THE RACING PIGEON AS WE KNOW IT was formed from a variety of fancy pigeons through the innovations of man. What Neil Armstrong did for lunar travel, the strain pioneers did for pigeon racing. Locally, the successes of Corrie Naudé and Chris Prinsloo in the 2008 season separated them from the flock and the mainstream champions.
Corrie and Chris are members of the Alberton Homing Society based in Alberton on the East Rand. The club has had dual status in both the Transvaal Racing Pigeon Federation (TRPF) and Transvaal Homing Union (THU) for the past 14 years. Corrie and Chris take part interchangeably in both arenas of competition. A South African fancier with informed knowledge of the international competition strength said that the Alberton Homing Society should be equated to the Belgian Superstars in pigeon racing. Often, the 50th position in the Alberton Homing Society keep score within the top 100 of the TRPF and the THU.
The society’s superior gene pool leads the entire pack to the East. Your results are not better only because you live in Alberton – you have to own the Little Belgium quality gene pool. The following Little Belgium superstars are listed below in equal merit.
The superstars
In the 1960s and 1970s, nobody’s pigeon could be declared a winner before the late Flippie van Vuuren’s clocking times were read. Already a mainstay in racing was the late Bob Bouwer. Special mention must be made of his son, Roland Bouwer, as an individual champion and later a force in two different partnerships: Johan Schmidt and Bouwer and Paul Pedro and Bouwer. As individuals, Paul Pedro and Johan Schmidt rank among the top accomplished champions. Another force at Little Belgium is multiple title-holder Terrence Connolly.
However, their dominance was well challenged by Dirk Rosslee in the 1980s. Domingo Monteiro then joined the ranks, challenged by Janna Boshoff and Family and Johan Hamilton. Herman Van Rensburg Jnr, currently representing Carnival City Allflights One-day-loft, received the Highest Merit in Sports Award from Absa Bank as the lead trainer of the Sun City Million-Dollar Pigeon Race. Gys Louw won both the TRPF and VPU Point’s Champions League in the same season. Then, an R800 000 shadow called Birdy nested in Alberton announcing the arrival of Mark Kitchenbrand.
The latest addition to this group are Corrie Naudé and Son and Chris Prinsloo. Corrie scored first in the All birds to Count Points Averages and seventh in the Single Bird to Count Points Averages in the Alberton Homing Society on Club Level. He also scored second in the All Birds to Count Points Averages of the THU.
In the TRPF, he won the 2008 Single Birds Points Averages at club level. He also owns the second-best points champion pigeon in the Alberton Homing Society.
He won the South African National Pigeon Organisation All-distance Champion Pigeon award and third-best Middle Distance Champion Pigeon award for the 2008 season with his blue barred cock, 17130-08 TRPF.
Head trainer
Corrie is currently the head trainer of the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race and well known as a Young Bird Specialists champion in South Africa.Since scoring within the top 10% in the points league averages of both the TRPF and THU in the past, Chris Prinsloo became the 2008 Single Bird to Count Points Champion and third All Birds to Count Champion of the Alberton Homing Society. He also owns three of the top six Points Champion pigeons and six within the top 30 in the club (THU). Chris also scored joint second in the Single Bird to Count Points League Averages of the THU.
As a TRPF participant, he scored sixth in the Single Bird to Count and fifth in the All Bird to Count Points Averages on Club Level. He scored second in the Single Bird to Count and seventh in the all bird to Count Points League Champion Averages of the Yearling series in the TRPF.
His pigeons raised close to R330 000 in the Sales and Special Ring races and he had a number of top scores at the annual Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race over the past 12 years. E-mail Thomas Smit at [email protected] or call (011) 680 4778. |fw
