The
Jef Van Wanroy Strain
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I
wonder did the late Jef van Wanroy before his
death ever envisage the impact that the strain
which he founded would ultimately make upon
the long distant scene. For amongst the national
and international winners throughout the world
today the blood of the van Wanroy's mingle in
quite a lot of their veins. Not alone the winners
but the runner ups and other positions.
At
a personal level within a period of fifteen
years Jef van Wanroy won 182 very good prizes
out of about 242 nationals in Holland. Some
of the latter included 1st and 7th St. Vincent;
3rd and 4th Pau; 2nd and 9th Dax; 1st, 4th,
21st, 24th Marseille and of course 1st and 3rd
Barcelona.
There were also many minor prizes and this was
from a loft of no more than sixty pigeons. Jef
van Wanroy was involved with pigeons during
his teen years but after leaving for a period
he returned with a serious intent in 1946 at
the age of 42. And to the village of Broekhuizenvorst
he brought the best that he could purchase.
From a local butcher name Steegs he bought pure
Bricouxs and from his friend Dusarduyn he obtained
some of the latter's best. He also bought birds
from Fabry Sr. (of Liege) which included the
latter's 'Hansenne stock'. In fact the traditional
bronze of the van Wanroy's famous blacks derives
from Fabry's famous 'Bronze'.
Also another important addition to his stock
was the famous '11' or the Hornstra hen which
has definitely left its mark. Interestingly
like other great strains their survival depended
upon the the work of other fanciers who fell
in love with the strain for after the death
of van Wanroy which shocked the worlds racing
pigeon fraternity there were a number of the
latter which included Jan Hendrix, Anton Van
Haaren and the father and son combination of
Jo and Ben Hendrix. The latter combination won
the international Barcelona classic with a van
Wanroy strain bird.
As for Jan Hendrix he was van Wanroy's fellow
villager and friend and after the latter's death
his sister in law offered Hendrix the whole
colony of pigeons but due to limited space he
refused. However he had earlier had obtained
some of the van Wanroy strain and it has left
its mark especially 'Westerhuis' and the 'Famous
90'. One of the most famous was the 'Kleine
Donkere' who won the title of the best bird
in Holland. This great specimen was sent to
Barcelona (about 800 miles) 48 hours after flying
from Orleans 350 miles and won 70th position
in the national. Now owned by the Ponderosa
Stud. Van Haaren purchased the best of the van
Wanroy's including the famous '11' and this
was a stroke of some magnitude for the new owner
bred the best from them which included finishing
fifteen times within the top twenty of national
races.
Van Haaren also crossed his van Wanroy's with
Aarden and Van der Wegen bloodlines and this
contributed to the belief that the van Wanroy's
were purely of Aarden origins. When the latter
fancier sold out the Jo and Ben Hendrix lofts
obtained his stock and racers in 1974. Also
Jo Hendrix was a very close friend of van Wanroy
and knew his pigeons inside and out so to speak.
Back in 1970 the father and son bought
some
outstanding representatives of the strain as
squeakers, one of which was to be the grand
dam of '271' which won the Barcelona International
in 1980. There are many of the opinion that
Ben
Hendrix was the worthy successor of van Wanroy
and the custodian of one of the best modern
strains of the last and present century. The
latter fancier has successfully crossed the
van Wanroy's with the Janssen's and the Gommaar
Verbruggen families and the offspring are excellent
for races between three hundred and five hundred
miles. That is one day races but of course the
van Wanroy's are for the marathon races. Yes
he may not have envisaged it but the strain
which Jef van Wanroy
founded is world famous
and all for the right reasons.
by: Liam O Comain
