Article by By Chris Derby-Lewis
Article Posted 11 June 2008

A visit with a Belgium Champion – Willem de Zutter

During February 2008, I was privileged to have a Champion Pigeon Fancier, Willem de Zutter of Belgium visit my loft while on business in Cape Town with his good friend Charles Benn, a top fancier himself from East London. I was amazed at the knowledge and insight Willem de Zutter has regarding the sport of racing pigeons, and a lot was learnt.



Chris Derby-Lewis and Willem de Zutter

I built a new loft in 2007 and battled to get my birds in top form. I had closed the front of my loft to keep out the cold. This however; caused my humidity to fluctuate inconsistently. On the day of his visit, Willem de Zutter entered my loft and said and I quote,” I can smell the pigeons in your loft, you need to open up, if you want a chance of performing better in the 2008 season”.

I told him that it gets very cold during the Cape Winter, to which he replied, “People don’t realize that pigeons can stand the cold and that they don’t like heat and humidity”. He suggested I make changes to my loft’s ventilation, with immediate effect. The humidity in the loft has decreased and the improvement in the condition of the birds was visible within the following week as the loft temperature stayed consistent.

During their visit, Willem de Zutter and Charles Benn also inspected the newly erected holding penn on my premises, which was erected on request and this will cater for pigeons which will be exported to Cape Town from Belgium.

The first parcel of pigeons will arrive during the first week of April 2008, and will go into quarantine for a month. Thereafter the birds will be auctioned at a date still to be confirmed. The first auction will consist of 30 imported pigeons and 30 handpicked birds which will include amongst others, 1st generation birds bred off imports from the Benn Lofts in East London.

A second parcel; of 25 pigeons are due to arrived during the 2nd week of June 2008. These pigeons and a selected batch of young birds will be housed at the Cape Town holding penn, and sold by appointment.

One needs to take cognizance of the fact that this family of pigeons have performed well throughout South Africa as I recall articles of fanciers, placed in the SA World Pigeon News putting up excellent performances, either pure bred or on the outcross.

After talking to Willem and Charles over lunch, I realized that one will always hear of the odd fancier who didn’t perform well with a family of pigeons, however the majority that are putting up great results on race weekends prefer to keep it to themselves. One thing is for sure; this family of pigeon’s, have performed well at the highest level in the SAHU, NRHU, the Federated Board of Homing Unions, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Craddock, Graaff Reinet, East London and Johannesburg. They are honest, durable pigeons and have adapted well to the South African weather conditions, raced pure or on the cross.

After lunch it was time to greet, but with greetings comes the end of an enjoyable visit, and at the same time the start of a great new friendship. After departing I decided to source Willem de Zutter’s race results of the 2007 racing season. They were phenomenal as one would expect of a fancier of his caliber. For those who have access to the internet, go to www.dezutterwillem.be For those fancier who don’t have access to the internet, here are a few results to highlight the superb performances of Willem de Zutter during the 2007 racing season;

After the serious health problems of Assunta, which forced Willem to sell all his racing pigeons till 2004 and all of his breeding pigeons, everybody thought, and so did Willem, that the year 2007 wouldn’t be that great.

It goes without saying that one cannot win the first prize in championships every year. Willem could not keep himself from participating at the championships though. And in his club “eerlijk duurt het langst” where he would bring his pigeons for the middle distance races, organized by the O.V.V. – F.V.O.V, and of course also the pigeons for the national and international races, he made a topshot:

His results in the Championship middle distance:

Heavy middle distance
1st Allround Champion
2nd Champion old birds (1+2+3)
3rd Champion yearlings (1+2+3)
3rd Champion young birds (1+2+3)
2nd in the Championships for being "king" of the club

Long distance and long middle distance
1st King long distance
1st Allround Champion long distance
3rd King long middle distance
2nd Champion long distance old birds (1+2+3)
4th Champion long distance young birds (1+2+3) (on 4 national flights)

2 Ace pigeons of which all three of them flew 4 prizes on long distance

If we think about it that the club “eerlijk duurt langst” attracts the best pigeon fanciers of the region, we must acknowledge that Willem De Zutter is “back in pigeonland”!

The results of the championships FCD (Aalst-Moerbeke-Dendermonde-Ninove: +/-500 members, the biggest union of pigeons fanciers in East-Flanders)

1st Ace Pigeon long distance (4080124/04 - won 3 prizes on international races)
2nd Allround King FCD
3rd Allround Champion 1+2
7th Champion long distance old birds and yearlings (1+2) (international races
Last but not least let us not forget that Willem also managed to win a first prize of the province at the national race of ARGENTON!

For further information please contact;

Chris Derby-Lewis: Cell 082 621 8813 Home: (021) 971 1400 Fax: (021) 971 1401
Email: genval@telkomsa.net

Charles Benn: Cell 082 555 2287 – Home: (043) 748 1744 – Work: (043) 740 3312
Emai: charles@leaderpak.co.za