| The
Slabbinck Strain
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When
my late father raced into a valley of
the Sperrin mountain range in the 1950s
(into the town of Limavady) I recall him
purchasing a beautiful blue bar cock from
a fancier who was retiring from the sport
because of his need to emigrate to Britain
(I think Oxford) to seek employment. Yes,
those were hard times and many good folk
were forced because of economic circumstances
to seek their fortune across the water
so to speak. That person was Laurence
Duffy and the cock was always referred
too as the Slabbinck- Cattrysse or 'Duffy's
Slabbinck- Cattrysse'. Well half a century
later I am in a better position to talk
or write about M.L.Slabbinck because of
my research for information pertaining
to this great pigeon racer.
Modest
Slabbinck was if anything an outstanding
fancier of supreme consistency and this
unfortunately ensured that he was barred
from competing in some areas of pigeondom.
Even clubs apparently deliberately folded
up in order to get rid of him. Of course
such unsportmanship will always be around,
a belief confirmed by contemporary letters
to our pigeon press from fanciers being
unable to gain membership to certain clubs
for no valid reason other than what?.
M.L
Slabbinck was a Belgian national who arrived
in England as a wounded soldier in 1918,
obtained while fighting for the Allies
in the first World War. After recuperation
he so loved the land of the rose and its
people that he decided to remain on in
England where in due course he brought
some of the best bloodlines from his native
Belgium. As a widowerhood flyer he raced
from the short to the marathon distances
with great success into Templar Mead and
in breeding Slabbinck used eye sign in
his pairings, once stating 'I've visited
all the crack Belgian lofts, including
the great ones such as Cattrysse Bros,
Devriendt, Van Der Espt, Vandenbroucke,
Williquet Bros, Nachtegaele, Desmet etc.,
and I assure you that all their breeders
are mated according to eyesign'.
Modest
Slabbinck was a good judge of a pigeon
and he realized from his years in his
native country that one had to have the
best of bloodlines if one was to succeed
in the sport. That is why he went for
the best and ensured that approximately
15 pairs of stock pigeons were second
to none. They were mainly of the Cattrysse
strain and some others carefully picked
by himself. Based upon his sound decision
Slabbinck went on to build his strain
which became the envy of many fanciers
in Britain and abroad. Which resulted
in the purchase of representatives of
the strain by others whose successes in
due course enhanced the name of the Slabbinck
strain.
To
pick one representative racer from the
Templar Mead lofts I have in mind a blue
cheq cock which in 1959 won 8th Open Pau
Grand National. The mother of this pigeon
was very well known as a breeder of big
winners and was called the 'Duchess Noterman
hen'. Near 12 years when she mothered
the 8th National winner known as 'The
Steken'. The sire of 'The Steken' was
'Zoot' bred by Vandenbroucke- De Weerd
of Belgium and interestingly also an 8th
position National winner from Angouleme.
This brief reference illustrates the quality
of the inmates of the Slabbinck colony
and like exiles before him and since,
and here I have in mind the late J.W.Logan
and the Patrick Bros, to succeed at the
distance one has to procure the very best
of bloodlines and hope that one is born
with a good sense of husbandry or is totally
determined to nurture it into existence.
Slabbinck I believe was born with it and
as a strain maker he added to the history
of British based pigeon racing.
by: Liam O Comain
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