Vereecke – How did they come to Australia

by national1

The name of Vereecke ( which means “Very Rich” ) has been involved in the Belgium pigeonsport since the early 1900’s when Rogers father “Jerome” began racing, however due to business commitments is wasn’t until the 1920’s when results started to appear.From that period until now the “Vereecke” lofts have been champions of Belgium in Short, Middle and Long Distance Racing.
At Rogers home which is the family home ( like many Belgians the houses get passed down to there children ) he has many pigeon lofts which face many directions to take advantage of the warmth of the sun to get pigeons into form at different times of the year.
When racing the “Sprint Era” his two storey lofts had wood/ coal fired heaters under neath to warm the lofts and bring the pigeons into form for the early races when daytime temperatures can still be in single figures.
This heating system was not used once racing the middle and Long distance races as they wanted “Form” to come naturally and to remain as long as possible.
Like many Belgians of the previous years the Vereeckes specialised in “Sprint” only races and once they had become National Champions they then disposed of those pigeons and started with different pigeons for the middle distance races. As money was not a problem only the very best pigeons in Belgium made there way into the Vereecke lofts to start the formation of the next generation.
In the 50’s  the Vereecke lofts became one of the best Middle Distance lofts in Belgium beating the lofts of Desmet – Mattijs and the like in the National Championships.

In 1925 to 1930 a young man by the name of Georges Busschaert was employed to help around the lofts ( not as loft manager ).
In 1936 a new loft manager was employed and his name was Emiel Deweert and this is when the widowhood system was adopted as prior to this period it was forbidden to be used in the province of West Flanders.
from the period between 1936 until 1960 ( excluding the war years ) the loft of Vereecke was regarded as one of the best 4 lofts in the province of West Flanders on middle distance races. In 1952, 1955 and 1959 the  loft of Vereecke was the best middle distance loft of West Flanders.
Having reached the top in middle distance races Roger decided that the future for them lay in the Long Distance races so all there pigeons got sold at public auction, some of the buyers included Maurice Verheye and the partnership of Lefebre-Dhaenens to mention of few well known flyers.
To commence his new long distance lofts he got several hens of his old family from his loft manager and then purchased 4 Belgian National winners at great cost, these being “De Figaro” winner of 1st National Bordeaux for the famous Cattryse Brothers, “De 90″ winner of 1st National Angouleme for the famous Cattryse Brothers, “Roste Tanghe” a red Checker Cock who was a grandson of the famous “Klaren” of Desmet-Matthys and lastly “Zwarte Izeren” a winner of 1st National Libourne and was also the 1st National ace of Belgium, he was bred in the number one breeding loft for Stichelbaut pigeons at the time being Deschamps Van Hasten. The Zwarte Izeren” also had a arge impact in the lofts of Van Hee and Pol Bostyn in later years.
Roger paired the cocks to his old strain hens and then the daughters from these pairings would then get paired back to the other National Winners
and so the basis of the new generation was being formed. Roger went gently with the offspring but within a few years he was the general champion of West Flanders and by 1969 was crowned as the king of long distance races inWest Flanders. In 1970 the loft of Vereecke had won every important championship in Belgium.

By the end of the 1970’s the loft of Vereecke was considered to be one of the best Long Distance lofts in Belgium and it was written in the pigeon publications at the time that they had become the standard bearers when it came to long distance racing.
Even when at the top of the sport like most campions in Belgium Roger knew that to remain at the top he needed to continue to introduce only the very top pigeons available. One of the pigeons he chose to add to his alreay golden stock loft was a pigeon called “Felix”, Felix was bred and raced by a fancier called Felix Smits and the pigeon was the winner of 1st National Tulle being from a distance of 660klm. “Felix” was bred from a combination of Desmet Matthjs, Hector Desmet, Huyskens- Van Reil and Cattryse so in fact contained similar bloodlines to 3 of his foundation cocks. “Felix” only resided in the Vereecke stock loft for one breeding season and was then sold to Japan but in the short period he was to become an important part in the jigsaw that seen the continued great success in the Long Distance races in the 1980’s  until the present time.