The fanciers.

Almelo’s team consists of Wim (79 years old) and his grandson Mart (20) Derksen. Wim has been retired for a few years and was previously Professor of Automatic Writing at DOC (Doetinchem). Martin is a carpenter. Wim was born in eastern Gelderland, in Stokkum, near ‘s-Heerenberg. He has had pigeons since he was 8 years old. He came into contact with the sport through an uncle. Wim was allowed to help him with the care when he was busy with work. Like everyone else at the time, Wim started out as a programmer. Wim also kept pigeons for a few years with his parents. Father Derksen was not very enthusiastic about his son’s hobby. Then the nestor of the Derksen pigeon family started to breed pigeons with uncle and grandfather (who had a company together). Wim could be found there day and night. His father didn’t like that either. The logical consequence was that he had a loft at home again. In 1969 Wim came to live in Almelo…first at a different address. When his son Anthony (Mart’s father) was old enough to participate, Wim flew in combination with his son for years. This son now competes with great success in the one-day distance races and the pigeon championship, together with his brother-in-law under the name Derksen-v/d Keuken. They are always at the top of the federation ranking 9, East Holland, in their discipline.

In Wim’s garden there are 16 meters of loft: 5 sections for the old team, 2 for the young and 1 for the breeders. Wim is responsible for 3 departments and Mart for 2. This loft was moved to its current address in the late 1970’s. It is a climate friendly facility. It is provided with a sliding false ceiling, but it never moves. The warmer the loft, the better. At one point, Grandpa Wim had two empty flats. Mart has been racing in these lofts for several years. First, he played in his parents’ garden, but there he suffered from an important chance of birds of prey, mainly the goshawk, because there is a large forest in the area. When Mart went flying with Grandpa, Grandpa’s motivation came back in full swing. Says Grandpa Wim: ‘A young boy like this inspires you. Since it has its own departments, there is also a healthy competition between Mart and me.”

Wim and Mart’s colony is made up mostly of Gebr pigeons. Brugemann and Jelle Jellema. There is still a touch of the old about it, consisting for the most part of Brinkman pigeons. Without a doubt, the incorporation in 1994 of three Brugemann pigeons was key to the development of his loft and that of other friends. Wim acquired in that year 2 children from the couple “Orhan X Myra” and a son from “Orhan X Tycha” who became basic pieces of his cultivation. Special mention without a doubt the male 469/94 “Jonge Barcelona” son of “Orhan X Myra”, responsible for great fliers and breeders. To this they added pigeons from JElle Jellema, without a doubt the fittest loft in recent years on the European circuit. Together Wim and Mart have 24 breeding pairs. Crossbreeding is carried out to breed new homing pigeons. The best pigeons are inbred to strengthen the breeding loft.

Marathon Noord runners-up

Wim and Mart Derksen took second place at the Marathon Noord in the international releases. They only gave up first place to Henk Wegh from Lochem. They took the 18th prize in Barcelona, ​​the 7th prize in Marseille and finally the 28th prize in Perpignan. At the national level, they won the 126th prize from Barcelona (also 158th and 3rd of 4 pigeons in the prizes), from Marseille the 26th national (2 entered and 1 prize) and from Perpignan the 261st national (the 3 pigeons from Perpignan in the 25 % of prizes). As in almost all international competitions, at the Marathon North, only the first two nominated pigeons count towards scoring points.

Leading females.

Two female pigeons took the decisive points of the championship, so Wim and Mart Derksen from Almelo finished 2nd in the Marathon Noord of the international releases. The first was ‘la 427’ in 2015. He won the 16th in Barcelona and the 28th in Perpignan. At the national level, this meant, respectively, the 126th and the 261st award. This female comes from ‘Son Mister Marseille’. Mister Marseille has won many awards (including the 91st Marseille national and the 4th VNCC Limoges). This male is predominantly of the Brugemann breed and later also turned out to be a good breeder. The mother of ‘427’ is a Jellema female. descends from ‘Rode Barabas’ (Jelle Jellema times Harold Zwiers) with his daughter Hellas. There are already several good descendants of the mother of ‘of 427’.

The second topper is ‘the 971’ from 2015. He won 7th Marseille at Marathon Noord and 26th nationally. This dark white flying female also comes from a son of ‘Mister Marseille’ with a Brugemann female. We can still find ‘De Orhan’ at its origin. The dam of ‘de 971’ comes from a son of ‘Mister Marseille’ (by a Brugemann hen). This son of ‘Mister Marseille’ was mated to a female with ancestry of 50% Brinkman and 50% Brugemann.