Raymond Moleveld, Toon Ligtenberg and Sam de Jong Article

Visit to Toon Ligtenberg in Steenbergen, Holland

f.l.t.r: Raymond Moleveld, Toon Ligtenberg and Sam de Jong

Picture: Ms. Van Meer, Steenbergen

Late during the 1990 season, Raymond made contact with Sam de Jong from Heemskerk. During a celebration night of the region/provincial club Raymond and Sam made an agreement and Raymond planned to purchase some eggs from his breeders. Eventually Raymond bought during the of spring 1991 from Sams 3 best breeding couples 6 eggs, only 4 eggs were hatched. Two other eggs that did not hatch were traded for two others.

Because Sam told Raymond to use the youngsters for racing purposes first before starting to breed with the couples, Raymond followed his advice. 2 youngsters got lost after attacks from birds of prey so Raymond decided to start breeding with the other two that were left. This proved to be a good move as this pairing has produce the super family Raymound now races.

All the pigeons from this couple performed well on long distance races. Raymond was not surprised by his success when you look at the performances of Sam De Jong and the performances of Nico Volkens from Bergen (Holland) who races pigeons from the Sam de Jong stock. Raymond had made a good decision with Sam de Jong stock and with hard work success was sure to come.

After this first pigeons in 1991 a close connection developed and more pigeons came from Heemskerk to Vreeland. Until now 20 direct pigeons from the “Magician of Heemskerk” are housed at the breeding center. Besides the pigeons from Sam Raymond has always kept his eyes open for other quality stocks which he could use together with the stock he got from Sam. Raymond has been present at a lot of auctions and exhibitions for racing pigeons, to see if there was any special birds available to expand his stock. The criteria for the new breeds must be the closest connection possible between super racer and breeding of champion pigeons.

Over the last years this has resulted in buying some super pigeons. For example Raymond now owns in his breeding loft the following champion birds:

The NL 82 – 604397 a red cock, which ranked 3rd National in the Bergerac race against 38417 pigeons totally. From a daughter of this cock Raymond cultivated the mother of “Jaqueline”

The NL 88 – 2024957 a hen which was bought on the sale of Jopie Sprenkels stock. This hen was a grand daughter of the "04-tje" hen of Sprenkels. The “04-tje” is also the grandmother of “de Klamper” from Cor de Heijde from Made and an important pigeon from the stock of the Kuijpers brothers from Neer. The “57-Hen”is from fathers as well as on the mothers side the grandmother of “Blauwe Bertus” who ranked 1st National St. Vincent in 2003, Sector 3, competing with 9512 other pigeons. She is also the grandmother of “Shady” which ranked 17th National in the race Mont the Marsen in 2002 and 207th in the same race National Mont the Marsen in 2001.

Also the NL 90 – 2109699 which is called “Hanneke”spent time in the breeding station in Vreeland. This hen was a grand daughter from “de Dolle” as well from “03 van Lazeroms”.

The cock NL 91 – 1292080 also called “Taaie 80” was also bought to strengthen the stock. This cock is a grand son from the “03 van Lazeroms”.

At a sale from Nico de Heus, the NL 92 – 49079 was purchased. This was inbred hen to the “Schift v/d Wegen”. This hen is the grandmother of "De Brive" who won the 1st prize in the Brive race Sector 7 in 2002 with 7707 birds competing.

All these pigeons have been put together with the already existing stock mostly from Sam de Jong and have an important function in the stock of Raymond Moleveld.

But there are two other pigeons of great importance.

These are the NL 94 – 1568489 called "Yvette" a hen which was bought on the sale of breeding centre Interpalomas, the breeding station of Piet and Henk de Weerd in Breda. This hen is a daughter from the “Browning” who is a son of “de Oude Kruk” x “Argentina” The mother of "Yvette” is “Artemis” this hen comes from the “Toebosch” couple. Which consists from the cock “Bartali” and the hen “Mathilde”.

Besides this hen, who currently has a full brother in the breeding station, there is the marvellous breeding cock the NL 89 – 8980994. We can find this cock back in almost the complete racing stock of Raymond. The 89-994 also known as “De Ligtenberg” is directly cultivated from Antoon Ligtenberg from Steenbergen. On the complete sale of his stock in ’94 Raymond bought this amazing cock and never had any regrets about this decision. Because the grandsons of this cock won in 2002 the 1st prize at the Brive N.P.O. race over a distance of 831 kilometre of sector 7 competing against 7707 birds and in 2003 the 1st prize on the national St. Vincent race in sector 3 against a total of 9512 pigeons. Also the first two pigeons arriving from the Barcelona race in 2002 were grand children from “De Ligtenberg”. These birds won 64th and 67th National against 8713 pigeons.

For the future Raymond has bought in 2002 some remarkable collection of breeding pigeons to complete his collection. He bought at Martien van Meer from Steenbergen a hen specially to breed with the NL 89-8980994. This hen is bred from the father’s side of the Antoon Ligtenberg breed and the mother’s side of the “Slapertje” from van den Elzakker.

Besides this, 4 couples of breeding pigeons, came from the brothers Vonk from Nigtevecht. These two brothers quitted the racing pigeon sport in 2000 and the other in 2002. Because of a good friendship with John, Raymond was allowed to take any pigeons he wanted from their loft. Raymond chose 8 pigeons which came originally from the Sam de Jong stock. A hen from these chosen birds is NL 93-2860432 also called "Nicole" and she is an daughter of the “Bonte Koppel” from Nico Volkens. In shorter words another good addition for the breeding station.


Another pigeon who had a major impact on Raymond’s stock loft arrived in 2002 from the sale of Nico de Heus. This was a son of the “Oude Kruk” one of the main cocks of the Interpalomas breeding station in Breda. That Raymond owns a son of the “Oude Kruk” who is of remarkable value and outstanding quality. So many breeding pigeons with incredibly high qualities will only bring success.


The success of “de Brive” in the Brive race and “Blauwe Bertus” in the National St. Vincent race show the results of the fantastic breeding results coming out of the "De Ligtenberg" and the pigeons from the famous Sam de Jong. To continue this great breeding results Raymond bought in 2004 two amazing breeding hens from Willy Looymans from Lierop. The NL 96-9694000 is a bred from "De van Zelderen" from Theo Ernest and in the family tree of this pigeon we find breeding from the Antoon Ligtenberg stock. She is an full sister of "De Miguel" who ranked 2nd in the National Barcelona race in 1995. The NL 96-9694008 comes from the Theo Ernest stock to be exact "De Miguel" ranked 2nd National Barcelona x a daughter of the 1st National Tarbes from Theo Ernest.

Again two specific purchases which are focused on continuing the old breeding lines of Toon Ligtenberg.

Visit to Piet Lazeroms in Zegge Holland
f.l.t.r: Piet Lazeroms, Toon Ligtenberg en Raymond Moleveld

Picture: 25-03-2004 768,769,1179,1244,1245,1368