Auction ends: 18/02/2012 15:00:00 (Dutch time)

The Dutch grandmaster of the long distance races! - Hans Dekkers, Hedikhuizen

The answer after raising the question "Who's the best long distance-racer in the Netherlands" is of course subject to debate. There's little doubt however that the purest evaluation of race results is the 'Fondspiegel' method. All points of the birds on the resultsheet are put together and divided by the number of birds entered in the race. There's no advantage or disadvantage if you send large or small numbers of pigeons to the races, it's the whole day result that counts. Real excellence is then easily unveiled from under the sometimes masked few early birds. From 2005 until 2010 there was a championship of this Fondspiegel, due to bankruptcy of the magazine NPOrgaan no calculations were made in 2011.

Hans Dekkers was in the top ten in all those years (three times first. There was a ranking too from 2006 onwards and it showed that Hans Dekkers was the only fancier who was in the top ten every year in the whole of Holland!

Besides that, the winner from Hedikhuizen also became 5th National long distance champion NPO in 2010 and 2nd in 2011. In the strong competition WHZB he became 9th and 3rd Best fancier respectively in the same two years. He was also superstar of the year - long distance in 2010 and second successor in the competition of the Gouden Duif Nederland.
Then there was the first championship long distance not nominated in the Northern (as a hobbyist against pros as Veenstra and Sangers) and also 3rd nominated.

His track record on Teletext is however mind-blowing! His name was 63 times on the NPO-televisonpages in the past years. Who is able to show such a deck of aces too? The result sheets are truly amazing, pigeon sport like you won't observe on a daily basis.

The strain of Dekkers

The first successful introduction of birds into his loft were those bred in Ulicoten by the late Jos Leuris. Most of his pigeons were of the noble Klak-origin and it made him outstanding in Mid-Brabant with old bird racing. Hans used to work as a laboratory-employee at DSM and saw a wedding card on the board in 1990, announcing the marriage of Hans Zoontjes, (son of Wal) who apparently also worked for the same company and later on that week he went to see him to congratulate him. This first contact developed into a loft visit and also the Zoontjesbirds came to the lofts in Hedikhuizen. Enormous impulses were two acecocks bred by Jo IJpelaar of Loon op Zand, their band numbers being NL95-2217937 and NL95-2217938. Almost every pigeon on Teletext is a descendant of either of them. A foundation solid as a rock was based on the before mentioned pigeons, although Dekkers never rests in his search for better pigeons to enrich his colony. It's obvious that they are hard to find, but recently some pigeons from Berry van de Brand of Boxtel turned out fine (Schaerlaeckens & Bosuabirds).

Traditional widowhood

Twenty-four widowhoodcocks and 60 youngsters, that is all Hans Dekkers works with on the races. Besides that there are 12 breeding pairs and some feeding couples to complete the loft. Hans tried to race widowhood hens in the past, but the results were below average so he decided to return to cocks only. The widowers are paired half January and raise two youngsters and are separated afterwards. Two weeks before the first races they are paired again and after breeding for five days their widowhood period starts. The breeders are paired a month prior to the flyers.
Hans used to apply strict medical schedule, but he quit this method some years ago. His pigeons have just improved their results ever since, and it also saves a great deal of expenses. Nowadays Hans only pays his veterinarian a visit when something's wrong with his birds or when their results hamper. Preventive medicine has been completely cut out of his schedule, even when it comes to canker. The only substance you can discover in his drinkers is garlic.

DreamPigeons

Especially for DreamPigeons, Hans has put together a unique lot of ten performance birds, amongst these are:

• NL05-1590339
  First acebird long distance in Combine and 3rd Provincial Acebird long distance Afdeling 7/Midden Nederland.
• Another selling item is 'Nick'. Ever since he was a youngster he is a regular value of the Dekker's-loft.
  He already became acebird in his first year on the National races in combine and won a.o. a 5th NPO Ablis.
• A very special hen in the auction is NL06-1255474
  She has a 4th NPO Ablis against 7.494 birds on her resultsheet.

Furthermore four children of the basic pair NL01-5154586 'Champion 1' (9th NPO Tours 7.857 birds, 10th NPO Bourges 8.303 birds, 1st Provincial Acebird Afdeling 7) x NL99-5901249 'Strain mother (offspring has delivered 15 times Teletext in four generations):

• One of this quartet of the basic pair is NL07-1996029
  He won 1st Epehy 453 birds, also 2nd Pommeroeul 569 birds and 2nd Breteuil 133 birds.