The month of March saw a five man delegation from the National Flying Club committee
go to Belgium, for talks with the Entente Belge, concerning this season’s Dax
International race. The club secretary, Sid Barkel, the president, Bill Harris, Ken Hanby,
John Tyerman and my self met up at Dover docks and we took Bill’s car over the
English Channel on the Seacat Hovercraft. The sea crossing is only 40 minutes to Calais
and poor ol’ Sid Barkel spent most of that time on the back deck, being sea sick over
the side of the ship. The weather was brilliant for the whole duration of the weekend and
after a two hour drive from the French ferry port, we arrived at the Lodewijk Van Male
hotel in Brugge, where we were to met the secretary of the Entente Belge, Yvan Eeckhout,
on the Sunday. On our arrival at the hotel, there were three people sitting in the
reception area and they turned out to be three Belgium pigeon fanciers, there arranging
the Euro Diamond Pigeon club prize presentation, to be staged at the hotel the following
day. One of the fanciers was the Belgium champion, Frans Van Wildemeersch, and he is the
president of the Euro Diamond Pigeon club. Frans, a retired teacher, has recently moved
house and now lives on the coast, and in our chat he told me that his great champion
‘Kleine Bliksem’, had died of old age.
On the Sunday morning we managed to grab a couple of hours, to look around Brugge,
before meeting up with Yvan Eeckhout and I must say, it is a wonderful old city, with lots
of carracter. The main features of Brugge for me were the ‘olde worlde’ town
square, with it’s horse drawn carrages and the old cannel network, with it’s
wonderful old barges. In the city of Brugge, a head strong white fantail kept flying off
the buildings into the street to feed and stopped the traffic several times. This brave
little fellow just walked out in front of the moving cars and stopped them, dead. I think
he must be in that big Dove cote in the sky, by now!
On our return to the hotel, we met up with Yvan Eeckhout and had a ‘ brass
tacks’ meeting, about our 2003 Dax International race. Yvan has been in racing
pigeons for over 30 years and is a great worker for the sport in Belgium, being the
secretary of the International Entente Belge for eight years. He and his wife, Bridgit,
live in a town called, Ronson, just north of Brugge and they race their pigeons in
partnership, and Yvan told me that his wife is the worker with the birds. Their home is
very big and the pigeons are kept in the top half of the house. They race 56 cocks,
including yearlings, on the widowhood system and are only interested in long distance
pigon racing. The main family kept are Cattrysse and in the 2002 season won 5th.
open International Perpignan (900 km.). Yvan informed me that the International races are
made up with pigeons from, Holland, France, Germany, Luxenburgh, Belgium and England.
The meeting was very productive and here are a few facts that came from it, concerning
the Dax International race, which will be flown on Saturday 12th. July. An
extra race sheet for the International has to be filled in and these are self carbonated,
and will be given out at the marking stations. The Entente Belge are charging the N.F.C.
£2 – 10p per bird, plus an extra 15p for entry into the hens race and this will all
be included in the birdage price to the N.F.C. members, which will be £8 –00 per
bird. The hours of darkness in the 2002 Dax International race were 21.52h to 04.15h on
the Saturday, 21.51h to 04.16h on the Sunday, 21.50h to 04.17h on the Monday and so on.
These are English times, with the continent being one hour in front and Yvan tells me
these times will be slightly different in this year’s event. The birds will be
transported by rail and there will be one convoyer for every carrage. The birds will be
going in wicker baskets, 20 birds in each, and these are stacked in the railway carrages,
‘brick work’ fashioned, with spaces in between for good ventilation. The carrage
doors can be slightly opened for extra air flow around the baskets. On their arrival in
Belgium, the N.F.C. pigeons, will not be re-rubbered, but will be transferred into the
Entente Belge baskets. The N.F.C. birds will have no new markings in Belgium, what so
ever, including wing stamps. The birds leave Belgium at lunch time on the Thursday, then
other pigeons are added to the convoy at Lille in France and arrive at the Dax liberation
site on the Friday afternoon. The birds have water in front of them for the whole time up
to liberation and are fed on Maize. The Entente Belge has excellent race controllers, with
first class ‘on liners’ right up through the race course and we were assured
that every consideration will be given to the English channel, and the N.F.C. pigeons
crossing it. Ken Hanby asked about liberation times, fearing that the birds might go up
late, but Yvan told us, 07.00h, English time was the cut off point and liberation would
not take place after this time. The convoyers at Dax will be looking to let go as early as
conditions will allow on the day. We were told that, in the International races there is
no breaking point and are flown to true distance, the race point to the loft. The winners
are not given diploma prize cards, but the Entente Belge awards the International winner a
special trophy and the N.F.C. winner, and best English hen will both be given a trophy, as
will all the different countries winner’s in the International race. The race results
are printed up in book form and can be purchased for approx. £2 – 00 each, but this
is not a compulsory purchase by the members. I asked, Yvan Eeckhout, if there was any
prize money and his reply was, depending on the birdage, the Entente Belge would hope to
give the N.F.C., £200 – 00 for 1st. open National, £150 – 00 for 2nd.
open and £100 –00 for the 3rd. open winner in the U.K. The International
will be giving the N.F.C. a 25 Belgium franks rebate, meaning if our National sends 1,000
pigeons to Dax, the club would be refunded £500 – 00, which could help out with
ferry costs for the race. The Entente Belge will pay all the convoyers for the race, at
8,000 Belgium franks per man and they will also give every convoyer a return train ticket,
from Dax to Lille, to get them home. On behalf of the National Flying Club, I would like
to thank, Yvan Eeckhout, for giving up his time and coming to Brugge, to answer our
questions. It was very good of him. Taking every thing into account, it looks like we are
in for a brilliant race!
While we were in Belgium, we were very kindly invited to the Euro Diamond Pigeon prize
presentation and I will be doing a full report on this glittering event at a later date.
Any N.F.C. news can be given to me on Telephone: 01372 463480 or Email Address: keithmott@btopenworld.com
