Bennie Homma, Balk strikes unseen on Perpignan 2023 with prizes 1, 3 and 4 national and international!

Yes, the international long distance races are still very special. Predictions in advance are often hard to make. We watch the weather conditions and especially the wind on the flight path to be able to make an estimate. Does the wind change en route so that the pre-flight or over-flight can take advantage? Does a strong north wind blow and the overflight has no chance in advance and France is gone with everything? Or can the pigeons make higher speeds in Belgium and the Netherlands and perhaps 'catch some' during the night so there are plenty of opportunities for the overflight to clock the fastest pigeons? Now Perpignan 2023 had a lot of spectacle in it again? With glory for one side and perhaps sour faces on the other. But who could have predicted in advance that the race would run and turn out like this? The release from Perpignan 2023 took a long time and after three days of delay, the pigeons were luckily released on Monday morning, August 7 at 7.15 am. Rain zones over France could no longer throw a spanner in the works. With a north-westerly to westerly wind on the route, it did not look like it would be very tough. However, the first reports already did not show too high speeds on the tables. And quite remarkably, the first French notification came all the way from the west side. And eventually that pigeon would fly the 3rd prize in France at 738 km at 19.06 clocked with a speed of 1038 m.p.m. and that against 4540 pigeons. The fastest French pigeon reached 1067 m.p.m. and was clocked at 863 km at 20.43 between Lens and Valenciennes close to Belgium. And before neutralisation time kicked in at 10.18pm, no faster Belgian pigeon was clocked on the west side either. Two Belgian pigeons were clocked the next morning towards the end of the neutralisation time and managed to beat the fastest French pigeon. And what did the Netherlands do? Were pigeons going to be clocked in the NT? There was a somewhat firmer wind in our area and in many places it was a clear night but it was variable. The ball of pigeons clocked in the NT was opened in West Brabant Hoeven (my father's birthplace) by the comb. de Pijper with a determination at 01.06. At a shorter distance, father and son Stammen in Horn, Limburg, clocked at 2.06am. With a greater flying distance, Batenburg-v.d. Merwe in the Hoekse Waard in South Holland then followed. And fourth in line was the van Schijndel and sons family in Geffen in East Brabant at 02.52 and they also clocked the fifth pigeon in time at 3.26. But the overflight from Geffen is still far and until the NT expired at 5.49am and still some time after that, there were still plenty of chances for the far-flung entrants. 


Friesland
When no Perpignan pigeons were clocked for the NT, Bennie Homma in Balk, Friesland, understood that the NFO14 rule could not come into play on the Perpignan, so he switched on his system for the night while he had switched it off in the NT the week before on Narbonne. On Narbonnen, Bennie Homma clocked two bomb-early pigeons in the early morning to win prizes 3 and 13 nationally. On time Bennie went to bed thinking that the moment of clocking in the NT would always give the same speed for his pigeon. In the middle of the night, he was nevertheless curious to see how the 'battle' in the Netherlands developed and looked on ZLUWeb and saw four reports there around 03.30 hrs. So there are pigeons that fly through in night conditions and that raised his hopes for an early pigeon in Balk. There is night flying in his kind of pigeons and they are in good shape so what would be possible? Around 5.20 am Bennie got up and coming downstairs he glanced at the flaps of the loft and saw nothing. He walked to the back door and opened it and looked at the flaps and indeed saw a pigeon sitting. It turns out to be the NL21-4223083 which left for Perpignan as 3rd-getter and is now clocked at 5.36am and still within the NT. A speed 1284 m.p.m. came out and Bennie understood right away that this had to be a very big contender for the gold. Only the few fanciers and pigeons at greater flying distances than his 1160 km still had a chance of beating him. The Perpignan celebration was given even more lustre as the 2nd pigeon could be clocked at 6.17 am and 3rd pigeon at 6.36 am. And what must not go through your mind when not much later you see your own name in 1st, 3rd and 4th place on the notification list? Harold Zwiers in Den Ham managed to clock in just ahead of Bennie Homma at 5.21 am and at 1128 km he also has a very long flying distance but some 32 km shorter. Harold wins the silver on both fronts. In the NT, a total of 17 pigeons were clocked on this Perpignan in the Netherlands.

 

Topper midday release
Since 2000, the Homma family has lived in Balk, in Bennie's parental home. That is where pigeon racing started for him at the age of 11, while he celebrated his 59th birthday a week earlier. From 1990 to 1999, the family lived in Wijckel and that is where the fund successes started and where two national wins in the sector 4 were scored including the one on Bergerac in 1998. In Balk, after 23 years of competing in the sectoral midday races, the tally stands at six including those on St Vincent and Bergerac. A cartload of top-10 listings in the sector and all the way in their own department adorn Bennie and Loes Homma's list of honours over the years. A true topper is so 'de Bonte' and this 2013 hen is the grandmother along paternal side of Perpignan winner. In the pictured pedigree chart of the '083', 'de Bonte' is obviously listed but not her own achievements. For example, she flew the 1st nat. Bergerac in 2018 in sector 4 but also the 3rd Cahors and the 4th Limoges in the same sector 4. In her pedigree we nicely see the basis of the Homma loft and that is with her on her father's side the type of Herman Brinkman from Tuk which was already purchased in the 90s and still plays an important role in Balk and on her mother's side a hen of J. Grootonk from Bant and so Bennie has over the years introduced several pigeons into his pedigree which in breeding yielded success with his own basis. Two hens from Koos Steenbeek from de Bilt have also been successful in breeding. The father of the '083' is the 2019 '013' and he already flew the 7th Limoges against 3071 pigeons as a yearling and then the 55th Perpignan against 3805 pigeons nationally, among others. This season, the '013' has still been played on Barcelona. Bennie basketed two pigeons on Barcelona this ar and played 100 per cent prize to places 920 and 964 against 4832 pigeons and at 16.41 and 16.55 they were clocked with the '013' in front. 'He can go one more time and then stay home for good,' Bennie said before Barcelona. Because the breeding from him was already quite good and not knowing then that two of his daughters would later score 1st and 3rd national and international Perpignan!


Focus on the ZLU
Since about three years, Bennie and Loes Homma have focused on the ZLU flights. All the yearling nestlings go to the ZLU flights and all the yearlings are played on Ruffec and Bergerac of the department and that is a big team. On the ZLU flights, larger squads have been played on Pau, Agen, Narbonne and Perpignan this year: 22 on Pau, 35 on Agen old, 23 on Narbonne and 21 on Perpignan. On Pau they started with the 42nd national with a total of 6 prize pigeons. On Agen old they started with prize 174 and there are 10 in the result. It was the '083' the Perpignan winner which clocked in the neutralisation time on this Agen old at 23.21 and won prize 174. On Narbonne they started with prizes 3, 13, 213 and 354 and scored a total of 10 prize pigeons. On this Perpignan, Bennie grabbed 5 prize pigeons from 10.54 to 13.33 besides the trio that wrote absolute pigeon sport history for him. So on Barcelona Bennie had 2 out of 2 in and on St Vincent he also basketed two pigeons and won prize 383 against 4832 pigeons. On Marseille, Bennie had 8 in 'battle' and started with prizes 135, 177, 185 and 248 and a total of 6 out of 8 as prize pigeons. On the last two ZLU flights, Bennie and Loes briefly hijacked 5 vases and who would have thought this would be possible in Friesland? In 2021, they already won 3 ZLU vases (prize among the first 25) and last year one went to the Frisian Balk.

Game
When Bennie went back to Balk, he built a new garage there with pigeon accommodation on top. This loft is 10 metres long and contains five departments, three of which are for the (old) racers and on which some 60 couples live. The doors between those three departments are open and some couples also nest on the ground. He has also moved part of the garden loft from Wijckel to Balk, where the breeders live. All pigeons keep their box as long as they belong to the racing team. In spring (mid-February), the old pigeons are removed from the loft and the yearlings can pick a box and form a pair. When those have managed to 'grab' their tray well, the oldsters come back to let everything get used to each other and then the two teams are paired a little after each other to get on nest. After the season, the pairs just always stay together and the trough is set at half way in October. The sexes also spent two weeks apart in preparation to get a better nesting position but Bennie said he did not do this wholeheartedly. Only in late April and early May do the racers enter the big basket for the first time and then they make about five to six flights before the big work. After the first long distance flight, each team is rapped once from Almere before the second flight. The racers train twice a day, in the morning from 9 to 10 a.m. and in the evening as late as possible for an hour, so that it starts to get dark at the end. The flag is then on the loft and as soon as Bennie strokes it, the pigeons immediately fall on the shelf and go inside. At the beginning of June, twelve racers were checked by vet Nanne Wolf in Wezep and three pigeons were found to be slightly yellow infected. All pigeons received a yellow pill. 

 

Mother 
The mother of '083' and thus also of the second pigeon, the 2020 '653', was a hen from 2019. She flew Bergerac prize as a yearling but was beaten in 2021. So the two sisters are descended from two 2019 pigeons and as a yearling the '653' gave birth and as a two-year-old the winning '083'. In the mother's lineage, we again see the hen of J. Grootonk from Bant and the line of the 'Bergerac'. The '653' managed to peak once before on a ZLU flight and with the 26th nat. Narbonne in 2021. The third hen and namely the 2019 '082' also managed to peak on Narbonne and with the 22nd national in 2021. This hen's sire is a cock from Dick Letter of Den Oever and he is a daughter of the hen that won Tarbes in sector 2 in 2015. The mother of the '082' is a daughter of the '2nd National Ace Pigeon' and we also find him with the two sisters in the pedigree and that cock performed that in 2010. 

Elfstedentocht
The town of Balk (located in the pocket of Friesland called Gaasterland) is on the route of the famous Elfstedentocht. From Leeuwarden and Sneek, it heads south and across the Slotermeer, first visiting Sloten itself and then heading back to the Slotermeer and skating in the direction of Balk where it takes the Luts and heads towards Stavoren. And now let our protagonist also have skated this tour and in 1986. In 1985, Bennie also wanted to participate but by then the starting tickets were already sold out when he wanted to get one. In 1986, Bennie had become a member and was thus able to compete on the tour which Evert van Benthem would win that year for the second year in a row. In the meantime, Bennie's health, and especially his lungs, have been seriously affected in recent years. And that does not make all the pigeon work any easier. In pigeon racing, wife Loes is a great support and help. 

 

Nieuwleusen
The northernmost ZLU basket centre in Nieuwleusen is experiencing an incredible year this year. After Rieks Lonsain from Nieuwleusen himself on Marseille, it is now Bennie Homma who makes the centre grab the highest honour. Winning two international races is not nothing. By the way, among the 18 baskeepers on Perpignan were two more fanciers form who won national Perpignan in the recent past, namely Rutger Jan Rittersma from Zuidlaren in 2021 and Arjan Beens from Genemuiden in 2014. Rutger Jan Rittersma already managed to win an international flight (plus prize 3) at his previous home address in Groningen and that was from Agen (1099 km) in 2013. A special company of baskeepers there in the far north and that at 31 ZLU basket centres in the Netherlands. 
Yes on Perpignan 2023, Bennie and Loes Homma were able to get their pigeons to the start in top form and three hens had their compass and attention very sharp. They had experience, proved they could already handle the distance and prove themselves. And what makes some pigeons fly through in the darkness to a greater or lesser extent and others do not? Undoubtedly the form and sharpness at the right time, the will to go home and the class to actually be able to do so. Of course, the (weather) conditions must also be cooperative and the puzzle pieces can fall into place just then. And why can one pigeon do it and many others not? The mystery of pigeon racing. Bennie and Loes Homma managed to achieve the best pigeon sport performance in their careers. It must be enjoyment for them and they are very grateful for it! 

 

Ad van Gils