Gold Cup News 4 January 2022.

First of all I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year may all your dreams come true in the year of 2022! Back to the pigeons, I think currently the team is working well as unit and they do not seem to have any underlying illness so as can be seen from the returns on the two Koppies trainers as well as the return from hot spot 1 (Kroonstad 161km’s.).

BUT and I am writing this in bold letters they have not had any ‘heat’ so far this season, it is giving them a great chance to build confidence and to fly together on the longer training flights once the weather changes and we get a day where the temps will be in the mid to higher 20 degrees Celsius by 9am then all will change and we will have one of those days where the trainer being me will be looking for a place to hide far away from the entrants.

Last week I had a look at the pigeons and decided to not do hot spot 1 on Thursday or Friday as I felt the pigeons needed one more 109km from Koppies, they did not have any trouble and came well on the training flight I had a look at the weather and decided to do the first official race being hot spot 1 on Monday 3 January 2022, about 4 to 5 weeks later than I would want to for a summer series. This we will address for the new intake later in 2022 as we need to have hot spot 1 not later than the first Saturday in December of each season to be totally fair on the pigeons.

Sunday evening a bit short of staff we loaded the pigeons and at 03h45 on Monday 3 January 2022 I was rudely awaken by my alarm, just after 4am myself and Rosa drove away from the farm and headed to Kroonstad, we arrived safely at Kroonstad just after 6am and it was a chilly morning with an easterly wind blowing generally east in the wind is neither good for man nor beast. I waited till 06h30 and released the one side of the transporter and before they formed a kit opened the other side so that they did not clash in the strong wind at liberation and perhaps injure one or more pigeon’s wing. They quickly formed one kit and dropped down to about 2 meter from the ground as the headwind was quite strong. I could see they were working well and heading towards the lofts.

We took the N1 back home and about 10km past Koppies on or way back we saw a kit of maybe 40 pigeons they were on the right track but suddenly changed direction and headed a bit west from where they were supposed to go. The wind luckily died down from Koppies for a good 60kms or so and that also helped them I think. We arrived back at the lofts and as I joined the fanciers who made their way to the lofts to watch the hot spot we were doing what pigeon fanciers are best known for we chatted pigeons! I think it was Gielie who actually saw the first kit making their way to the lofts straight over the mountain, they did not mess about and dropped down and ran into the lofts to get some water to drink.

The first pigeon to cross the Benzing ets system and the winner of hot spot 1 was Ali Aldahoum’s pigeon. Well done Aldahoum Team from Kuwait on your first win here at the Allflight Gold Cup race. These are the first entrants we have ever received from Kuwait and their neighbors and they did not wait long to win their first race here. The first 16 pigeons that arrived together are as follows:

Rank Fancier Prize money Country

  1.  Aldahoum Team USD 2000 Kuwait
  2. Al-Hazm Loft USD 1000 Qatar
  3. Triple J Lofts USD 1000 South Africa
  4. Team Heerman-Klingbiel-Gilbert USD 1000 South Africa
  5. Triple J Lofts USD 1000 South Africa
  6. Triple J Lofts USD 250 South Africa
  7. Cornick & Liddel USD 250 South Africa
  8. Badar ALsanafi USD 250 Kuwait
  9. Gys & Formyn USD 250 South Africa
  10. Faber & Theron South Africa
  11. African Roots Synd USD 250 South Africa
  12. Faber & Theron South Africa
  13. Alfons Klaas Germany
  14. Samuel Lofts South Africa
  15. Eaglestone Lofts South Africa
  16. Al-Khaleei Loft Kuwait


Well done to all 16 pigeons as anyone of you could have walked in first from Kroonstad. For the full results please follow the link below:

This race was also the first of the 4 races that will count for the “ace pigeon” competition. I am planning to do the next hot spot this Saturday 8 January 2022 from Ventersburg (210km’s). Liberation will be at 06h30 again weather permitting; I have a very trusted driver for this week’s race so I will be waiting at the lofts for the pigeons to arrive. All the best of luck to every contestant for the remainder of the season and I hope we can send as many of the current team in the lofts to the final! The plan will be to have the 2nd race on Saturday and depending on how they return race 3 or hot spot 3 on Saturday 15 January 2022 from about 320km’s. This will give the team enough time to recover for a final on the weekend of 28/29 January 2022 from Springfontein.