MONTY NEIBEL

1940 - 2000

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

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MONTY'S WORLD CUP RECORD
1991 1st Place 1997 8th Place
1993 4th Place 1998 1st Place
1994 2nd Place 1999 Judge
1995 Judge 2000 1st Place
 
This article was submitted by Joe Houghton
 

Monty Neibel
Unfortunately, I cannot remember just exactly when I met Monty Neibel.
But, I do remember the first time I saw him, as that head of red hair stood out like a beacon. Wiry, personable, and engaging.  He was one of those type of people you couldn't help but like.
When I first knew Monty, he his wife and three children lived in an older part of Vancouver, the University district.  A blue collar area, where the houses were close together, lots were small.  Out back, next to the alley Monty maintained his lofts.  Above them a spaghetti of wires, which the birds had to filter though going up and coming down. Didn't matter to Monty, he overcame, and flew great kits.
I got to know Monty very well, as we both loved to fish, hunt, and play golf.  I made many trips up to Vancouver BC over the years to do those things he and I enjoyed.
He was the best shot I ever saw with a shot gun, witnessing many times him downing triples of ducks and geese.  He literally fed his family on the game he shot or caught, and they were well fed.
Monty was reared in a family of modest means. His father eventually had done well, and had accumulated several apartment houses and peices of property.  After Montys mother passed away, he inherited some of this property, but it didn't change him.  He was still the grass roots individual I'd always known.
He'd worked as a greens keeper on a private Golf Course.  Because of his employment, he and I had some great rounds, he besting me most of the time.
Rollers were his passion, and he was in my estimation as good a roller flyer as the sport had ever seen.  Personally, I never regarded him as a great roller breeder.  But, there simply wasn't anyone better when it came to flying.  If a bird had it in it to perform, Monty would get it out of it.
He wasn't one dimensional, in the respect of being only a Young bird specialist, or with Old birds.  He prided himself, and rightfully so, on the old bird kits he produced and maintained.  He was a severe culler, and the end result of his kits performances was a testament to his standards.
Like all of us, he endured the heartaches and set backs that are all to frequent in roller flying.  But he was one who didn't forget, and learned from his mistakes.
He was part of the formation of the International Fly, and won it several times. I was the first to win it twice in a row, and first to win it three times. Monty first to win it three times in a row, and then go on to win it again over a period of years.
He wasn't a braggart.  To the contrary he was a humble winner and gracious looser.  But, he was also a fierce competitor, and would put forth the effort  and do what was needed to compete to the fullest of his ability.
For those who had the privilege of knowing him, we were fortunate.  For those who didn't have this advantage, you missed one of the true characters and legends of the sport.  Some may come close to duplicating Montys abilities as a flyer and handler of Rollers, but I doubt seriously if anyone will match him kit for kit.
I thank Mr. Hayes for the opportunity to contribute something about my friend Monty Neible.  The sport misses him, but no more than those of us lucky enough to have known him.
Joe Houghton
 

Excerpt from Heine Bijker's 2000 World Cup Fly Report
 
Monty Neibel -  Vancouver Island,  B C  Canada.
 
1894.40 points    5 6 7 9 6 8 10 6 10 11 10 13 7 6 7 12 7 13 15 6 12 8 5 6 12 9 10 8
                         8 7 8 7 15 10 12 9 6 14 10 9 10 9 5 10 7 10 14 15 8
 
                                raw 740       Q 1.6      D 1.6          20 birds.
Monty was complaining about the weather all the time, but for a perfectionist like he was the weather is terrible if it’s not perfect. I thought the weather wasn’t to bad during the day, some wind, some sun, some rain but Monty was talking about a storm and raining cats and dogs. He was just nervous, he was very nervous. He wanted to fly that evening because of his feeding and training schedule, and so he wanted to have perfect weather that evening at 6.25 because that was the time he talked about all day, so not 5, 6 or 7 , no his time was 6.25. He was the master so I just listened to his complaining about the weather and his flying time and feeding schedule. Talking about feeding ; the last two times I saw that he fed his # 1 team he only gave them one teaspoon of millet and some mineral powder and he called that feeding! Of course this was just a part of his way to get them ready for competition. I handled a few of his birds and they felt really strong and muscular, a beautiful small strong pigeon, a real sport pigeon. I was afraid that some of his birds would be nothing but feathers and look real sloppy, but it was the opposite, strong healthy and good looking birds, so the torturing Monty sometimes talked about couldn’t be that hard. Monty just created an excellent family of birds, tough, strong, healthy, good-looking and hardworking pigeons, but I think they need the hand of a real good trainer to get them to work like he did.
That afternoon at 5.30 our very nervous Monty decided to fly because he thought the weather wasn’t going to change to be better. At that time it was overcast with a spit of rain and almost wind still so it was beautiful weather to fly. Monty wanted an overcast sky because he was afraid that his birds would go up high. As soon as he released the birds he called time in, and I started calling the first score within the first minute and they scored for the entire 20 min. It was amazing to see how in every break the birds rolled with beautiful style and velocity, the same depth and all the birds with almost the same quality.
It was easy judging, just count the birds that rolled out of the kit.
Almost immediately after the kit was together again there was the next break. It was such a wonderful show to watch that my mouth fell open and I almost forgot to call the score a few times. I’ve never seen a kit work this hard doing what we always want them to do ; roll together with style, speed and depth. It’s such a pity that there were only three people to watch this incredible show. [ The performance my birds gave last year was different, my birds were kitting tighter and waited longer between the breaks, there was more difference in quality between my birds in the kit I flew.] 
49    breaks in 20 minutes, what a show! Monty told me right after the fly, he had a hard
time to keep his mouth shut, he said:” I wanted to shout every time they made a big break”.  If you think that his birds fell right out of the sky after a show like this you’re wrong. A few minutes after the 20 min. fly after I recovered from the shock of the scoring sheet the birds flew real high, and most of them flew for at least another hour.
I do realize that a lot of people don’t or won’t believe that his birds scored so many points, and I was a bit disappointed that he scored a lot more points than my 1300 points worldrecord of last year, but I can only say that every break his birds made there was no doubt  about scoring it or not because of the constant same good quality rolls they showed, it was just a matter of counting the birds. It’s just very sad that there are only two people left who witnessed this show. I hope no one of the other qualifiers feels offended because of this much more detailed fly report  of Monty’s last fly than theirs, but I think everyone understands.
 
   World Cup 2000 Judge  Heine Bijker