Tributes paid to Blackpool’s most distinguished Olympian Alf Meakin, 87, following death
Tributes have been paid to Olympian Alf Meakin, one of Blackpool’s most distinguished former sportsmen, following his death, aged 87.
Alf was a member of the British sprint team at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, two years after he formed a quarter of the GB 4x100m team which won bronze at the European Championships, while he ended 1962 at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, helping England to gold in the 4x110yards relay.
He was not part of the relay team in Tokyo, where he was not expected to compete at all after pulling a hamstring and spraining an ankle in the build-up to the Games.
But, aged 26, Alf defied the odds to earn a place in the team although, unable to compete to his highest standards, he had to settle for sixth place in his heat – but took away memories to be cherished for a lifetime.
In an interview four years ago, he told The Gazette: “It was really hard to get the injuries right in time but I did repair well then. I know I didn’t do myself justice but I don’t think I’d have won had I been fully fit.”
Those first Olympics in Asia did divide opinion at the time, coming fewer than 20 years after the Second World War ended, but Alf’s experience of the Far East was completely positive.
He remembers: “The Olympics were really good and the Japanese people were great.
“The highlight for me, though, was meeting Jesse Owens (the four-gold American sprint sensation of the 1936 Olympics), who was fantastic.
“I was told there was an opportunity to meet him and I didn’t need asking twice. He was the greatest ever.”
Alf may not have hit the headlines on the track, but he did become a favourite of the Japanese media.
When Alf left a pearl ring he had bought for his fiancee in a Tokyo taxi, the driver duly handed it in and the media made a major story out of reuniting him with the ring before his return to England.
The incident is so well remembered in Japan that a Tokyo TV crew paid Alf a visit for a documentary in the build-up to the 2020 Games in Tokyo, delayed for a year by Covid.
The ring ultimately found its way on to the finger of fiancee Joy, to whom he was married for 61 years.
Born in Swinton, Alf moved to Blackpool at the age of eight, attending Claremont School and joining Blackpool and Fylde Athletics Club as a teenager.
A Lancashire and England junior champion, he joined the renowned Thames Valley Harriers on being stationed in the South East on national service, and there his reputation grew, representing the RAF against other branches of the Armed Forces in high-profile athletics meetings.
Alf returned to Blackpool on leaving the Air Forces but retained his links with Thames Valley, where he was honoured with a life membership.
He worked largely in sales but had a string of jobs around the Fylde coast, including a spell at the premium bonds office.
After the Olympics, Alf turned his hand to rugby league, playing one match as a trialist for Leeds and then making 51 appearance for the old Blackpool Borough club between 1965 and 1967.
He was their leading try scoter with 12 in the 1965-6 season.
“I’d never played the game before but I could beat people one on one, though I quickly realised there was much more to the game than that and I didn’t stay for very long,” he recalled.
Alf made headlines again in his 70s as the country’s oldest recipient of a bone marrow transplant to treat leukaemia, surgery for which was wholly successful.
But after being diagnosed with dementia, he spent the last two years of his life at the Glen Tanar Residential Hone in Cavendish Road, North, where Joy says he was very well looked after.
Along with Joy, he leaves a son, Adrian, and daughter Karen, along with nephews John and Stephen.
Heritage honour
Alf’s single appearance for Leeds RLFC – now the Rhinos – came a month after his Olympic exploits in Tokyo and earlier this year, he was honoured with a heritage certificate from the
Leeds Rhinos ex-Players Association and Heritage Foundation groups.
Part of their work involves contacting as many of the club’s senior ex-players as possible to present them with a Heritage Certificate and an original copy of their debut programme.
Every player who has featured for Leeds’ first team is eligible for a certificate, irrespective of whether they played hundreds of games or only one minute.
Alf’s wife Joy said of the Heritage Certificate at the time: “It was quite a surprise considering he’d only ever played once for Leeds.
“The game with Leeds was after Tokyo; we were getting married and we didn’t have a lot of money.
“He’d never played rugby before, he was a football man. He used to say it was funny because he would jink inside, then jink back – but the opposition were still there, they hadn’t moved.
“It’s lovely he’s been remembered in that way and it’s something nice for our son and daughter as well.”
Club’s tribute
Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde AC said in a statement in tribute to Alf: "It is with great sadness that BWF AC has to report the death of one of the Club’s stars of yesteryear. Alf Meakin passed away after a long illness and our thoughts go out to his family and friends. Alf’s athletic career brought double success in 1962, when he was one of the GB 4 x 100m Bronze Medal winners at the European Championships in Belgrade, as well as claiming Gold with England’s 4 x 110 yards team at the Commonwealth Games in Perth. He then represented Great Britain in the 100m at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.”
Alf’s funeral is at Carleton Crematorium on Monday, January 5 at 12.30pm and donations to charity are invited in his name. Details from D Hollowell and Sons funeral directors, tel. 01253-355663.
Alf Meakin’s sports career
Represented Great Britain in the men's 100 metres at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Won bronze medal in the men's 4 × 100 meters relay at the 1962 European Athletics Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, alongside Ron Jones, Berwyn Jones, and David Jones.
Represented England and won a gold medal in the 4 x 110 yards relay with Peter Radford, Len Carter and David Jones, at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia.
After the 1964 Olympics, Alf began playing rugby league. He made one appearance for Leeds in 1964 as a trialist before later joining Blackpool Borough, where he played 51 matches 1965-67.