This year we are organizing the autumn classics in Urk for the 20th year in a row.
On Monday evening, September 1, North Holland, Flevoland, and Alphen aan Rijn can register for the second training flight from Bergen op Zoom. There will be two releases: one for North Holland/Alphen aan Rijn and one for Flevoland
Please register your pigeons on time; for this flight, that is no later than Saturday, August 30, 2025.
- For registration at Postduif Wormerveer: wesley_smit1999@hotmail.nl 06-21313891
- For registration at Flevoland Urk: najaarsklassiekers@gmail.com 06-23801027
- For registration at Alphense Vriendenclub Alphen a/d Rijn: j.rimmelzwaan@hccnet.nl 06-53658401
The following weeks, training flights for the other registration locations will commence.
Last week was the first orientation flight from Streefkerk. Unfortunately, participation was a bit lower. The weather was good, and the pigeons could head out on time. The return reports are somewhat similar to what we see in a large part of the country during the regular season: experienced pigeons return well, slightly less experienced pigeons return reasonably, and inexperienced pigeons return poorly. Now that more autumn weather is coming, the chances for inexperienced ones are increasing.
Good news for the East line; we are planning an extra orientation flight for the East line on Tuesday, September 16, from Eefde, with releases in three groups, namely department 10 (Nieuwleusen and Onderdendam), East Flevoland (Damwoude, Kootstertille, and Jubbega), and West Friesland (Sneek and Urk).
The main sponsor Hotel Zeezicht Vlieland has announced its prize for the winner of the 2025 autumn classic, and we are super proud of this prize: 2 hotel overnight stays on the Wadden island of Vlieland and 1 free dinner. Erik Houter, top pigeon fancier in the marathon, thank you very much.
Our gratitude extends to the other sponsors who support us either through services or products. This includes Compuclub, which continues to calculate our results free of charge this year and the championships as well. Additionally, the reporting system Compuclub Live is available to enhance the experience of the competitions.
When mentioning other sponsors, I also want to thank the entrepreneurs from Urk, via Tiemen Schinkel, who have kept the prizes affordable or fully sponsored for 20 years. It concerns staggering amounts that these Urk entrepreneurs have been providing us for so many years.
To the other sponsors I haven't mentioned by name here, our gratitude is equally large.
All these sponsors make it possible for us to offer the game as we do and to allocate a nice amount to the Ronald McDonald House.
On behalf of the autumn classics in Urk 2025 and PV Flevoland Urk,
Simon Zeeman (Head of the Organization)
The strength and weakness of the autumn classics
I wrote about this last year as well. Fanciers sometimes get stuck in what once was. This applies to the autumn classics too. Fanciers think we can perform miracles for inexperienced pigeons. In the past, we organized cake flights that flew much more regionally. What you then see is that the pigeons should be in groups of about 1,000 to 2,000 in the same region. The cake flights are a success because the losses turn out better than during the season, due to autumn weather with more air conditions, but the pigeons are lost in larger numbers in the spring due to the lack of experience they gain.
The strength of the autumn classics as we organize them is that the pigeons gain a lot of experience and are ready to face the competition starting from the first flight of the next year; the success stories are numerous. In fact, a good autumn classics season prepares the pigeons better for the upcoming season than the younger ones that have been played earlier.
This strength is also our weakness because the bar is set higher and sometimes too high for inexperienced pigeons, where there is a significant difference between routine or marathon young. Some experience helps to take the first hurdle in the autumn classics season and work toward pigeons that are suitable for competition in the next season.
I must also express that I sometimes hear from well-meaning department officials that we are costing the departments money because we take pigeons from them. My opinion is the opposite. In the same year, that may certainly be the case, but I believe we keep fanciers in the sport who had already lost hope; moreover, we ensure that more pigeons come to the start in the next season who can also last longer in the season. Through this interest in pigeon sports, we have a positive impact on departmental finances. If this should already be the most important factor.
Autumn classics are coming up
In the previous section, I already spoke about the autumn classics again. Over the past 20 years, we have experienced many years in which one must look for the right moments within weather conditions. Experience shows that you should not measure it against the same standards as in the regular season. And experience shows that this is also not necessary.
Autumn classics involve the coming and going of showers, SW wind. These conditions mean that there is a lot of air movement. In a good summer, we see conditions that we as humans find pleasant, but clear blue skies, also known as east in the wind, are conditions where there is little air movement. The downside of this is that it becomes less easy for the pigeons to orient themselves, and it is seriously questionable whether the pigeons actually learn anything under these conditions.
It does scare fanciers somewhat when 704 of teletekst indicates an 80% chance of rain. But the meaning of this is not that there will be 80% rain throughout the day, but that there is an 80% chance that rain will fall. An elaboration on the number of hours during which rain will fall would be very helpful for us pigeon fanciers, but I also think for other interested parties (like the agricultural sector).
If we look, for example, at the upcoming weekend and the beginning of next week (orientation flight Bergen op Zoom), we see on 704 teletekst that 70 or 80% rain is indicated, but in reality, it concerns 1 or 2 hours of rain in the afternoon, SW 3 to 4, which means that the air will be well cleared (blown away), much air movement. Actually, perfect conditions for your pigeons because with rain, there is water to be found for those who fall behind.
There are certainly days when 80% rain and SW1 is planned with 4 hours of rain. In autumn, the days are shorter, and the release times are much smaller than in the regular season. These conditions are much more difficult, but later in the autumn classics season, this is a well-attainable hurdle for the pigeons. During the practice flights, we will try to be more cautious in that regard.
We are certainly not seeking impossible conditions. An example of this is that last year we had a flight that we postponed to the next day at 8:00 AM when it was very clear that the conditions would be much better the next day and that on the actual day, things were heading toward the impossible. In the last weekend, we did search the limits. Every hour later that weekend saw conditions go from reasonably attainable to increasingly less attainable.
We have also had a year where we sometimes had to resort to weekdays (of course we prefer not to), but by responding to the conditions, we were able to deliver a lot of quality that year.
Registration locations East line
- 0102 Koeriers Onderdendam (arjensiegers24@hotmail.com)
- 0206 De Dowejager Kootstertille (Dedowejager@gmail.com)
- 0210 De Blauwe Doffer Damwoude (r.teunissen1@knid.nl)
- 0232 Gevleugelde Vrieden Jubbega (gv.jubbega@gmail.com)
- 0262 ‘L Estafette Sneek (lestafette@outlook.com)
- 0328 Hoogeveen Hoogeveen (secretarispvhoogeveen@gmail.com)
- 0429 Nieuwleusen Nieuwleusen (gerbenknol@hotmail.com)
- 0433 Flevoland Urk (taartvluchten@gmail.com)
- 0686 De Luchtbode Vriezenveen (Harold Dekker 06-27288126)
Training flight:
- 16-9-2025 Eefde (release in three groups: 1. Nieuwleusen – Onderdendam, 2. Damwoude – Kootstertille and Jubbega, 3 Sneek – Urk, Hoogeveen and Vriezenveen will not register for this flight).
The competition program
N68 20-9-2025 Boxmeer
N69 27-9-2025 Luycksgestel
N70 04-10-2025 Bierges
N71 11-10-2025 Niergnies (National release)
Note! The dates are the competition days; the pigeons will be registered the evening before.
At the first flight, please hand in a copy of your vaccination certificate at the registration location.
Registration locations West line
- 0433 Flevoland Urk (taartvluchten@gmail.com)
- 1031 De Verwachting Tiel (ferdigerritse@hotmail.com)
- 1265 De Postduif Wormerveer (info follows)
- 1710 Alphense Vriendenclub Alphen a/d Rijn (j.rimmelzwaan@hccnet.nl)
- 1738 De Luchtbode Hendrik ido Ambacht (pavdburg@outlook.com)
- 1850 Duivencentrum De Nishoek (combkorsta@planet.nl)
- 2128 De Maasbode Veldriel (Rkuijer4@gmail.com)
Training flights
- 26-8-2025 Streefkerk (Wormerveer, Urk (2 releases))
- 2-9-2025 Bergen op Zoom (Alphen aan Rijn, Wormerveer, Urk (2 releases))
- 10-9-2025 Duffel (all locations, Zeeland released separately)
- 17-9-2025 Lennik (all locations, Zeeland released separately)
You are always dependent on the weather in the autumn; each week we assess how best to serve the fanciers and ensure enough overlap with the previous flight. We are limited in the number of releases we can make per release point, but as always, we also listen to wishes and try to act on them if possible.
Competitions
- N38 20-9-2025 Quievrain
- N39 27-9-2025 Niergnies
- N40 04-10-2025 Roye
- N41 11-10-2025 Niergnies (National release)
Note! The dates are the competition days; the pigeons will be registered the evening before.
At the first flight, please hand in a copy of your vaccination certificate at the registration location.
Transport costs
The pricing for 2025 is 1.10 for a transport pigeon and 1.20 for a prize pigeon.
Festive evening
On Saturday, October 18, a grand finale party will take place in Urk starting at 3:00 PM. At this party, all prizes will be awarded, and it will be made a true celebration, a bit in the old-fashioned way, with bingo, a lottery, etc., and above all, a chance to meet from Zeeland to the mudflats; we all share the same hobby.
It is definitely worth the trip to Urk; perhaps it would be nice to combine this with a visit to this beautiful fishing village.
Compuclub
The Compuclub is an important sponsor of our organization. They calculate the results for us free of charge, allowing us to inform the entire country about the outcomes of the competitions. We are grateful for this collaboration.
Hotel Zeezicht Vlieland
This year, Erik Houter from the beautiful Wadden island of Vlieland is again the name bearer of our flights. We are very grateful to him for his sponsorship in recent years. This distinguished marathon player claims to greatly benefit from the nice flights of the autumn classics.
Erik wishes to pass the baton of main sponsor to someone else. We hope that you may feel called to become the name bearer of our autumn classics next year; please contact Louw van den Berg (06-22258877) or Simon Zeeman (06-23801027).
Special prize for the attraction for the first national
On October 11, the national flight from Niergnies will take place. A very nice flight with few losses.
This year, in celebration of our 20th anniversary, a special prize is available for the winner of that competition.
- 1 overnight stay at the B&B of KijkOpSchokland in Nagele. This prize is made available by Bart Vos.
Other Sponsors
We are pleased that a whole group of Urk businesses has been supporting us for 19 years to acquire the prizes at the lowest possible rates. We are very grateful for that and it shows how special this community is.
Charity
Since the start of the autumn classics, formerly cake flights, in Urk, we organize these flights to demonstrate the social involvement of our sport to the outside world. We have raised money for the Ronald McDonald House in Leeuwarden for many years, and following the closing of this location, we now support the Ronald McDonald House in Beesterzwaag.
This house provides accommodation for children with serious illnesses, who temporarily need so much care that it is impossible at home. The Ronald McDonald House is characterized by providing space for families to stay close to the patient. In addition to this activity, this Ronald McDonald House offers space for holidays for families where a normal holiday spot is impossible due to the illness of one of the children in the family.
Over the years, we have collected over 50,000 euros for this good cause and intend to continue supporting it for many more years.
Sponsors
We, as a committee, are trying to assemble an extensive sponsor package of prizes again so that as many people as possible can win a prize. If you would like to also become a sponsor of the autumn classics, please contact Louw van den Berg (06-22258877) or Simon Zeeman (06-23801027).
Please direct all your questions about the autumn classics via email to najaarsklassiekers@gmail.com.
Furthermore, all news will be published as soon as possible on our website www.najaarsklassiekers.nl.
We will keep you updated as much as possible in the coming time and wish you a lot of fun with the competition flights.