There tend to be several reasons for closed membership syndication:

1. To enable fishing to takle place.
2. To enable fishing to continue.
3. To enable a limited number of anglers to acquire the rights for themselves.

It's the third of those reasons that causes all the problems.

Syndicates like Broadwater and Queenford came into being for reason 1.

It has been claimed that the Kickles syndicate came into being for reason 2 but many believe that it came into being for the same reason as the Adams Mill syndicate i.e. reason 3.

Anyone who fished Adams Mill on the Club ticket and now can't fish has a right to be miffed.

I have never been a member of any closed syndicate but I have lost access to one water "Stormin Normans" as a result of the creation of a syndicate for reason 3. The owner expressly stated to me that the only reason he was selling the fishing rights,and would no longer issue day tickets, was that he had an offer he could not refuse.

Syncdicates are clearly necessary sometimes but where the reason for creating them is motivated essentially by greed those responsible deserve only contempt.