It was twenty years ago today!! as the song goes.

I found some old photos of a visit to Jans beautiful home in Waalre in November 1991. Jans loft was and still is a ‘Treasure Trove’ of the most famous bloodlines in the sports history. The incredible yearling hen ‘Spinneke Barcelona’ winner of 1st National and 2nd International Barcelona in that years race for Jan Beijers had just been purchased and went directly into the breeding loft that had already housed ‘Beatrix’..’Smaragd’s 1 and 11’…’Vale Marathon’..’Baroemde 10′..’De Joop’…’Diego Armando’…’Invinsible Spirit’..and would house in the future ‘Super Ben’..’Fieneke 5000’…and most of the great Barcelona, Bergerac and St Vincent winners over the years.

Twenty years ago Jan was encouraging his son Rik to take an interest in the pigeons, but Rik was more interested in football at the time. Today of course Rik is one of the best fliers in Belgium and raced probably the best hen in the world at the moment the ‘Cow Girl’.

Any visit to Jan’s is a great occasion for me not only for the pigeons but he is also a great story teller and ‘Gastronome’.He knows every little resteraunt in the Kempen and indeed is a regular visitor and at the time of the photo this was starting to show.

Twenty years later it caught up with me as well!!