In 2013 on a beautiful afternoon in Sun City after a chance meeting Jan Hooymans and John Crehan met via Thomas Gyselbrecht and Pieter Oberholster of Pipa at the then called Sun City Million Dollar pigeon race and discussed the possibility of John racing some direct Jan Hooymans birds in the UK in the near future, both parties agreed on a long term plan. Jan Hooymans would send John youngsters from his stock loft in Kerkdriel to be raced at Johns loft in Salford, Manchester UK.
The 1st batch of young birds made their way to Manchester in April 2014 and these Hooymans young birds raced magnificently and managed to win 9 x 1st clubs 5x1st feds this had now set the standard and John was starting to get excited as it is always worrying when you 1st start racing with a need breed of pigeon, but these worries were totally unfounded as the future 2 seasons would prove.
In season 2015 Jan sent over another batch of 2015 young birds john had by now a team of yearlings to start the season with another good season was had with the yearlings winning 6 x 1st federations, also 1st and 2nd Amal with 2395 birds and a 1st combine with 2884 birds.
At club level the Hooymans birds won 20 x 1st prizes with many many other positions.
The young birds which Jan sent over to the UK in 2015 again were trained and raced hard and finished the season after only 6 races, racing in 2 clubs 7x1st plus many 2nds and 3rds etc.
In 2016 Jan sent over the 3rd batch of young birds this meant john now had yearlings 2 year olds to start the 2016 season with for the first time since the Crehan-Jan Hooymans agreement began. After the first couple of races of 2016 it became clear that the yearlings were more than holding their own with the more experienced 2 year olds and throughout the season the team flew extremely well. At the end of old bird racing john had won again racing in 2 clubs-a total of 13x 1st prizes and 11 X 2nd prizes with many many other prizes won.
By July 1st the young bird team were really starting to look beautiful and were exercising with zip and vigour and training commenced. The young birds performed super throughout the season this year winning 4 x 1st federations from 8 races competed in during the season.
These are the highlights of 2016 below:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 Federation Worcester 88 miles 1015 birds
1, 2, 12 Federation Bath 142 miles 613 birds
1, 2, 15 Combine Bath 142 miles 3224 birds
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 Federation Tewkesbury 102 miles 789 birds
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 Federation Tewkesbury 102 miles 946 birds.
1, 2, 3, 4 Federation Yeovil 305 birds 176 miles.
1, 2, 3, 4 Federation Portland 201 miles 236 birds.
1, 3, 4, 5 Combine Portland 201 miles 1038 birds
1st section 1st Open North West Classic Club Carentan (France) 290 miles 159 birds.
3, 4, 7, 8 Combine Yeovil 176 miles 1571 birds
3, 4, 5, 6 Combine Bath 142 miles 3326 birds.
4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 Federation Wollaston 69 miles 888 Birds.
6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 20 Federation Tewkesbury 102 miles 1168 birds.
6, 7, 12, 13, 14 Federation Tewkesbury 102 miles 1234 birds.
From the 2 Midland National races John competed in again the loft did well winning:
2nd Section 35th Open from Bedhampton 185 miles 7176 birds.
8th Section 75th Open Vire 325 miles 6917 birds.
In total there was 30 x 1st prizes won in 2016 with many other prizes won. The future looks very bright for both John Crehan with his Super Hooymans pigeons.
