John Poppeliers from Hapert wins Agen old birds (The Netherlands).

The eventual winners of the two separate Agen races soon reached the top of the two reporting lists. The first pigeons were reported from 6.45 pm on the shortest distances in Zeeland and especially Limburg. At 6.51 pm John Poppeliers managed to clock in Hapert in East Brabant at 890 km and at 1277 m.p.m. his old pigeon turned out to be the national winner after a few hours of waiting for the performance of the overflight. In Sint Willebrord in West Brabant, M. Valentijn managed to clock a yearling at 6.59 pm and at an almost equal distance of 892 km and at 1266 m.p.m. that clapper later turned out to be the fastest of all yearlings. Another winner from Kaatsheuvel was at the top of the list for the old pigeons for quite some time, but an error must have been made with that report. In the old pigeons group, a number of pigeons managed to approach the 1277 m.p.m of John Poppeliers in the overflight and a pigeon from J. Hommes and sons from Akersloot in North Holland came very close, which reached 1275 m.p.m. on 1002 km. managed to come. No, in the end the gold belongs to John Poppeliers and we can say that a complete outsider has taken the victory palm and that is wonderful for the pigeon sport. From how many pigeons does he win national? At the bottom of the notification list we found the number of basketed pigeons. With the old pigeons, the sum of all basketing centers resulted in 5459 pigeons. With the yearlings we see there the number of 4192 pigeons while the ZLU officially declares 5296 yearlings. That gives a total of 10,755 pigeons and at Pipa we read about a number of 10,743 pigeons that the (international) organization states. Who counts well and who counts less well? That Friday evening, John Poppeliers was watching two flights from Bordeaux (NPO) and Agen old. He had five on Bordeaux and eight old on Agen. When he saw a pigeon arriving at 6.51 pm, he first thought of a Bordeaux goer, of which a reasonable number of pigeons had already been clocked in the area. The cock fell directly on the valve after a round and when he saw them John also thought of Bordeaux because he has a number of pigeons of the same color. Only when he looked at his 'clock' did he see Agen standing and a speed of 1277 m. On Pipa he had just seen the fastest pigeon up to that point at 1285 m. So this had to be an early Agen pigeon. Not even thinking about the 1st national and the fastest of all Dutch Agen flyers. This was the first real long distance race for seven of the eight pigeons that went to Agen old.

Hapert

In the south-west corner of the East Brabant department, to my knowledge, a national win on a ZLU flight has never been taken. Hapert lies on the line Reusel, Bladel, Duizel and Eersel and that region is also called the Acht Zaligheden with other villages such as Netersel, Knegsel and Steensel and Hulsel all ending in 'sel'. Traditionally, the region was/is known for good programme pigeons and the kind of 'Mannekes' from Arendonk will certainly be to blame. Arendonk, near Reusel, is just on the other side of the border in Belgium and through men like Jos van Limpt (alias de Klak) and the Borgmans brothers, the Janssens strain continued to fly in the Netherlands. There are not many real big-fancier players in that corner but 53-year-old John Poppeliers has been purely focused on the long distance for quite some time. Last week he basketed all his old birds on Pau and on Agen and Bordeaux. John does not play yearlings in the very long distance but plays them in the programme up to one or two long distance flights. On Pau, John had 6 pigeons with him and scored prizes 361, 688 and 877 against 3934 pigeons. Five pigeons he has back from Pau and indeed the mother of the Agen winner NL21-4007711 is the only pigeon that did not (yet) return. On Agen old John basketed eight and after 18.52hrs he clocked a second pigeon at 20.27hrs and that hen is also well on time. On Saturday, he got three more pigeons home from Agen old. The pigeons were basketed on youngsters aged 5 to 9 days and the winner had youngsters aged 8 days in dish when bought. To Bordeaux went five Poppeliers pigeons. And four are on the result and the first was clocked at 19:13 and they win prizes 232, 378, 643 and 669 against 2129 pigeons in the department. And according to John, the last result is typical of his performance (for Agen!) and did start with a prize 1 in 10 and plenty of prize birds but never really early ones. But Agen old 2023 changed everything!

loft file
John Poppeliers lives in his parents' yard with his mother and he is single. For a long time he raced there in combination with his father who passed away some 15 years back. For his old pigeons, he has two departments, each containing 12 boxes. In principle, he starts each season with 24 nesting couples of which only the old pigeons go to the long distance. This year, John took a different approach to preparation by pairing the pigeons separately. Only at the end of May the racers were paired with a view to the desired nesting of youngsters around 5-8 days at basketing. The last time with the big basket they went to Melun from Hank on 17 June. The week before basketing, John rapped his racers three times from about 20 km in Belgium. At home, the pigeons normally train from 6 to 7 in the morning and in the evening they are obliged to go on the wings for an hour. As mentioned, the mother of the 'Agen 711' was lost on Pau and his father was left behind on a long distance race two years ago. Both parents had scored a number of prizes in the long distance before they were beaten. In 2013, John got some pigeons from Wim Verbaal in Valkenswaard and in recent years has knocked on the door of Piet de Vogel in Oude Tonge. In the winner is a lot of Jelle Jellema type via Aat and Pé Laan from Westwoud where he got pigeons in 2014 and 2015.... In the past, pigeons also came from Harrie Winkens (Itteren) and Rob Hoekstra (Riethoven).
The same corner
Since this year, John Poppeliers has been basketing for the ZLU flights in Stiphout (Helmond) and this is due to the fact that members of sister association the Air Travellers from Eersel and other 'neighbours' also basket there. Will Geudens from Knegsel thus had an early yearling on this Agen and other men are Harrie van Ham(-Bartels) from Wintelre and Fr. v.d. Zanden from Duizel. John himself is a member of the p.v. de Witpen in Hapert and well-known strong program players of the club are Ton van de Put and Harrie Kennis. Auke van der Deen is a club member who in recent years has also managed to peak at programme racing and he also plays the midday dispatches quite well. If we look at the fastest pigeons on international Agen, it is striking to see that the fastest old pigeon was clocked in Mol and the fastest yearling in Oud-Turnhout and these Belgian towns are not far from Hapert on the other side of the border. In the pure overflight in Belgium, the fastest Agen pigeons were clocked and the second fastest yearling clocked in Bocholt, Belgium, is also on the border with the Netherlands and therefore bordering East Brabant. John's national winner is the second oldest pigeon internationally, scoring prize 5 across both categories.

UPS
For about 29 years, John Poppeliers has been working for UPS, which is an American courier service called United Parcel Service in full and is the largest and oldest in the world. When John started working for that company 29 years back, they were new in the Netherlands with 20 employees. Meanwhile, UPS has 1,100 people working for it in the Netherlands. John works at Eindhoven airport and the company has large warehouses in Venlo and Roermond. John has a responsible financial position at UPS and since corona, John can also work partly from home and this allows him to spend a bit more time on his pigeons. On 'normal' working days, he is away from home from 7 to 6 and then it is not easy to knit everything around in a day with the pigeons. And especially since John has to do everything on his own and cannot do a helping hand business when he is away from home himself. 
Stijn Rans
Simultaneously with the paramyxo vaccination of the youngsters, John had the manure of his old pigeons checked about five weeks back. Veterinarian Stijn Rans was consulted for this and he holds regular consultations in the room of the p.v. de Luchtbode from Reusel. . 'Nothing' was found in the manure so nothing needed to be done either. John does use Giantel products (through and on the advice of Stijn Rans) and this company was founded by Henk van Limpt from Reusel. The pigeons are given Mariman feed and towards a race 'Variamax' is fed and the pigeons are given extra candy seed, peanuts and Tovo. Electrolytes are then also put through the water. John Poppeliers can be characterised as a likeable guy. He has both feet on the ground and talks about his pigeons frankly and freely. In his talk, he also pays plenty of attention to his own environment (his own club and those in the neighbourhood) and other fanciers. And that is wonderful to hear. He has not yet managed to book any major fund successes for this Agen. A good price 1 in 10 was the max so far, according to his own words. But the 'Agen 711' changed everything on 30 June. Wonderful nonetheless! A two-year-old going to the long distance for the first time and then beating everything and everyone! John will look at him with a completely different perspective from now on. Big congratulations on this win, John! For his own peace of mind, John housed the 'Agen 711' elsewhere to do some co-breeding with him. 
Ad van Gils