John Crehan (Manchester, UK) and his Hooymans’ superstars

The Cuckoo

2017 has once again been a fantastic season for John, despite the sad passing of his father who lived abroad, and which meant that John had to miss a few races to sort out his affairs. Despite this, the Jan Hooymans’ pigeons raced by John managed to achieve an amazing 32 first prizes, including six first federation and five first combine, equalling the combine record of previous seasons. John also won 22 second prizes and 23 third prizes. That equates to over one hundred top twenty positions in federation and combine races.

The Prodigy

Highlights in the combine in 2017

1st combine 3,250 obs.
1st combine 2,121 obs.
1st combine 2,726 ybs.
1st combine 1,991 obs.
1st combine 1,353 ybs.

In addition, Jan asked John to concentrate more on the UK national races from over the channel, as he felt this would be where his breed of pigeons would excel and once again the team never let Jan or John down. After competing in just four national races, John’s Hooymans’ pigeons had won the following:

1st section, 11th open Midlands National Flying Club over 450km (11 pigeons entered)
1st Lancashire and Yorkshire four bird club Fougères 500km with a single entry
1st Eccles two bird club Fougères 500km with a single entry
2nd section, 39th open Jarnac/Fougères, 463 members sent 2,718 birds with a single entry

Considering that John’s loft location is in the north-west of the UK and this being his first year competing in national races, the future looks very promising. John has always insisted on the very best pigeons since his first days in the sport and in the past he has owned children of many top birds, including Kannibaal, Kleine Dirk, Emerveens Hope, Den Dromer, etc. However, after the past few years, John feels that the pigeons from Jan Hooymans are the very best that he has ever owned or raced. They can win at sprint races with a tailwind, at middle distance races with a headwind and in all circumstances in between, a rarity in any family of pigeons. They also excel at one loft racing around the world, as can be seen by recent performances in South Africa.

Olympic Janette

Congratulations, John and Jan, and we look forward to reporting on the coming seasons of your collaboration.