Peter van de Merwe, his daughter Gwen and his father Arie
Total widowhood
Peter van de Merwe has had another outstanding season in the teletext races of district 5 in South Holland, thanks to his old birds raced on total widowhood. When the pigeons arrive at the loft they are free to do what they feel like. Most pigeons are placed in their breeding boxes with their partners when they come home. The young birds complete four to five races and the cocks and hens are allowed to sit together in the loft. They are separated later on. These young birds have to complete approximately 8 training flights over 2.5 to 30km before starting the season. These training flights are repeated once every week in the early season, before training the young birds have to stay in the basket for two consecutive nights. The old birds are not taken away for training flights during the season at all. Pigeon racing is a family matter in Dordrecht. The pigeons are awaited by Peter, together with his father, his mother, his daughter, and sometimes his wife as well. Great results have been achieved throughout 2013, including a wonderful result from Chateaudun, with all 27 basketed pigeons winning a top prize. This was their overall result from Chateaudun on 25 May:
25/5 Chateaudun 478 km 11,572 p. 1-5-6-18-24-44-81-119-131-159 (27/27)
This is a complete overview of the top 10 results achieved in the 2013 teletext races:
11/5 Nanteuil 326 km 17,786 p. Dist. 5 Rayon East 6 18/5 Meaux 342 km 12,420 p. Dist. 5 Rayon East 6 25/5 Chateaudun 478 km 11,572 p. Dist. 5 and 12 1-5-6 01/6 Sens 413 km 28,413 p. Dist. 5 and 12 1 08/6 Bourges 549 km 7,586 p. Dist. 5 South Holland 3 03/8 Ruffec 722 km 3,839 p. Dist. 5 South Holland 4-7 10/8 Morlincourt 275 km 8,625 p. Dist. 5 Rayon Oost 6-8-9–10 (8th = Gwen) 01/9 Troyes 392 km 13,538 p. NPO Nat. Sector 2 2–4–9 (2nd = Gwen)
Click here for a list of achievements of 2013.
Peter took the victory from Chateaudun with NL10-3053556 Gertje, which is a direct hen of Gert Jan Beute bred from Vechtmachine x Jia Li. He won a second first prize in the race from Sens only one week later, this time with his widowhood hen Jaqueline NL11-1744298. She was the fastest of 28,413 pigeons. The sire of Jaqueline is NL09-1186084 (G & S Verkerk) paired to NL09-1405263, a hen of H. van Venrooij.
Gertje 1st Chateaudun 11,572 p. and Jaqueline 1st Sens 28,413 p.
Click here for the pedigree of Gertje
Click here to see the pedigree of Jaqueline
National success
Peter has quite a few pigeons in the preliminary rankings of the national championships as well. Peter’s eleven year old daughter Gwen has won a 6th prize in the national loft championship sprint 2013 and she is actively involved in the loft. She helps her father when basketing the pigeons and she joins him when he brings the pigeons to the club.
The NL12-1620162 is a new champion in Peter’s loft. She is a widowhood hen as well and she has won a preliminary 9th place in the National Pigeon Championship Sprint. We give you the results in rayon B Entente Drechtsteden for the races that counted for the national championship:
27/4 Pommeroeul 2nd 2,157 p. 04/5 Peronne 12th 2,280 p. 25/5 Peronne 3rd 1,566 p. 08/6 Peronne 11th 1,142 p.
The sire of this hen is the NL04-2057630 Broer Jaimy, which is a proven breeder as the sire of the 1st Provincial Peronne 40,972 p, 2nd NPO Troyes 14,723 p, 3rd National NPO Sezanne 21,720 p. and now a 9th national ace pigeon sprint 2013. The dam is the NL10-1707426 Halfzus Joy. Joy has won a first National Ablis against 15,871 pigeons. Click here for the pedigree of NL12-1620162.
Young birds
Any fancier would be scared if a construction crane were to be deployed near the loft in the middle of the season. That is what happened with Peter’s loft, whose neighbour had started building a warehouse shortly after one of the first training flights for young birds. Peter is a skilled fancier and he came up with a solution. He started training the young birds whenever the crane was not in use and this method allowed his young birds to perform very well. His daughter Gwen only just missed the first prize in sector 2 in the national race from Troyes. Her pigeon was a mere three seconds slower than the winner, Kees Bosua. The second prize was won by NL13-1241764 and this blue coloured cock is a brother of the 9th national pigeon champion sprint! Click here for the pedigree of NL13-1241764.
The stars of 2012
2012 had been a successful teletext season as well, with three first teletext prizes.
Peters mooiste overwinningen in 2012
Tessa
It would be impossible to include all of Peter’s champions but the NL10-1689222 deserves a mention as the winner of 7 top 100 places in the NPO competition. This is her list of achievements:
3rd NPO Bourges 9,898 p. 11th NPO Chateaudun 9,612 p. 18th NPO Argenton 7,584 p. 62nd NPO Mantes L.Jolie 16,897 p. 77th NPO Argenton 7,796 p. 89th NPO Bourges 13,592 p. 92nd NPO Orléans 5,503 p.
This is another hen raced on widowhood, bred from pigeons of the great champion Ad Schaerlaeckens. The sire is NL07-1823681 and the dam is NL07-1823683. They are both grandchildren of Second Ace, Goed boekckxje, Ace four and Cyriel-duivin.
References
We conclude by giving you the full list of references of Peter’s pigeon family. This list illustrates the impressive quality of his pigeon collection, which is breathtaking. You can open the list by clicking here.
The fancier from Noordenwijk in Dordrecht races at a very high level and he has full support from his father, his mother and his family. It must be great to be awaiting the pigeons together every Saturday. We are curious about this loft in the 2014 season.