagne against 4,269 pigeons. She was the fastest overall of 10,975 pigeons that day. Her palmares includes 17 prizes per 100, and this was enough to become an Olympiad Pigeon for The Netherlands in Budapest, where she represented her country in the allround competition. Her impressive pedigree can be found here. Esmee won the following titles in her short racing career:
2014: 1st Ace Pigeon allround and 19th one day long distance pigeon in the WHZB/TBOTB competition 2014: 1st pigeon champion one day long distance and 2nd Ace Pigeon general long distance in Province 11 Friesland 2014: 2nd National Pigeon Champion one day long distance NPO 2013: 9th ace pigeon allround (5th hen) in the TBOTB competition 2013: 11th yearling allround (9th hen) in the TBOTB competition
After her outstanding racing career Esmee developed into a world class breeder, breeding youngsters and grandchildren that have in turn won numerous first prizes. One of her sons is NL15-1850078, Halliluyah - click here for his pedigree. This invaluable pigeon is the sire of some of the current champions of team Elzinga. Two of his youngsters won for instance a 3rd and 5th NPO Morlincourt against 7,347 pigeons last year.
Halliluyah, zoon van Esmee
Another star in the breeding loft is NL15-864 Blue Harry. He was bred from Harry x Daughter Harry. As you know, Harry is the invaluable pigeon of Jan Hooymans (Kerkdriel, NL), an exceptional racing bird and winner of a 1st Blois of 37,728 p., a 1st Chateauroux of 22,340 p. and a 3rd Chateaudun of 21,520 p. The full pedigree of Blue Harry can be found here. He is the sire of NL17-4289809, winner of a 1st Niergnies this season, and of NL17-4289769, which became 11th Pigeon Champion YBs in the entire province of Friesland this season.
Blue Harry
A different approach with great results
The team started racing a group of young birds in Jouke's new loft this season as well. The pigeons in this loft are raced under the name of Jouke's wife: F. Elzinga. Jouke built a new loft in late March, measuring 16 by 3,50 meters. He kept a few youngsters here just to try out his new accommodation. Jouke told us the pigeons had a hesitant start before coming up to speed in the final three NPO races of the season, for which 12 pigeons were basketed. These pigeons were able to win 28 prizes, and this in turn resulted in the title of 1st National Loft Champion One Day Long Distance Fondspiegel (Cat. 2). Their opponents will know what to expect next season.
Some of the best results of 2017:
We will not bother you with an overview of each top result of 2017 but some of their achievements are really worth a mention:
Niergnies of 5078 young birds: 1-10-12-28-39-48-54-109-etc. (37/21) NPO of 11,597 pigeons: 11-35-39-88-109-128-136-etc. Asse Zellik of 1163 pigeons: 2-3-10-11-28-29-32-46-48-55-57-58-59-69-70-87-94-etc. (30/28) Gennep of 1506 pigeons: 1-11-13-40-41-42-67-70-79-92 (40/28) Gien of 590 pigeons: 1-10-16-25-69 Quievrain of 2679 young birds: 5-6-11-16-35-75-80-113-117-118-etc.(37/27) NPO of 13,332 pigeons: 25-26-32-39-77-153-165-etc. (37/29) The team managed to win 3 top 10 prizes across the five one day long distance races in Province 11 Friesland this season: 8th NPO Sens of 5481 pigeons 590 km 10th NPO Gien of 4830 pigeons 659 km 10th NPO Mantes la Jolie of 4182 pigeons 559 km
Yet another general championship title in 2018?
We extensively discussed the Elzinga Combination's supremacy in the General Championship in this report. Their success story is founded on an invaluable collection of breeders and a selection of top quality bloodlines. On top of that we have Geert and Jouke, who have been working hard for years to make it to the top. We think congratulations are in order here. Will 2018 be yet another great season for them? We hope to tell you more about that next year.