IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN FISHING

Tackle editor Mark Sawyer’s mooving day on the canal

EVER wondered whether cows can swim? Well, the matchmen on the Ian Smith Canal League on the Grand Union at Castlethorpe found out... to their cost.

The field opposite my peg had a flat, grassy edge a couple of feet above the water, and on this hot day a cow wandered up and then, with front legs splayed, it leant down to try to take a drink. Soon gravity took its toll, and the cow slid gracefully head-first into the water. A cow swimming along the middle of the canal, with all the narrowboats giving it a wide berth, was a very funny sight. But laughter turned to panic as the bovine breaststroker climbed out on the towpath and, panic-stricken, charged through poles, roosts, rollers and anything else that got in its way. ‘Devastation’ is the word that comes to mind...