“ON THE ROAD” WITH KEITH MOTT.

LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEARS (PART 22.)

The late Jim Rookledge & Ray Mearns of Epsom.

The Three Borders Federation sent 764 birds to Yeovil for the last old bird inland race of the 2014 season and with the convoy being liberated in a fresh South West wind, the members enjoyed a brilliant finally. Jim Rookledge and Ray Mearns of the Esher & Dist. RPC won 1^st Federation by a ‘country mile’! The real buzz for me and I’m sure for the other members of the Esher club was to see Jimmy Rookledge win the Federation out of Yeovil by 19ypm clear. Jimmy was in advancing in years and had carried on racing the pigeons that season in spite of the very sudden passing of his pigeon partner and the club’s dear friend, Ray Mearns, in February of that year. Sadly a few months after our dear friend and club mate, Jim Rookledge also passed away. 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. Jim and Ray had obtained several outstanding Gaby Vandenabeele pigeons from former Esher member, John Barrett, and the Yeovil Federation winning widowhood cock was produced by these stock birds. The Epsom partnerships had had a wonderful 2014 old bird season winning: 5^th, 7^th Federation Blandford (1,397 birds), 22^nd Federation, 40^th SMT Combine Fougeres (1,073 birds), 4^th Federation, 7^th SMT Combine Messac (1,160 birds), 9^th Federation, 14^th SMT Combine Nort sur Erdre (699 birds), 1^st, 23^rd Federation Yeovil (764 birds).

The Epsom partnership of Jim Rookledge and Ray Mearns had enjoyed some wonderful racing success in recent season, flying in the Three Borders Federation, and  previously won 1^st Federation Exeter, 2^nd Federation Alencon, 2^nd Federation Exeter, 2^nd Federation Lulworth, 8^th Federation Plymouth, 12^th Federation Messac and 13^th 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 fourteen years previous after 40 years in the sport. They raced mainly Gaby Vandenabeele from Johnny Barrett, 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 pair up on 10^th 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 450 miles and his best position was 1^st 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 exercise twice a day around the loft, and the break down system until Tuesday morning. The partners fed a first-class Super Widowhood mixture and show the hens on marking night.

Rookledge & Mearns's earlier 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 in the previous season, 1^st club Yeovil, 1^st club Newton Abbot and 5^th club, 5^th Federation Honiton. A brilliant sprinter! The partner’s best pigeon at that time was their three year old blue Van Reet / Houben widowhood cock '90071', bred by Paul Arnold of North Cheam, which won four times 1^st club in the Esher Club and 2^nd, 8^th and 13^th in the Three Borders Federation. This game cock had also won firsts racing inland in previous seasons and has scored in the Federation several times. Another star of the Rookledge & Mearns loft was their good Busschaert hen '87210', which recorded 2^nd Three Borders Federation from Exeter (1,090 birds). This five year old widowhood hen had been a brilliant racer for the partners, winning twice 1^st club, five times 2^nd club and twice 2^nd Federation.

Jim Rookledge liked all Federation racing, short and long, and he paired his five pairs of stock birds at the same time as the racers so that he can underlay the first round of eggs off the breeders. The 30 young birds he bred were trained hard up to 40 miles before the first race, then once a week during the racing season and race the programme naturally to the perch. Jimmy raced natural for many years and told me his best nest condition for a racer flying the Channel was feeding a big young bird or sitting fourteen day old eggs. Jim maintained that when he was selecting pigeons to breed from he has no special type, looking at only good performance pigeons and quite often paired winners to winners. Jim Rookledge and Ray Mearns, two great pigeon racers!

Dawn Matthews of Epsom.

In 2012 Dawn Matthews was a mother and wife of the late Esher pigeon racer, Ray Mearns, and they were both great workers for the Esher club, running barbeques and the club shows on a regular basis. Back in 1989 she was the up and coming pigeon racer, Dawn Matthews, and the 17 year old daughter of the Epsom Downs pigeon club secretary, Maggie Matthews. Having pigeons in the family for most of her life, Dawn became interested in the sport at the tender age of five. After taking her GCE ‘A’ levels she had a lot of spare time while looking for a job, so looked after her dad and mum’s birds, as he had changed his job and had no time for the pigeons. When her dad finally said he was thinking of getting rid of the birds and resign from the sport, Dawn took them over.

In 1987 she trained and raced the six youngsters that her dad had left and chalked up 1^st club, 10^th London Federation Dorchester and 6^th club Dorchester. Although she was running her dad’s birds many local fanciers gave her youngsters in 1988 including Doug Walker, J. Sparrowhawk, Penfold & Wilson, Dave White and Duffell Brothers. Dawn said at the time that, before taking up pigeon racing she spent all her time at school studying for her exams, although she went to the club on marking and checking nights.

The 1988 season saw Dawn win the longest old bird race from Bergerac (450 miles) and 1^st and 2^nd in the longest young bird race from Wadebridge (210 miles) in the Epsom Downs club. A fantastic performance! Dawn’s Bergerac winner was her dad’s old blue hen, ‘The Bergerac Hen’, which had previously won Bergerac for him in 1985. Dawn sent the hen to the Croydon Federation Bergerac to record 3^rd club with her, and sent her back to the Surrey Federation Bergerac seven days later to win the Epsom Downs club. This great hen flew 900 miles in seven days and won two major prizes. Dawn won the longest young birds race from Wadebridge with, ‘63’, a blue chequer hen bred by the late Doug Walker of Ewell. Dawn said her most thrilling experience was winning her first race in 1987 and also being voted by the Epsom members ‘The Sportsperson of the Year’ for 1988.

The Matthews’ main loft was an 18ft x 6ft Kidby which housed natural old bird racers and the stock birds. The young birds had an aviary on their loft and all the lofts were kept very clean and dry. She maintained that if the birds were fit and well they all race the full programme. She said that she would like to see a better system for reporting, collecting and returning of stray birds especially for novices who start out with only a few birds. Dawn would tell novices, that local flyers encouraged her a great deal and although all club members have good intentions, some tell ‘tall’ stories. Don’t believe everything you are told! If you need help find a good local fancier who is willing to help and hopefully they will guide you in the right direction. Fun thing is, when I penned Dawn’s article in 1989, she said a local fancier named Ray Mearns pointed her in the right direction and before Ray’s untimely passing they were married and had kids!

Les & Mark Duffell of West Ewell.

Les and Mark Duffell formed a very successful pigeon partnership which produced some really outstanding performances in the Three Borders Federation. They kicked off their new partnership by winning the Federation in the first race of the 2005 season, from Lulworth, with 1169 birds competing. Les joined the Esher & District RPC in the 2002 season and enjoyed some good success racing his small team of widowhood cocks, including winning the very strong Three Borders Federation from Lulworth, with 1,029 birds competing. His star pigeon was his blue Staf Van Reet widowhood cock '98925' which has plenty of previous good form, having won 1^st club Seaton (105 birds), 1^st club, 1^st Federation Lulworth, 4^th Club, 24^th Federation (909 birds) Plymouth and 6^th club, 24^th Federation (1,090 birds) Exeter.

Born in West Ewell in 1955, Les is from a pigeon racing family, with his brother having been in sport for many years and his father a fancier before the Second World War. His brother, Derek, had been an outstanding fancier in the racing and showing world since the early 1960s and his son, Mark, raced on his own in the Esher Club for a couple of years, with brilliant results in the club and Federation.. Les first became involved with the pigeons by helping his brother in 1973 and said he was lucky because his first birds came from Derek, who had a very successful loft of pigeons. He had won at all stages through to Bergerac (450 miles) on the south road and through to Thurso (500 miles) on the north road. It was Derek who basically taught Les how to look after the birds and they went into partnership, racing as Duffell Brothers. In the early days Les rated the performances of his good late friend, Doug Walker of Ewell, and says he was the first man in the area to win twenty times 1^st club every year. The first pigeons raced were Derek's, then in 1977 they introduced Dordins from Regency Lofts, which gave instant success, racing and showing for many years, in the St Hellier NRFC and Epsom Downs FC. Les said his biggest mistake in pigeon racing was not sticking to his plans for the season. He went out of the sport for a few years and re-started in 1999, with some help from Derek and his good friends George Schedi, Doug Walker and Kevin Wells.

His new setup was two 10ft x 6ft converted garden sheds and he maintains a good loft should have dryness, good ventilation and in the widowhood loft, warmth. Les then raced in partnership with Mark and they kept only four pairs of stock birds and 12 widowhood cocks, and pairs them all up in mid-December, with club racing in mind. They raced only the widowhood system and they each rear a single youngster weaned at the end of January and the adults separated and repaired at the beginning of March. When the hens had been sitting their eggs for ten days they were parted and the cocks were on the widowhood system, fed on a first-class widowhood mixture and broken down on depurative mixture on Sunday during the racing season. The cocks got about ten training tosses prior to the first Federation race and thereafter only exercised around the loft twice a day through the season. The hens were not shown on marking night for the first half of the season, as Les thought the yearlings got too wound up, but they got their females on their return from the race, until he went down to the club on Saturday evening. Both Les and Mark worked in the building trade and were only interested in club racing, flying only in the Esher Club. The birds they were racing then were nearly all Staf Van Reets, bred from stock birds obtained from Dean Pallatt although he had one outstanding cock in the race loft from Louella Pigeon World and maintained the Van Reets seen to perform best in races less than four hours long.

In the 2002 season Les Duffell won 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th and 15^th Federation Lulworth and in a special Esher Club race, he won 1^st club Guernsey 164 miles. Another premier pigeon for the Duffell loft that season was the yearling Van Reet blue cock '08311' who had won from Lulworth 1^st club, 4^th Federation (1,312 birds), 2^nd club, 3^rd Federation (1,029 birds) and 3^rd club, 15^th Federation (1,176 birds). A brilliant pigeon! Les says winning the Three Borders Federation was his best performance to date and maintained that widowhood was the only system for club racing. He liked to race his young birds paired up and sitting eggs. He said at that time that the whole Duffell family were interested in pigeon racing, with his brothers Derek and Mick both being premier fanciers in the Surrey area and his nephew, Mark, who was really keen. The young birds were given about 30 training chucks through to 50 miles before the first Federation young bird race and were fed on a good young bird mixture. A condition seed was used for trapping after daily exercise and on race day. Les was one of sport's workers and had been clock setter and Federation delegate for the Esher club. He considered Tony Dann to be the best all-round flyer, as he won at all distances, inland and from France. Les liked a bit of showing, winning a lot of shows with the Dordin pigeons when he was in partnership with Derek, and gave the birds a lot of small seed when they were in the body moult; He put young bird fly aways down to overcrowding and only kept enough youngsters to fill half his box perches in the young bird section. Mark wasn't into line-breeding his pigeons and told me he let them pick their own mates. He liked to breed some latebreds each year, as pigeons bred in mid-summer are mostly high quality and in fact some of his better yearling widowhood cocks were last season's latebreds. All the Duffell lofts had deep litter on the floors and Les maintained it was great, as long as it is kept dry. When picking out breeders, he had his own type he liked, but thought you should take at least six youngsters off each stock pair, each year.

Doug Walker of Ewell.

The late Doug Walker was a leading figure in the sprint Open and Federation in the Surrey area for a number of years and the 1979 season was no exception. The Walker missiles had won seventeen first prizes in the club and twice 1^st Federation, plus a back up of twice 4^th Federation. Doug raced all widowhood and the cocks were housed in a nice three section loft, with the front windows shuttered. They had no ventilation as Doug maintained widowhood cocks needed warmth and if the temperature got too hot small vents were opened in the roof. He liked the birds to have plenty of room and no more than eight cocks were housed in each section. He hated big pigeons and all the birds I handled on my visit to his loft were medium to small. Doug’s base family was Ben Hinkley of Bletchley and those were backed up with Busschaerts, Dordins and Sheppards. The first two pigeons I looked at on my visit to the Ewell loft were Busschaerts and brothers, both being outstanding sprinters. ‘Roam Away’ an apple bodied blue was the first in my hand and he had won 1^st Selhurst Open Blandford, 1^st club, 10^th Surrey Federation Exeter, 1^st club Weymouth, 1^st club Dorchester, 1^st club, 4^th Croydon Federation Blandford, 2^nd club, 2^nd Croydon Federation Blandford (beaten by a loft mate) and three other seconds. His brother was the blue cock, ‘Hi Flight’, and he too won an open race, recording: 1^st Epsom Downs Open Blandford, 1^st club, 19^th Croydon Federation, 1^st club Exeter, 1^st club Weymouth, 1^st club Dorchester, 1stclub, 12^th Federation Blandford, plus twice 2^nd club. Doug told me the two brothers didn’t perform too well as youngsters and he made the mistake of selling their parents on the strength of that.

When I visited the Walkers back in the 1970’s, Doug had been in the sport 25 years and his first loft was a 10ft x 6ft converted Canary room, as previous to racing pigeons he bred Canaries and British birds. His first pigeons were obtained from several Croydon fanciers and he kicked off racing in the Selhurst Flying Club. He said the best advice he ever had was from Percy Corps who told him he couldn’t race pigeons in the pub. On starting up Doug didn’t have much success through inexperience, but Ben Hinkley took him in hand and put him on the right road.

Doug paired his 15 pairs of stock birds in January and told me he thought the eye sign theory was rubbish. The widowhood birds were paired on 14^th February and about 40 youngsters were bred each season. The young hens raced right through the programme and the young cocks got about three races then were stopped and saved for the widowhood as yearlings. The widowhood cocks were sent as far as 180 miles and never across the English Channel to France. Doug had a second racing loft which housed the young birds and widowhood hens, with all trapping through open doors. The widowhood cocks had six training tosses from 40 miles before the first Federation race and no more, and the young birds got plenty of training up to 50 miles during racing. He fed on a general mixture of Beans, Maize, Wheat and Barley, which he bought as cheap as he could. The birds were given Red Band or a similar condition seed. Doug showed the widowhood cocks their hens only on Friday nights and for a few minutes on their return from the race. The Walker’s fine team of stock birds were kept in a nice roomy 9ft x 6ft loft and many winners were bred in there.

Doug told me a nice little story about his good Sheppard blue cock, ‘Young Tom’, which was bred by the late Tommy Woodcock of Wimbledon. This pigeon came into Doug’s loft after being lost off Tom Woodcock’s loft and after Tom gave him the pigeon it won: 1^st Woodside Open Guernsey 2 Bird, 1^st club, 4^th Surrey Federation Exeter, 1^st club Exeter (twice) and 2^nd club Dorchester. Just to rub it in, when ‘Young Tom’ won the Woodside Guernsey Open, Tom Woodcock was second to him.

The first of Doug’s Federation winners which I inspected was the three year old Sheppard blue chequer cock, ‘Recruit’, which was bred by A. E. Heasman of West Ewell. Doug said he had won many good positions on the natural system, but on widowhood had excelled, winning 1^st club, 1^st Croydon Federation Blandford, 1^st club, 10^th Surrey Federation Exeter, 1^st club Weymouth (twice), 2^nd Selhurst Open Blandford and 2^nd club Dorchester. This game cock handled small, long cast and Doug told me he came on form early in the season and then again at the end. The star of the Walkers loft at that time was the yearling Dordin blue cock, ‘Blue Baron’. He was bred by Duffell Brothers of West Ewell from Paul Smith / Dordin stock birds. This champion cock in his short racing career had won: 1^st club, 1^st Croydon Federation Exeter (twice), 1^st club Dorchester (three times), 1^st club Weymouth (twice) and 2^nd club Dorchester. A great racing machine! Another of the Walker’s Federation winners was the Sheppard blue chequer hen, ‘Lady Fortune’, and she recorded: 1^st club, 8^th Surrey Federation, 16^th SMT Combine Plymouth, 1^st club Plymouth (twice), 1^st club, 1^st Surrey Federation Exeter and 1^st club Exeter.

Doug Walker was a hard man to get on with and I had many ‘rucks’ with him down through the years, but he was a very good pigeon racer and a really great worker for the sport. He held many positions in the sport including secretary of the Croydon Federation, jointly with his wife. He was a vice president and race controller of the Croydon Federation, and maintained race convoyers and convoyers should be practicing pigeon fanciers. He said there were too many non-fanciers controlling the sport of pigeon racing. He advised novices to make a friend of a successful local fancier and be guided by them, and above all be patient and observant. At that time Doug rated Kenny and Bobby Besant of New Malden the top fanciers in the Surrey area and said they were devoted pigeon fanciers. He thought overcrowding was the prime reason for young bird fly aways and thought the moult was a natural process, and never worried about it. He used deep litter on the loft floor at one time, but stopped using it as he couldn’t stand the dust and he was sure the bird couldn’t either. Doug inbred his birds and liked to breed from his best racers as he believed they bred their like. He liked latebreds and said if a pigeon had it in it to be a champion, it will be a champion, no matter what end of the year it was born.

Well that’s it for this week! I hope my readers have enjoyed this look back at four Epsom area champions of yester year. We will be looking at some more very soon. To view some old video footage of some of these fanciers and their birds go on to my YouTube channel. I can be contacted with any pigeon matters on telephone number: 01372 463480 or email me on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)