Judge Monty Neibel

 

 

Fly off Report

 

 


1. HEINE BIJKER
 1302.88 HOLLAND
2. JOHN WEINS  962.40          B.C., CANADA
3. PETER HARPER  754.88 ENGLAND
4. TIM DECKER  711.45 MIRA LOMA, CA
5. HOMER GRIGGS 566.40 STEPHENVILLE, TX

6. ERIC LAIDLER
 543.15 DENMARK
7. ADAM HILL  480.48  SALT LAKECITY, UT
8. DUKE JACOBS  449.40 SOUTH AFRICA
9. PETE LARVIN  441.60 ENGLAND
10. ANDRIES GOUWS 369.60 SOUTH AFRICA
Tom Brower 310.8  CA

Norm Reed

273.6

CA

Gary Templeman

271.32

 

Carlos Cornejo

243.88

CA

Alex Hamilton

 215.28

TX

Gert Koekemoer

 201.6

 

Mike Wooldon

 203.84

 CA

Randy Owens

198

MI

George Soknech

191.52

 

Ron Kumro

191.25

NY

Dawie Beukes

 167.7

 

Rick Dillehay

161.28

AR

Hennie de Bruyn

136.89

 

Gert du Plessis

136.89

 

Ewald Botha

126.8

 

Willie Wright

 124.8

CA

Mike Novinfar

106.47

CA

Randy Gibson

98.56

CA

Tom Monson

79.56

 UT

Don Simpson

 54.88

NC

Harold Ryan,

 48

 IA

Steve Hickey

 48

MA

H.C. Martin

 39.6

WA

Jerry Holder

 39.00

AR

George Babaris

 37.70

 ON, Canada

Dwight Wallace

 33.6

CA

Billy Keckler

33.60

LA

Frank Dry

32

 

Tim Fochner,

31.0

LA

Everett Carlson

 5

CO

Marty Thomsen

 0

IA

Richard Hayes

D.Q.

 MT

Richard Miller

 D.Q.

OH

Ken Easley,

D.Q

NM .

Al Luna

D.Q.

AZ

 

1999 WC FLY-OFF REPORT (continued)

Highlights of the Trip

Homer Griggs was most kind to put one of his border collies through her paces by herding fifteen sheep about the field, anywhere he wanted. He did this by using verbal and whistle commands of "come bye left flank, away to me, right flank, lie down (which is one long hard blast of the whistle), and walk up ( which is three short blasts). A fine show if I ever saw one.

  Randy Owens, Gerry Selinger, and I visited Niagara Falls together where we avid bird watchers requested to find out where those two notorious Niagara Falls peregrines were to be viewed. A young lady had earlier told us where they hung out. Gerry, who is usually tight lipped and rarely offers advise blurted out "Randy and I want to roast them". The girl rolled her eyes in the back of her head in disgust and reached for the security button. We discretely slipped away into the crowd minutes before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police stormed the building. Thank you Randy and Gerry for looking after me. After much persuasion by Ron Kumro, Gerry "Bad Boy" Selinger agreed to train a kit for the World Cup Fly. Gerry hand picked 5 champion hens from Ron's four old bird teams, but Gerry came down with a severe case of the shingles from the physical and mental stress of deciding where he would place his W. C. Trophy. His doctor pulled him out of the competition and recommended that he buy his own W. C. Trophy and have itengraved any way he liked.

 Thanks to Johnny D. Vanry for driving me about Denmark, Germany, and Holland. Not to mention filling me in on the other working pigeons of the world.

 The Adona Wam's from Turkey. These pigeons are flown in competition by hundreds of fanciers throughout Turkey, each city having their own strain. They are sent up in the air with a ten foot flag waved about by the handler to a height of about 700 feet. After about ten minutes the flag is lowered and a paper plate is waved towards the ground by the fancier and these magnificent pigeons dive down to your feet in a breath taking dive. They are flown in competition of three bird teams. It's common to work with just two. I would like to thank J. Mensink and Hank Nymann for putting their birds through the paces for me. Awesome is the only way to describe this show. Hank also put up a competition team of Kelebeks which scatter, dive and twist along side Burzas, which tumble, twist, and dive with a mix of Donecks twisting about.

 A special thanks to Colyn Nel, and Johnny Conradie who took a bus load of us out to see this breath taking game preserve in South Africa. We were fortunate enough to see six Rhinos, one bull elephant, four giraffes, zebras, about seven antelopes, and last but not least ten hippos. Just don't know what to say about how impressed I was with the Leeupark Lion Park, specializing in Lions. My two hosts Irvin Kay and Edgar Roscoe were spoiling me something awful during my stay in South Africa and I'm most grateful. Much to my embarrassment, two gentlemen took me to a park specializing in exotic birds of the world. I must not have made a note of their name, and I cannot remember who took me, but I believe it was called "Tracey Park". I can't recall even where it was. Please drop me a line and refresh my memory, Thank you.

Exhibition Kits

Dave Sanchez  flew two good kits for me.

Dave Goss- good individuals. I was stranded for a while and Sharon rescued me, she rescues more people than the lone ranger.

Don Ouellette- Always a kit worth watching.

Paul Lee- Good individuals, Thank you Paul for all the things you've done for me.

George Kitson- Nice kit, George has been winning on a regular basis.

Jimmy Roodt- very fast individuals.

Les Bezance- his kit was just a joy to watch.

Johnny du Plessis- South Africa

Frank Baker- seldom but violent on the breaks.

Jim Taylor- no doubt one of S. Africa's finest, very good kit.

Danie Botes- nice kit.

Hannes Rossow- good individuals.

Kenny Thomas- nice kit, excellent roller fancier.

Hennie Pfhal- good individuals.

Johan Van Toonder- good individuals.

Vernoa "Sparky" Axsel- had three violent brakes worthy of Bill Pensom, could become South Africa's finest if he quits living on the dangerous side.

ATTENTION PARTICIPANTS

 It was brought to my attention that there was one regional DQ for late entry fees. There also has been some individuals sending in late entry fees. I know of no sport where late entry fees are accepted and the W.C. "MUST"  be run the same way. How can the general coordinator and the regional directors do their thankless jobs on anticipation and guesswork? The W.C. is not a "candy store" operation. We have seven nations taking part. Twenty-seven regional directors and probably something like seventy-five local area directors. There was twelve thousand dollars spent on plane tickets, one LAD spent four hundred dollars of his own money, the judge received four hundred dollars expense money, and spent over seven hundred dollars Canadian to have his pigeons and residence looked after. Many of the pigeon clubs spent a small fortune on me driving me around and entertaining me. I humbly request that all persons coming under the above statements please take into consideration those doing all the work.

FUTURE JUDGES

 This is a wonderful experience and is a once in a life time experience. The people are just wonderful and you will see many fine birds and some wonderful teams. One must concentrate hard as the travel is tough on you. To carry on bags is a must to avoid hassle at the airport and lost luggage. The planes take 6-7 hours from Toronto to London. The flights to South Africa are ten hours. Flights to Denmark and Holland are one hour. Most flights in the U.S.A. are 1-2 hours. Waiting at the airport is 1-4 hours. You then often face a 1-4 hour drive to get to a kit. If Australia gets in you are faced with a 8 hour flight, and Hawaii- I have no idea.

 While in Denmark a fellow from Germany came to take in the fly. It seems that Germany may want in too. If someone had told me in 1972 when all of this started to evolve (thanks to the creation of the I.R.A. to preserve the performing rollers) I would have thought it impossible. If we continue to grow we might end up like the Roman Empire, and collapse from too much expansion. Perhaps some kind of a regional fly-off will have to be arranged.

 In closing I would like to thank all those wonderful people who looked after me, and a special thanks to Steve Clayton for looking after me and all the fine work he did for the last two World Cup Flys.

Monty Neibel