All our yesterdays...............another team

[TK]

Hi CWH - this was taken a little earlier. The occasion was the 1976 'National Benzole Junior Angling Championships', held on the River Nene Northamptonshire. More than 60 teams took part and the title went to BAA's Starlets, with Coventry & DAA as runners up.




And MarkV - enjoyed that little trip down memory lane - you are a dark horse, you certainly kept that one quiet - very modestly. I never realised we had such auspicious company in our ranks as you battled with us against the Cashmores Curse 

[MarkV]

TK, you've got me thinking and writing lol !

Just typed up a big response and lost the lot twice !!! due to this dodgey computer which i'm going to have to take back to the shop ! grrr

Anyway, if I can get it back on for a bit tonight i'll try and re do it. Lots of stuff to say, but I wasn't being modest, didnt reach any heights.

[CHOPWORM HERO]

Thanks for that TK
I did not fish that one then as my first junior national was the year after on the Leeds Liverpool canal 1977/8 season.

[MarkV]

As I posted earlier TK you have got me thinking !

In fact there's been loads coming to mind from when I was very young, too much to write, certainly in a post ,but if people don't mind i'll put some bits up, it may provoke memories for others. Some inlvolved may even look in on here.

Truly ancient history this lol.

I was part of the 1972 BAA Junior team. 

I think I may have fished the trials the year before but only made it through that year.

Most of the squad was made up of members from ‘Birmingham Juniors’ , the original club for juniors set up by Ken and Janis Aske, that not long after changed name to the ‘Starlets, I think from memory to differentiate from the BAA, as it was in fact a separate entity.

For a long time I have remembered the year to be 1971, but reading Clive Smiths book again, ’Championship Match Fishing -Ten of the Best' I now know it to be 1972.

That is because we ‘won’ the Junior National Championship at the same time as the BAA squad were crowned senior champions, which was in ’72.

Our match was held on the Lancaster canal at Garstang which I remember as very clear and weedy compared to local west mids cuts.

I say ‘won’ because there was some controversy back at the HQ and disagreement. We may not have actually been credited with the win by the organisers, but were told we had by the BAA. I think some of it revolved around the age of competitors in other teams.  My, some of those lads grow big and tall early. But I may be wrong.

We were invited to join the senior team to a Civic Reception given at the Town Hall in Birmingham to mark a double victory by Birmingham.  All very grand indeed.

I remember the room it was held in and clearly the flashes of the journalists cameras as some of the senior squad arrived. It was like watching and old Hollywood film.

In particular, I think Mark and Paul Downes commanded quite a few ‘flashes’.

Probably because they were a young, up and coming, brother duo.  Or was it just that I noticed them more because they were part of the club I was in ? I don’t know but I remember it well.

I was in awe of it all really, not at ease with the Lord Mayor, being introduced to all sorts of people and  eating vol au vents.  Small talk on that level  and in that company then, wasn’t a strong point 

It is all so long ago, my memory is patchy but certain things stand out, for whatever reason, some things inexplicably so.

Not long after, this was followed by what Clive describes in his book  as ‘ sumptuous, no-expense-spared banquet by the Birmingham Anglers’ Association’. It was indeed and at a time when the Associations membership was still in the many tens of thousands. No doubt they could afford a few bob.

I can remember sitting on the table with other Junior members, the exact  Jacket and tie I was wearing, best bib and tucker of course. Funny how certain things stand out in the memory.

A couple of parents  ordered us a ‘short’ to follow the beer us older ones shouldn’t have been drinking. Did I say that ?

The name of the night club, one of those big caberet type venues, escapes me, infuriatingly. It was, if I remember rightly a dinner-dance type format for the evening.

Somewhere at my dads house there may still be a trophy we were given to mark the occasion and a ‘Programme/Menu’ for the evening, that a lot of us Junior lads got signed by as many members of the full BAA squad, plus other celebrity anglers as possible.

I have racked my brains to remember the names of my Junior Colleagues, but although I have some images, I can remember very few names. I don’t not mean to be disrespectful if anyone is reading this.

All I can summon up is, my mate Keith, the captain, possibly my other mate Steve ( no idea why he shouldn’t  have been there, but the memory fades ) and Martin Lewis, I think the son of Stan Lewis.  Paul Downes could possibly have fished, may have been the right age, but I don’t remember it.

One thing I do remember is sitting in my nans house, listening to Keith being interviewed during Norman Worths weekly angling programme on BBC Radio West Midlands.

I think ‘gobsmacked’ is the expression to describe my feelings at the time.

Tony Scott took time out to coach us for the match, along with Derek Deakin (?) plus another angler. Again my apologies if names are wrong.

I may still have a small breadpunch that one of them made for us during his lunch hours prior to the event.

We were also issued with very fine mesh, lightweight ladies shopping bags ! These were to retain the tiny, tiny roach we expected to come across which could have been worth their weight in gold. This was before micromesh nets and ‘minnow mesh’ was the smallest we had.

[TK]

That's a great read MarkV - thanks for sharing those memories


And lets have some more, many more


And a picture or two

[stevenadin]

a big moment for me was in 1979 (i think) when essington asked me to fish in there winter league team, i carnt remember how many teams there were but the venues were wonborne and penkridge on the cut. in those days wonborne was all gudgeon fishing and on the last match the canal was frozen over. i won with 1ld 7oz and the team won the league. we had a presentation evening and a guy called bob thomas from tipton gave me my trophey. we all had our photo in the pink paper that used to come out every saturday. i learned so much from these blokes in just a few years and allways had lifts every sunday. i left the area a few seasons later and joined the marines so lost touch with everyone. but they were great days ill never forget.

[TK]

Hadn't realised you were originally from up our neck of the woods Drawbagnadine - hope to catch up with you on the SMF match if you can make it

oh happy days (well I enjoyed them at a club level) when the Staffs Worcs was stuffed with gobies

Now I get wiped out by a couple of rub a dubs

[old_trentman]

Hi mate its along time since i made them bread punches , the other person was Roy Walker we had some great nights with the young lads at the BAA . . i made some small keepnets to fit inside the large mesh nets out of white curtain netting because the fish were that small on the canal we had to stop them swimming through the mesh (prod first micro net made ?) a good read mate

[MarkV]

Roy Walker indeed, yes, thats right. 

You made the breadpunches Kingfisher ? ?

The were tubular metal that was plugged, with a hardwood handle.

Saw mine recently when sorting through my old tackle before moving house.
Although not used it since, never thrown it out, thought i'd keep it.

[TK]

Chris V's clocked me



http://www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk/sho ... yesterdays.................