Proud owners, top animals and striking breed products Part 4 Show of the Pajottenlanders in Affligem (Belgium) 20, 21 and 22 November 2009 Text and photos: Sytze de Bruine This is the 25th time that the Pajottenlanders organized their yearly exhibition at the Bellekouter in Affligem. Having over 4000 animals entered today is something we can be really proud of! thus was written by the Board of the Club in the catalogue foreword. I will conduct the fancy pigeon tour for you. As usual there are many French pigeon breeds to admire at this exhibition. Many of these breeds belong to the form pigeons or utility breeds, thus big birds. I will not give you all the winners, as in Belgium they have a winner in each colour variety. But the photos will give a good impression of quality of the entered birds in this show. Over 200 Cauchois in 10 different colours in a good quality. Several very good birds with grade 96. Two pigeons achieved the top grade of 97. Left: Best of Cauchois was this bronze chequer male, grade 97. Owner: Eddy Engels. young blue Right: Cauchois blue bronze chequer, 96 points. Left: A black Cauchois.
Above left: Cauchois blue white barred. Above right: Cauchois blue white chequer. Right: Cauchois rose chequer. Next we had 20 French Mondains in varied quality, of which three were 96 grade birds. Winner was a blue grizzle young cock. Below: A blue black barred Mondain. This breed often gives the impression of sitting down. Right: Of the 10 entered Strassers no one achieved 96 points. Best of Breed was this 95 grade bird: an old red cock. Owner: André Vandewalle Only 2 Runts were entered. We don t often see this breed at shows here. Also in the Netherlands it has been quite some years that I have seen them. They were 2 blue black bars of very good quality.
Left: The Best Runt was a blue blackbarred young male with 95 points. Owner: Christian Lagrange. 19 Polish Lynx were entered in a varying quality; the Best was in cage 1796 and graded 96 points. Right: Best of Polish Lynx, a young blue white chequer hen with 96 points. Owner: Ghislain Demarbaix. Next in line came 15 Lahore s in 3 colours, all entered by the same breeder. The Blacks were the most typical and 3 of them were graded 96 points. Left: Black Lahore, old cock. Graded 96 points. Owner: Freddy Coppens. Right: A young Texan Auto-sexing hen, with 96 points. Owner: Frans Corthals.
Left: Texan auto-sexing, young male. Graded 95 points. Owner: Frans Corthals. Over 90 entered Texans was a true surprise to me. In the Netherlands we seldom see them at the Shows, but here in Belgium there are a reasonable number of breeders. The quality was rather varying though and the judge was only able to grade two birds 96 points. Winner was a young auto-sexing hen. Next some small classes of Show Racers, Damascene s and German beauty Homers; they were all of a lesser quality. The 20 Dewlaps of Basra were of a better quality, good type birds with good dewlaps. The winner was the old cock bird in cage 1934, graded 96 points. I cannot name the colour as it was not registered at the judge s rapport. They all were a sort of yellowish. Then the 88 Belgium Beauty Homers; these were the pigeons that I in fact came to see, being the Secretary of the Dutch Beauty Homers Club. It is only recent that our Club caters to this breed, and there is a lot for us to learn. I think the average quality was very good with also some lesser quality birds. The good ones showed the wanted horizontal underline and slightly up righted stance, a nice headline, correct beak and wattle. Also the proportions were correct. A blue diluted dark barred young cock was chosen Best of Breed. Pity I couldn t photograph him as he was very restless. So I took a photo of a young red chequer cock bird that in fact was even more appealing to me. Above: Belgium Beauty Homer, a red chequer young male. Owner: Jeroen Bouckhout. Left: Beauty Homer de Liege, a blue blackbarred young male. Grade: 97 points. Owner: Jean Van De Velde.
The 48 Beauty Homers de Liege were a feast for the eye; a very nice breed, hardly seen in the Dutch Shows. There were four 96 grade birds and the 97 top grade was for the winner in cage 2054; a blue black barred young cock. The Renaisien is another one of the Belgian breeds and very attractive. They were of average quality, according the judge s report. The max grade was 94. A large class of Carneau; a total 104 birds in yellow, yellow with white wing rose and white lower back, red and white. This is again a French utility breed. And again average quality with a few top birds that were graded by the judge with 96 points. Best of Breed was a young yellow hen. The Smiter, another Belgium breed, with 18 entered birds in blue barred, blue chequer, blue black barred and blue grizzle. A nice presentation of this breed and of good quality. The judge graded two birds 95 and the Best with 96 points. Right: Smiter, a blue chequer young cock. (not the winner) Owner: Erwin Haemhouts. 5 French Pouters in white. This is a tall and slender pouter breed. Personally I thought they were penned in a too low cage, in which they couldn t stretch themselves very well. The Winner was in cage 2187 and graded 96 points. The 11 Lille Pouter was also beautiful to see. Especially the Tigered were very much to my liking. Winner was a Black tiger with 96 points. Left: Lille Pouter cock, Black tigered. Owner: Jean-Paul Chatelin. 6 Silesian Croppers; an old cream cock bird was Best of Breed with 96 points. The 6 Brunner Croppers in red, white and black were of a good quality. Two birds were graded 96 by the judge. Best of Breed was a black young hen. Next was a large class of 123 King Pigeons. They didn t appeal to me. It was a class without real top birds, shown by the only 7 birds that were graded 96. Best of Breed was an ash red old hen. The 10 English Modena s in various colours were of a lesser quality, with only 94 points the highest grade awarded by the Judge.
Some top birds of the entered 16 German Modena s: two young blue chequer cock s and one old mealy cock, all high legged and with long neck, and all three birds achieved the 96 grade. Right: German Modena, a schietti blue chequer young male. Owner: Björn Engels. Left: German Modena Schietti, Redbarred (meally) old male. Owner: Leon De Braekeleer. The 14 Danish Suabian couldn t score higher than 95 points, with the Best of Breed in cage 2365. Still it was nice to see this breed again. Right: Danish Suabian, blue female/old. Grade: 95 points. Owner: Thierry Lecomte. Left: Franconian Shieldpigeon, an old black hen, graded 96 points. Owner: Peter Paridaen.
More small classes: 6 Franconian shieldpigeons of good quality, 3 birds graded 95 and one graded 96. The 3 black Thuringian Spot pigeons and 10 blue barred Thuringian Swallows were of excellent quality, one of the Thuringian Swallows even achieved the Top 97 grade. 2 Nuremburg Larks, very good birds graded 95 and 96 points. Also the 2 Coburg Larks were of good quality. 20 Archangels in various colours; winner was a young copper blue wing black barred cock with 96 points. Right: Archangel copper blue wing black barred, a young male. Owner: Peter Paridaen. 5 German Moorhead s, highest grade was 94. 10 Antwerp Smerle were in 5 different colours with only the red chequers of good quality. Best of Breed was the old cock in cage 2430 with 96 points. 52 Luttich Owls in yellow, red and black; a nice and attractive Owl breed. Best of Breed was an old red cock bird. Left: Luttich Owl, old red male. Owner: Dirk Beirens. Right: Luttich Owl, young black male. Grade: 95 points. Owner: L. Van Steenbergen. Next were 35 Italian Owls in different colours, the ice coloureds were the better ones, with the best of Breed - an ice colour old cock - achieving grade 96. The 3 Aachen Lacquer Shield, 1 yellow and 2 black, was nice looking birds. These are small pigeons that won t need much space and can be kept in a small loft. The best achieved a 95 grade. Further we saw 6 Jacobins in 4 colours, followed by a class of 27 Frill backs, the latter were not of a very good quality; there are better Frillbacks in the World. The Blacks were the best and a young black cock, graded 96, was Best of Breed.
Next a class of 43 Old Dutch Capuchins with very good birds which were impressive and well graded with 3 x 96 points. Best of Breed was a young white hen. The 12 Fantails were not very special. Only one young black cock achieved 95 points, making it Best of Breed. 11 Rhine Ringbeaters in Blue, Blue Black bar and Blue Grizzle. Winner with 96 points was a Blue Grizzle. Left: Belgium Ringbeater, young black male. Grade: 95 points. Owner: Jan Lauwers. The 12 Belgium Ringbeaters were very interesting to see. This kind of performing breed attracts more and more fanciers lately, and to me it also seems a splendid extra dimension of the hobby to keep a performing pigeon breed. You can t have everything and life is all about making choices. I found them very worthwhile, although most of them were low graded. Best of Breed was a black young cock with 95 points. 19 entered Speelderke pigeons, twice the 95 grade was achieved, and the others were all lower in grade. I don t know if that was so because of the quality or because of the Judge. Who will tell? Best of Breed was a blue black barred young hen. The 28 Belgian Highflyers were not my cup was graded 96, making him Best of Breed. of tea, they seem dull to me. One young cock Next came the Dutch Helmets; 6 pigeons in 3 colour varieties: blue, red and black. Here the young blue cock in cage 2695 was Best of Breed with 96 points. The 6 Old German Magpie tumblers in black were of average quality. They are not commonly seen at shows; these pigeons are mainly kept to fly. The young cock in cage 2704 was Best of Breed with 95 points. The 12 Amsterdam Beard Tumblers impressed with their contrasting outfit black with white beard. A young hen achieved grade 96 and was Best of Breed. Next in line were a few Tumbler breeds from diverse countries, only 1 or 2 birds per breed, and not very special. The last Class was the Trumpeter breeds. 5 Altenburg Trumpeters; 2 birds in blue chequer and 3 in blue black bar, all three blue black bars were of high quality and graded 95 and 96 points. Finally 6 Arabian Trumpeters in mealy; 2 with 95 points and one with 94 points. All together this was a very interesting day. I had the impression that the grading was lower than in the Netherlands. I don t know the reason for that. This is also a show with many birds for sale from the exhibition pens. LINK to the Catalogue: http://everyoneweb.com/wa/datafilesvzwdepajottenlanders/ttaffligem2009_palmares Def.pdf Copyright 2010 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC.