About us
Chris Beckers was born in Kerkrade in 1976 and at the age of 8 moved to Lelystad with his mother and 2 brothers after the divorce of his parents.
“After my parents’ divorce, my father came to visit us regularly and in 1988 my father converted a cupboard in the house into an aviary where a few pairs of canaries were soon put in. Breeding the canaries was a drama and the fun was soon over. Pigeons that is what I wanted and to my great delight Pa came to put a nice loft together with Jos Gruisen in the winter of 1989. Started in 1990 and became a member of PV de Flevocourier and started with youngsters on the Natour. Nice performances soon followed on the sprint races as a youth member.”
In 2000 I got to know Nancy and we started racing under the name Combinatie Beckers, Lelystad. in the following years our 4 sons Nick, Sem, Justin and Jamie were born. After a few years of focusing on the short distance, the 1st Marathon pigeons from Pa from Sittard came to Lelystad in 2001…. The Armani and the Mexx were immediately a bull’s eye as the Armani became 8th Ace pigeon in the Province in 2003 and the Mexx 3rd Ace pigeon in 2005 Province in the Marathon. Later, the Armani was paired to the Esprit and a Super pair was created where De Spirit became a TOP PIGEON by Pa in Sittard and partly because of the Spirit, the Cup of Flanders was won at Barcelona 2011.”
In 2008 we moved to our current home with the intention of making a new start on the Marathon races. We bought a new loft from Firma Punt and in consultation with Pa bought pigeons from Jaap van der Velden… Jaap also loaned us a cock from Rocky to breed from.
Soon after the move we picked up our passion again and we were able to note some nice performances… Meanwhile, in 2012, pigeons purchased via Toppigeons from Jelle Jellema from the Orion, Zwart Goud and Daughter Olympic Miss Gijsje. The new pigeons had to be crossed on the basic marathon pigeons of my father from Sittard. From 2014, youngsters went to Pa in Sittard every year to be tested on the marathon races. To our great sadness, 2 days before Christmas in 2014, Nancy had a serious car accident that turned our lives upside down, and ensured that the pigeons came to a second plan. In the following years we worked hard on our breeding loft where we mainly bought pigeons via PIPA from Jelle Jellema, Hugo Batenburg, Verweij-de Haan. The races were continued at a very low level.
2019 Pa wins with The Perpignan the 1st National Perpignan ZLU 2019 with a pigeon bred in Lelystad 25% of our own pigeons and 75% from Jaap van der Velden. A super performance and Pa was so proud of the 1st National and so were we!!!
My father was in poor health and he needed extra oxygen for years…. Fortunately, with the help of his wife Fienny and his best friend Bert Durlinger, dad was able to enjoy the pigeons, with the highlight of course being the 1st National… Unfortunately, my dad passed away quite suddenly on 25-3-2021 and the pigeons were sold in 1 move to Belgium.. Only “De Perpignan” came to Lelystad and will stay there for the rest of his life…. It’s now up to us to shine in the marathon and make Pa proud up there.
