Silvère Toye was born in the West-Flanders city of Kortrijk in 1936. His father died when Silvère was only 4 and his mother was left with the care of 9 children. Needless to say, life was not easy for young Silvère. However, he was far from lazy. Introduced to pigeon sport by a neighbour, Joseph De Greve, Silvère started keeping pigeons when he was 14 years old. Even at that early age he had a burning ambition of becoming a famous champion one day. He had several jobs with local butchers and bakers and spent every penny on buying pigeons and food for them. As a beginner he raced well, but marriage intervened. Facing the need to save money to start his own butcher's business, Silvère sometimes worked 80 hours and more a week. Between 1957 and 1963, there was no free time to spend on keeping birds. However, in 1963 his butcher's shop was doing really well (he had started it in 1961) and Silvère decided to return to his beloved sport. Ambitious as ever, he went to the Cattrysse brothers and bought six birds, including a son of 'Draaier' and 'Bulte', spending his last savings (3000 BEF, a tidy sum at that time) in the process. Unfortunately a lack of experience with slow maturing long distance racers, combined with a lot of work in his shop, were a guarantee for a lot of frustration. Nothing much, other than dissappointment, happened until 1969. That year, Silvère laid the foundation of what was to become one of the most successful racing lofts of modern history.

In 1969 Silvère bought 33 youngsters from Robert Reybroeck and immediately raced very well with them. His 'Favoriet' became 2nd Provincial Acepigeon; opening a long list of titles Silvère would collect over the years to come. In 1973 he moved to a new house and once again -overwhelmed by work- his toughts went to stopping. However, his friends convinced him to go on. Roger Voorhamme became Silvère's loftmanager and another 10 hens of Robert Reybroeck moved to the Toye loft. Very soon it became apparent that 2 of the 10 'hens' were in fact cocks: the 'Meester', 3169484/74 and the 'Kleinen', 3459253/73. The 'Meester' won 1st Provincial Angoulème against 2000 pigeons when he was 9 years (!) old. He had scored 2 times a second Provincial Angoulème and a 2nd Provincial Poitiers before too, as well as numerous 1st prizes on long distances. 'Kleinen' did no less than his halfbrother: he also terrorized the competition of Angoulème and Poitiers, earning an Acepigeon title in the HAFO Club of Deinze and helping Silvère to win the title of General Champion of the WestFlanders and InterProvincial Union in 1978. In fact his results in 1978 were so impressive that the famous Jules Gallez wrote: "His pigeons have won such magnificent prizes in 1978 that we think he is capable of making history." No small words from a writer who had seen most of Belgium's top champions come and go. It were certainly prophetic words and Silvère Toye soon lived up to Gallez' high expectations.

A year earlier Silvère had reinforced his stock with latebreds from Norbert Norman's astonishing Limoges fliers. Against 5427 pigeons Norman had managed to win 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th National (see also our earlier article on Norbert & Filip Norman). Crossed with sons and daughters of 'Kleinen' these Norman birds made sure the name Toye would be heard in the pigeon sport world for years to come. It was a move typical for Silvère: he got the best from the best and then crossed this material with his own established line of which 'Kleinen' was the basic father (despite his impressive racing carreer, his halfbrother 'Meester' unfortunately proved to be a lousy breeder). In the decade between 1978 and 1988 Silvère achieved the following (we only mention the most important feats; a total performance list is far beyond the scope of this article):

In 1981 he won the coveted 'Championship of the Aces' of the West Flanders Union (W.V.V.). In this competition a fancier has to beat some of the best long distance racers of Belgium with his two first designated birds. Silvère won this championship with 11 prizes, two prizes more than number two, André Lietaer of Rekkem. Other famous names further down the list included Jef Huysentruyt, Miel Deweerdt, Roger Vereecke, Maurits Beuselinck, Georges Bolle, Desmet-Devooght (wife of Norbert Norman with loftmanager Gaston Devooght), Etienne Devos, Herman Sanders, Pol Bostyn, etc. This list gives a good idea of the toughness of this championship and the great quality of he who wins it! That same year he also won the Criterium of Aces of the Entente Belge.

In 1982 he repeated the latter performance. With his two first designated birds on classics such as Brive, Montauban, Limoges (Derby and Yearlings), Lourdes, St. Vincent and Perpignan, Silvère beat fanciers such as Georges Bolle, Marc Roosens, Herman Sanders, Raoul Van Spitael, Raymond Cobut, Georges Carteus, Gerard and Michel Vanhee, André Vanbruane, Roger Vereecke and many others, prompting Jules Gallez to write once again:"It is impossible for us to count Silvère Toye among the established champions of this generation, but we have to place him on top of everybody else because of his outstanding performance for years in a row. He leads a number of fanciers who are on their way to write some beautiful pages in the history of the Belgian pigeon sport." Indeed, in 1982 Silvère showed a record not many fanciers had produced before. Next to the above Criterium he also won the title of 1st Acepigeon Long Distance 'De Belgische Duivensport' and 2nd AND 5th National Acepigeon K.B.D.B. Winning the National Acepigeon titles was a direct result of the Norman input. The 2nd National Acepigeon was 'Jonge Tarzan', 3422865/78, a son of 'Old Tarzan', 3470341/77; the 5th National Acepigeon was 'Dikkop 205', 3021205/79, a son of 'Old Dikkop', 3470375/77. Both 'Old Tarzan' and 'Old Dikkop' were direct latebreds of Norman. 'Old Dikkop' came out of 'Dikkop' of Norman (Desmet-Devooght), 3rd National Limoges 1977.

In 1983 the descendants of the Norman birds would continue to prove their worth: 'Jonge Dikkop', 3268597/81, a brother of 'Dikkop 205', won 1st National Limoges against 9001 pigeons. Mother of 'Jonge Dikkop', was 'Carla', out of the line of 'Kleinen'. 1983 also brought Silvère (among others) the 2nd General Championship West Flanders and Interprovincial, 4th General Championship of the Entente Belge, 3rd National Championship Long Distance K.B.D.B., 1st Superstar Long Distance Golden Pigeon, 4th Criterium of the Aces, Entente Belge, 7th Criterium of the Aces, West Flanders, 1st Prize of the Netherlands, Limoges Yearlings, etc. His 'Jonge Bloedhond' won an 8th National Limoges against 12147 birds. His 'Lange Dikkop' won a 37th National and 'Prins' won a 39th National in the same race.

In 1984 the success continued. 'Peter Pau', 3268600/81, a son of 'Kleinen', won 1st International Pau against 3529 pigeons. This was another proof of the formidable breeding qualities of this outstanding cock. Not only did he sire 'Peter Pau' and his brother 'Carl Pau' (8th International Pau 1984), he was also the father of super breeding hens 'Carla', 3022480/76 (mother of 'Dikkop 205' and 'Jonge Dikkop', see above) and 'Mirabelle', 3406040/77. The latter was not only mother of 'Jonge Tarzan' (see above), but also of 'Tarzan Senior', 10th International Pau and 19th International Lourdes 1986, 'Tarzan Boy', 1st National Acepigeon K.B.D.B. Long Distance 1988 and 'New Tarzan', Olympiad bird Long Distance in Katowicze, Poland, 1989. A grandson of the 'Kleinen' won a 3rd National Narbonne ('Dikkop Narbonne' in 1986), another ('Dave Dikkop') a 7th National Tulle in 1987, a 26th National Limoges in 1986 and a 29th National Montauban in 1988. As the eighties came to an end Silvère's list of achievements and trophees continued to grow considerably.

In 1988, Silvère once again moved to a new location. From Kortrijk, the West Flanders city where he and his wife Rita had worked and raced pigeons so successfully, everything went to Otegem, a small village amidst the farmer's fields. Here Silvère finally realized his childhood dream. Beautiful lofts were erected, the Kortrijk stock moved to the new location and Silvère made himself ready to take the Belgian pigeon sport world by storm once again. Silvère himself counted on five years to get back to the top. He did it in three. In 1991 he was crowned 1st National Champion Extreme Long Distance K.B.D.B. Where any ordinary fancier, starting to race from scratch again, would have been content to use up three years to score a decent result on any long distance race, Silvère took the National title, lock, stock and barrel. Key to this extraordinary success? Breeding. Toye: "You only survive in the pigeon sport with a good breeding loft. Good pigeons are bred from good pigeons. I am sure of one thing: when you put an acepigeon at stock, the quality of both your breeding and your racing loft really goes up." To underline his point Silvère proceeded to buy the 1st and 2nd National Acepigeon K.B.D.B. 1991 from Eric Limbourg ('Alibaba' and 'Grote Barcelona'). In 1992 he added the 'Invincible Montauban', 1st National Montauban 1992 of Maurice Casaert to his breeding stock. He also played a key role in putting together the 'Flanders Connection', a group of highly successfull fanciers who regularly bred together to improve their stock. Participants were André Brouckaert, Noël Decroix, Roger Vereecke (together with Raymund Hermes), Maurice Verheye, Santens Brothers, Josef Heindryckx, Noël Peiren, Norbert & Filip Norman, Josef Vandenbroucke, Gaby Vandenabeele, Eric Limbourg and Maurice Casaert. Pairing the best birds of toplofts together to create even better race and stockbirds fitted competely in Silvère Toye's philosophy.

Contrary to many other fanciers with grand theories, Silvère managed to put his ideas to the test and succeed. In 1992 he won the title of National Champion Long Distance K.B.D.B. In 1994 'Romulus' became 5th National Acepigeon Long Distance K.B.D.B. as well as 1st International Acepigeon Extreme Long Distance Z.L.U. In 1995 the International Acepigeon Extreme Long Distance Z.L.U. again could be found on the Toye loft ('Black Devil'). In 1996 'Mephisto' was 6th National Acepigeon Long Distance K.B.D.B. The following year this amazing bird was 3rd National Acepigeon Long Distance K.B.D.B.! In 1996 Silvère won 16 first prizes. Never resting on his laurels, he also bought 'Churchill', the 9th National Acepigeon Long Distance K.B.D.B. In 1997 another 22 1st prizes were added to his performance list, including 5 1st Provincials. That same year 'Soleil' won a 2nd National Argenton against 15443 young birds and 'Thalys' won a 2nd National Perigueux against 5594 pigeons. Not content with being 'only' second, the 1st National winners of both races ('Monaco' and 'Filou') were bought by Silvère and moved to the Toye lofts in Otegem! In 1998 'Libelle' won the much coveted 1st National Bourges against 3397 hens. That same year Silvère added another 5 1st Provincials to his list. 1999 was another super year. How else would you describe a 1st National La Souterraine against 1334 Old Birds, a 2nd National Limoges Hens, a 2nd National La Souterraine Hens, 5 1st Provincials and 66 top 100 National positions?


Silvère Toye before his lofts, holding 'Montauban', 1st National Montauban and 'Mephisto', 6th (1997) and 3rd (1998) National Acepigeon

The new millennium brought new successes for the Toye lofts: in 2001 his pigeons won at least 11 firsts and 9 seconds. Among these were a 1st Chateauroux (2nd Provincial), a 1st and 2nd Bourges Old Birds (45th National), 1st Bourges Yearlings (1st Club and 1st Provincial against 1830 pigeons. This was also a 7th National against 16143 birds), 1st Tours (4th Provincial against 2097 Yearlings), 1st and 2nd Poitiers (9th and 10th Provincial), 2nd Montauban (83rd National against 8027 pigeons), 2nd Barcelona (5th Provincial), 1st Dax (6th International against 12278 birds), 1st Souillac (22nd National against 6893 birds), 1st and 2nd Argenton (and 4th and 5th), etc. Of course this list resulted in a number of Championships as well: in the West Flanders and Interprovincial, Silvère was General Champion 1st 3 designated birds, Champion Old Birds (1st 2 designated), Champion Yearlings (1st 3 designated), 3rd in the Criterium of the Aces and winner of the Flanders Pigeon Trophy. Over the years his 'secret' has remained virtually unchanged. Careful attention to breeding, bringing acepigeons ('complete pigeons' according to Silvère) and National winners on the breeding loft is his number one priority. Attention for training is another priority: young birds are basketed each day and tossed from about 30 km. Afterwards they are raced up to 340 km (Orleans). Yearlings also receive such 30 km training tosses: about 10 of them, before they are raced up to Limoges (574 km). Anything that does not perform after Orleans is tested on Narbonne and Perpignan (about 900 km). The old birds also get a couple of 30 km tosses while on eggs, "to make them lose some weight". As widowhood cocks they are prepared for the Nationals on Clermont (twice) and Orleans (once). Silvère generallys spares his widowers: "a long distance racer has enough racing from 4 Nationals of 600+ kms. If you want him to become an acepigeon there is no point in letting him race 400 - 600 km in between Nationals.". In general Silvère does not make a program before Brive. After this race he selects his teams for Cahors, Pau, Barcelona, etc., depending on their performances earlier in the year. Whenever possible he tries to send the same birds to the same races. Normally the pigeons race every two weeks, but for the extra long 900 km races they have 3 weeks at home in between. If the race was bad, the pigeon gets a confidence building session of a 170 km race in between. Attention to food, hygiene on the lofts (with regular disinfections and vacuuming), and medical treatment (vaccinations against paramyxo on time - "vaccinating too late is bad for the condition" according to Silvère - and curing against trichomonas when necessary), complete the formula.


Silvère before some of his many trophees, holding 'Red Mephisto', father of 549/02, 1st Provincial and 4th National La Souterraine (after no less than 8 days in the basket!) and 'Iris', mother of 'Red Mephisto' and currently his best breeding hen.

And that brings us to the final chapter: this year. There is only one conclusion possible: people like Silvère are difficult to write about. Their list of accomplishments is usually so long, that summing them all up would make for very boring articles. So let's just look at the most important achievements of the Toye loft in 2002: 3rd National Argenton, 3rd and 6th National La Souterraine, 7th National Gueret, 9th and 11th National Souillac, 14th National Argenton, 35th and 37th National Limoges, 59th National Montauban, 63rd National Pau, etc., in total 17 positions among the top 100 in the National races. Add to this 13 firsts and 8 seconds, of which 5 First Provincials (Tours, Bourges, La Souterraine, Argenton and Gueret) and 4 Second Provincials (Tours, Bourges, La Souterraine and Chateauroux) and 14 positions among the top 10 in the Provincials, and it's easy to see Silvère struck fear in the hearts of his competitors. And envy. Rumours of the use of doping started to circulate. Several times the inspectors of the K.B.D.B. and the Department of Agriculture had been signalled on the Toye lofts. That Silvère's pigeons had been found absolutely free of doping on every single occasion, those that were jealous of his success 'accidently' forgot to mention. That someone who wins a lot, also gets a lot of inspections, they also forgot about. Those allegations hurt Silvère's feelings more than he cared to mention. He did stand up against the injust remours however, letters of the K.B.D.B., mentioning that he was found to race fair and square, in hand. For those among us, true fanciers, that hate doping, it is heartwarming to know Silvère Toye's achievements prove you don't need doping to become a top performer in our beloved sport.

Drawing a conclusion from all the above is very simple. Jules Gallez' prophetic words have long since been surpassed by the reality of the years: From 'coming man' in the seventies and eighties, Silvère has evolved into a 'classic' of his own, an icon between the Champions of today, sure to be a pigeon sport legend a few decades from now...