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.
