A TRIBUTE TO RAY MEARNS
of Epsom
by Keith Mott
My good friend, Mike Charlton, phoned me on Tuesday 11th February to give me the shocking news that the Esher & District RPC chairman, Ray Mearns, had passed away suddenly at his home in Epsom that morning. When first hearing this terrible news, my reaction was utter disbelief, as Ray was no great age and always seemed to be a very fit man.
Ray was a very good pigeon racer and had flown in partnership with Jimmy Rookledge since the 2000 season, and they enjoyed some wonderful success racing in one of the strongest clubs in the south of England. Ray was a great worker in the Esher club and if there was anything to be done, he was always there first to sort it out. A few years ago he ran the club’s open shows, organized some wonderful club Bar BQs with his wife Dawn and was the main instigator of the successful Esher Mid-Week Club, which sent several hundred birds to Salisbury on Wednesdays throughout the racing season. We often give credit to good workers in our sport, but Ray really was one of the hardest working men I‘ve ever met in the pigeon sport and will be greatly missed by all of us! Betty and I would like to send our deepfelt condolences to Dawn, Jamie, Katie and the Mearns family at this very sad time.
The Epsom partnership of Jim Rookledge & Ray Mearns enjoyed some wonderful racing in the Three Borders Federation in recent seasons, and won 1st Federation Exeter, 2nd Federation Alencon, 2nd Federation Exeter, 2nd Federation Lulworth, 8th Federation Plymouth, 12th Federation Messac and 13th Federation Lulworth. A brilliant loft performance put up in a very strong Federation! Jim and Ray were both old hands at pigeon racing, forming their successful partnership about fifteen years ago after 40 years in the sport. They raced several families over the years including Medina Busschaerts and top-class Staf Van Reets from Paul Arnold of North Cheam. Two teams of widowhood birds were worked, one for sprint racing and the other for racing from the Continent. They raced both hens and cocks on widowhood and paired up on 10th December. They had several lofts, the main one being 18ft long, with three sections and open-door trapping. When I asked Jim how far he sends the widowhood racers, he told me all the way through to Bergerac (450 miles) and his best position was 1st Open Combine Alencon in the 2000 season. He and Ray raced a very basic widowhood system by training lightly up to the first race, then exercising twice a day around the loft, and the breakdown system until Tuesday morning. The partners fed a first-class Super Widowhood mixture and showed the hens on marking night.
Rookledge & Mearns' Three Borders Federation winner was their good Arnold / Van Reet blue white flight cock '90094' which beat 1,090 birds from Exeter. This handsome three year old widowhood cock had plenty of good previous form having won that season, 1st club Yeovil, 1st club Newton Abbot and 5th club, 5th Federation Honiton. A brilliant sprinter! Jim's & Ray's best pigeon at that time was their three year old blue Van Reet / Houben widowhood cock '90071', bred by Paul Arnol, which in a recent season won four times 1st club in the Esher & Dist HS and 2nd, 8th and 13th open in the Three Borders Federation. This game cock had also won firsts racing inland in previous seasons and had scored in the Federation several times. Another star of the Rookledge & Mearns loft recently was their good Busschaert hen '87210', which recorded 2nd Three Borders Federation from Exeter (1,090 birds). This five year old widowhood hen had been a brilliant racer for the partners, winning 2 x 1st and 5 x 2nd in the club and 2 x 2nd Federation.
They liked all Federation racing, short and long, and paired their five pairs of stock birds at the same time as the racers so that they could underlay the first round of eggs off the breeders. The 30 young birds they bred were trained hard up to 40 miles before the first race, then once a week during the racing season and raced the programme naturally to the perch. Jimmy raced natural for many years and said his best nest condition for a racer flying the Channel was feeding a big young bird or sitting 14 day old eggs. Ray maintained that when they were selecting pigeons to breed from they had no special type, looking at only good performance pigeons and quite often paired winners to winners. Ray Mearns, one of our best!
KEITH MOTT (February 2014)
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