Nico van Noordenne (2nd from the right) in good company
Things have been going really well for Nico van Noordenne and his pigeons. It started with a 1st national from Barcelona, which we won together with his father Laban back in 1987. His father was forced to leave the sport due to bird fancier’s lung, and so Nico had to go on under his own name. It was not quite the end of their success story: Nico started winning several NPO races, and he managed to win the title of 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon middle distance NPO 2004 with Torero NL01-5151021. He then won the national loft championship middle distance 2010, and he continued to win prizes, which eventually resulted in a 9th place in the national loft championship middle distance 2014. In addition, he is also fifth national ace pigeon NPO. Nico has an office job and he takes care of the administration of his brother, who runs two furnishing stores. This means he looks after his pigeons before and after his day time job. In the off season he spends about two hours a day with his pigeons whereas during the racing season he looks after his pigeons more than four hours a day. His loft is still located in the garden of his father, who is there when the pigeons have to be basketed: Nico passes the pigeons through the window and his father puts them in their baskets. They also await the pigeons’ arrivals on Saturday together. Nico is only satisfied with first prizes, and so our overview of this season’s palmares includes only the races in which he managed to take the win. These are the results in province 5 Entente South Holland East Rayon A:
12-04 Asse-Zelik 111 km 2098 p. 1–2–48–63–64–70–etc.(24/53) 17-05 Meaux 347 km 1828 p. 1–12–13–23–24–36–37–40–44–53–etc.(26/46) 31-05 Sens 417 km 1306 p. 1-22–28–44–45–50–etc.(20/34) 14-06 Nanteuil 332 km 841 p. 1–13–20–26–27–49–50–etc.(11/18) 26-07 Nanteuil 332 km 512 p. 1–14–19–20–24–42–47–79–89 (9/10) 23-08 Nanteuil 332 km 1222 p. 1–2–3–5–6–18–27–28–42–43–etc.(28/54) 31-08 Mantes L.J. 383 km 908 p. 1–2–8–9–14–17–19–28–32–33–35–etc.(27/47)
NL01-5151021 1st national ace pigeon middle distance 2004
Torero
Nico’s number one pigeon is NL01-5151021 Torero, a grandson of the renowned pair Porky x Miss Marbella of Kees Bosua (Dordrecht, NL). Click here for the pedigree of Torero. This blue coloured cock won a 1st Hensies 5,373 pigeons in 2003 but he could only complete six sprint races that season due to a wing injury. He appeared fully recovered at the end of the season and rejoined the racing team in 2014, the year in which he won a 1st provincial Pont St. Maxence 24,402 pigeons and the title of 1st national Ace Pigeon middle distance. He was then moved to the breeding loft, where he bred several really successful descendants, including a number of olympiad pigeons. Cou can find an overview of Torero's best results and that of his youngsters and grandchildren here.
Eye catchers of 2014
NL12-1252402 Amazing 402, 5th national Ace Pigeon middle distance 2014
Amazing 402
The NL13-1252402 Amazing 402 was one of the big stars in Nico’s loft in 2014, winning a 5th national ace pigeon title middle distance NPO and a 5th ace pigeon title middle distance in the national WHZB/TBOTB competition. He also took two victories in the entente of South Holland East this season, as well as a first prize from Sens (2,429 pigeons) in June and a first prize from Nanteuil (1,449 p.). He is obviously a born and bred winner. His dam, the NL10-1700776 Amazing Surprise, has won an NPO race from Tours (10,490 p.); the sire is Amazing 402, a son of NL02-5255446 Mr. Blue (1st best cock WHZB 2004) of Pieter Veenstra (Drachtstercompagnie, NL) paired to NL05-5535809 Prima Donna, 1st national Ace Pigeon one day long distance 2007. Click here to take a look at the pedigree of Amazing 402.
Provincial victory
Nico managed to win a provincial first prize in 2014 with NL13-1252379 Brainiac, which claimed victory against 8,045 pigeons in the province of South Holland. His sire NL09-1204107 No Limit has won a 1st provincial Creil 12,243 pigeons. The dam of No Limit is a sister of Torero, which in turn has won a 1st Pont St. Maxence 1901 pigeons. Click here for the pedigree of Brainiac.
Young birds
Nico’s young birds had a great 2014 season as well. They only had a few training flights before the season but they were basketed for the training races in the entente. Nico did not take away his pigeons in between the races either. As the races with two nights in the basket approached, the young birds were in great form. They performed really well in the races from Nanteuil and Mantes La Jolie, winning five teletext prizes. The blue coloured hen NL14-1071877 Double TXT did particularly well:
23-08 Nanteuil 332 km 16,722 p. 8th teletext 31-08 Mantes La Jolie 383 km 12,955 p. 3rd teletext
Double TXT is a daughter of NL08-1559432 Torres, winner of a 1st Pommeroeul 1,816 p. and a 1st Peronne 1,013 p. Torres was bred from Torero. Click here for the full pedigree of Double TXT.
References
The remarkable breeding qualities of Torero have not gone unnoticed: several fanciers from Belgium and abroad have started working with descendants of this amazing breeder, and apparently with great success, as you can tell from our overview.
Olympic Nicole, Olympiad Pigeon Nitra 2013
Olympic Nicole
Olympic Nicole is an exceptional hen. Her dam was bred from a sister of Torero. NL10-1144563 Olympic Nicole was raced by Henri van den Berg (IJsselmuiden, NL) and she was the best Dutch pigeon in category C in the Nitra Olympiad. She won a 4th Geel 10,886 p. and a 5th NPO North Orléans 5,788 pigeons.
Super-As '60' Olympiad Pigeon Nitra 2013 cat. H. for Germany (a granddaughter of Torero)
Super-As '60'
Nico’s 08455-09-60 Super-As '60' attended the 2013 Nitra Olympiad as well; she represented Germany in category H in the sports category; Super As '60' was raced by Frank Schlechtriem (Waldbrol, DE); she is a granddaughter of Torero.
Nico is to represent France in cat. A at the Budapest Olympiad 2015
Nico
The Torero bloodline of Nico van Noordenne will also be represented in the next Olympiad in Budapest in 2015: Martial Maindrelle (Bretteville-sur-Laize, FR) is to represent France in cat. A with F105008-12 Nico, a grandson of Latino, which is in turn a son of Torero.
BE13-9010239 1st national Ace Pigeon yearlings shorter middle distance KBDB 2014
Zodiac
The loft of Vandam-Mirabelle(Quaregnon, BE) took the title of first National Ace Pigeon yearlings shorter middle distance 2014 in Belgium with BE13-9010239 Zodiac, which is a granddaughter of Latina. Latina is in turn a daughter of Torero. The nest brother of Zodiac, Divock, finished in fourth place in that same national ace pigeon championship.
Mark van den Berg (IJsselmuiden, NL)
The brother of Henri took a 14th place in the ace pigeon championship young birds 2014 in the national WHZB/TBOTB competition. This cock won two first prizes in the entente, as well as a fourth place in the NPO race from Troyes (6,376 p.). The sire of this young star is Alonso, another son of Torero.
To conclude
Nico saw his efforts rewarded with a number of impressive results in 2014, which shows he continues to be one of the big names in pigeon racing in The Netherlands. In addition, his Torero bloodline has demonstrated its impressive breeding value in many different lofts. It appears that Nico is the kind of fancier who thinks he is the one to blame if things go wrong, not his pigeons.