When Marcel became a member of the club PV De Snelvliegers in Oostburg in 1971, one of the best fanciers in that club at the time was forced by circumstances to quit pigeon sport. Marcel grabbed the golden opportunity and took over the total loft with 14 pairs of pigeons. These pigeons descended mostly from the late Jan van Gijs from Breskens (2 x winner Nat. Orleans). Jan van Gijs build up his colony with the great Janssen Arendonk pigeons and he was extremely successful with the lines of ‘Geeloger 67’, ‘Oude Merckx 67’,  ‘Raket 73’, ‘Dikken Blauwen’, ‘Daughter Halve Fabry’, etc. These birds that performed superbly and really go well with Marcel’s philosophies, ensured the Janssen bird to always stay at the origin of his colony.

In 1976 a first visit to Jan van Gijs followed, with some purchases right away. A strong friendship arose and until the day Jan van Gijs died in 1986, Marcel acquired about forty pigeons of him (the best one was 86-1160169 ‘Mooi Licht’, daughter of foundation bird ‘754’), from all the legendary breeders and racers. Also single birds from Jef Schelfhaut, De Klinge and Marcel v.d. Sijpe, Gent (Horemans) were of influence to the forming of the strain in the seventies.

Next to this base several Janssen pigeons were purchased from top performing fanciers. On the breeding loft a/o the following pigeons can be found: a grandson to ‘Velo’, a grandson and a granddaughter to ‘Oude Witoger 65’, two grandchildren ‘Rakkertje’, three grandchildren to ‘Jonge Merckx’, a grandson to ‘Schouwman’, a grandson to ‘Geeloger v 67’, a grandson to ‘Raket v. 73’, a grandson to ‘019’ (87-2540835 ‘De Witpen’). Furthermore ‘Rode Vos’ direct from Albert vd Flaes, a granddaughter to ‘64’ and to 2^nd acebird Midebo Fed. of T. van Herpen, Den Bosch, a grandson and a granddaughter and some very fine inbred cockbirds from ‘Koppel 17’ Pieterse-van Es. Besides the breeding loft was also populated with some grandchildren to ‘46 Verbart’ (best one was a daughter to ‘Wandelaar’) through Krouwel-Pollman. In 1993 a few direct pigeon from the De Wit brothers, Koudekerk ad Rijn were entered. Especially from the line of their stock pigeon ‘Oude Klak 29’.

The pigeon colony got a very important quality injection as Marcel purchased his first two pigeons directly at the late Jos van Limpt ‘De Klak’ from Reusel. One of these two cockbirds is NL91-2660569 ‘Kleine Blauwe’, he grew out to become a sensational foundation bird. With ‘De Klak’ too Marcel always had a close relationship and from him about 46 pigeons were purchased until 2003. Therefore all the best lines of ‘De Klak’ are represented in the colony, like a/o from ‘De Knook’, ‘Blauw 85 duif’, from brothers and sisters and children to ‘613’, from grandchildren to ‘Marietje’, from the ‘Blauwe 63’, etc. At the moment direct youngsters from all the Klak legends, that stood the iron laws of a heavy selection procedure, are present at the breeding loft. From them many are kept pure, so bred from two originals. The other ones are mostly crossed with the line of ‘Witpen’ (grandson ‘019’, Janssen) and ‘Mooi Licht’ (line ‘Geeloger 67’ x ‘Oude Merckx 67’). The direct pigeons from ‘De Klak’ that were purchased in 2002 and 2003, were placed on the breeding loft straight away to ensure the future.

Here below a small description of some foundation birds:

Photos: Peter van Raamsdonk
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