ARTHUR’S ARCHIVES

Wilson vs Clegg

“I’d pay to watch a Steve Ringer vs Martin Bowler match”

WAY back in the 1950s the top names in match and specimen fishing, Tom Sails and Richard Walker, were encouraged to fish against each other in three contests.

Each chose one venue – Sails selected the River Witham, the classic match water of the era, Walker surprisingly chose its tributary, the tiny River Bain, with the neutral venue being The Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon. Walker triumphed by two matches to one and on weight overall. At the end of the 1980s, over 30 years on, a challenge was made to re-create the event by pitching John Wilson, far and away the best-known all-rounder of the day, against Dick Clegg, manager and team member of the great Barnsley Blacks team as well as Team England manager. What’s more the venues were to be the same.

Sadly, for various reasons, the Witham, Tom Sails’ choice, wasn’t the river it had been, with roach stocks in massive decline and the bream shoals proving very hit and miss. The Bain, Walker’s surprise selection was, like so many rivers, lacking in flow and colour and suffering from the early stages of severe cormorant predation. Then, to cap it all, Dick made a rare error of judgement in swim selection on the Royalty, leaving John the chance of catching some big bream and winning all three, the weights on the first two being abysmal.

Another 30 years have passed since then so perhaps it’s time for another challenge. Who would be the two representative anglers? Could a big-fish angler compete against a top pole star on the Lincolnshire rivers? Would the Method feeder, pellets and boilies be a leveller on the Avon? It’s certainly an intriguing thought. Just in case a sponsor for such an event is interested, could I throw the names Steve Ringer vs Martin Bowler into the hat?

I’d pay to watch that.