Guillaume Petri, Hoepertingen (B)
Meeting the man Petri
Guillaume Petri (° 1922) never was what you call a big fancier: he had no strain of his own and he never had more than 36 pigeons in winter.
The smal loft where Guillaume Petri excelled his life long
with pigeons |
Guillaume Petri with his champion, the Kleine Blauwe (Small Blue) |
Jan Schreurs met Guillaume Petri in 1970. Petri was a former coal miner and worked as a handyman in the college where Arnold Schreurs, Jan's brother, was principal.
Jan Schreurs and his fellow fancier - and brother-in-law - Lambert Vandueren were still novices in pigeons sport. They had the luck to meet a champion who had the very best pigeons in the region. Guillaume Petri was going to give and loan them his best breeders!
Founding strains
At that time, the founding pigeons at the loft of Petri were:
- The Kleine Blauwe of '52 and his offspring
The kleine Blauwe came from an outcross of a coq Emiel Cobbaut (Erpe B) x a hen Gust Ducheyne (Ekeren - Antwerp).
He won 23 x 1st prize for Petri. - A blue hen of the Vander Espt brothers of Leffinge who had mostly the same strain as their uncle Charles Vander Espt of Oostende.
- A blue
Catrysse coq acquired at a public sale of Gerard Cattrysse in 1967
This Catrysse coq was to become the real founding sire for Schreurs-Vandueren. - A red hen, direct from André Desmet of Semmerzake, sister to his best racers, better known as the world famous "Vale Trein" (the pale colored train)
- A red coq -
the Good Red
- direct from the final sale of baker Charles Vander Espt.
The Goede Rode was a regular prize winner at the loft of Vander Espt. He had ring 3001569-57.
The Goeie Rode (Good Red), a proven champion bought at the loft of Charles Vander Espt, Oostende (B)
A connoisseur
Guillaume Petri was known as a connoisseur. He managed to always have the best pigeons around.
| But he also only bought the best. Having a small colony of
pigeons, Petri couldn't afford much inbreeding, so he became a
specialist in buying pigeons for outcrossing. He bought them at all
the famous lofts of his time, and ... never more than one single
bird.
So he introduced: Charles Vander Espt of Oostende, Vander Espt Bros of Leffinge, Jef Carlens of Zepperen, André Vanbruaene Lauwe, Gust Ducheyne Ekeren, Emiel Cobbaut Erpe, Jos Van den Bosch Berlaar, André Desmet Semmerzake, Omer Dekeyser Oudenaarde, Cattrysse Bros of Moere and others. More than once, Guillaume Petri was invited to judge pigeons at a large exposition or a championship. He was esteemed being equal to well-known champions as Victor Fabry (here on the photo with Guillaume Petri).
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Petri pigeons at the loft of Schreurs-Vandueren
In 1970-1971, Jan Schreurs and Bèr Vandueren received enough founding pigeons from the small loft of Petri to become very soonly well-known long distance champions.
Guillaume Petri installed two outstanding breeding pairs at their loft.
- The Vale Witpen Saint-Vincent of '68 x The Goed Rood Desmet Semmerzake
- The Old Cattrysse of '67 x his granddaughter the Old Blue Hen of '69
This two couple will found two wonderful lines at Opoeteren: the blue line (Blauwe lijn) and the red line (Vossenlijn of Fox line)
Today
Today (2007) Petri, 85, is still in a good condition. He stopped pigeon fancing more than 10 years ago but the bloodlines of his famous champions survive at the lofts of Marc and Patrick Schreurs.
Guillaume Petri at the age of 85... |
Guillaume, Marc and Patrick |
Past glories...
Past glories: diplomes gone yellow are the silent witnesses of
a |
Record of Guillaume Petri
452 first prizes with never more than a handful of pigeons - 1st national Saint-Vincent
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