Barclays Bank AA

[Neil Maidment]

(apologies to the majority of FM members!)

But, Mark Wintle's two recent articles have stirred old memories within certain aged brains of former Bankers (yes, Bankers!).

Are there any more ex, or current, Barclays Bank AA members lurking on this site?

Do we want to meet again??

There could be scope to renew old rivalries and aquaintances and possibly sink a few pints in memory of passed mates as well.

If you're out there, let's hear from you.

 

[gareth young]

interested. nippard owes me a bait box.

 

[Medway Poacher]

Just happened to come across this old thread, you may like to know that Barclays Bank AA was reformed and is now known as Spread Eagle AA.
They continue to meet once a year to fish the old 'National Competition' and 'Individual Competition' over two days at a venues all over the country.
This last September the 'National' was held at Monk Lakes in Kent and the old 'London Central' region was victorious.

I personally can remember fishing against Mark Wintle many times whilst he represented Poole region and also Gareth Young who fished with London Central for a time before the joys of the West Country took him away.

If you would like to pm me I can furnish you with more information on how to participate and become a member of 'Spread Eagle AA'

Regards, Chris Jones

 

[Mark Wintle]

On Maggot Drowners, 'Neil of the Nene' is Neil Crozier, another retiree/escapee. He said about the Speadeagles AA. I bumped into Tony Hague a few years ago at the NEC national angling show but haven't seen any mention of him since. I retired 4 years ago after being outsourced for 5 years to Accenture. I see Wayne about once a year.

That individual/team match was quite sizeable 30 years ago. The combined team/individual match held at Ringwood in 83 was 34 x 6 plus half a dozen stewards; I think it was 32-34 teams for several years. Poole scooped Individual (me), team plus stewards trophy that day. Later when the individual came in I won it 3 times and I think a couple of those were over 100 pegs. I could catch fish in those days...

 

[Ray Roberts]

Mmmmm, you wouldn't want to be pools fodder in one of their matches, spread eagled and shafted by a bunch of bankers. Oooooooooo, it's all coming back to me now.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Interesting return of an old thread!

"We" went to the Trent and conquered, then did it again... not bad for bunch of guys from the south coast!

Most harrowing memory (apart from fishing the Leeds Liverpool Canal) was being called in to see the banks Chief Inspector to explain why a cheque drawn on our Poole District account was payable to Billy Knott (Bookmaker) - that was fun - but as he was a fly fisher and my wife was his PA - all was sorted.

mg:

 

[binka]

Most harrowing memory (apart from fishing the Leeds Liverpool Canal) was being called in to see the banks Chief Inspector to explain why a cheque drawn on our Poole District account was payable to Billy Knott (Bookmaker) - that was fun - but as he was a fly fisher and my wife was his PA - all was sorted.
mg:

Hi Neil,

I don't suppose you could throw some light on a question from another thread about whether Billy ran a mail order tackle business for some time around the early - mid eighties?

I think it was based in Penzance and not sure if Billy's father was also called Billy which could explain it?

All the best...

 

[Neil Maidment]

I think it was Bill senior that started it all as an angling bookie (talking about the 1970's/1980's here!)

 

[binka]

Cheers Neil.

I still swear I bought a keepnet from him around that time but can't find any reference to the business or anyone who recalls it, bar the unlikely event I could get my hands on an Angling Times from the early eighties and finding the adverts I reckon i'll never be certain.

(But I did... I know I did... )

 

[Neil Maidment]

My old mate Mark Wintle will know!

I'm sure he will, his record keeping and hoard of memories is legendary. I'm afraid mine are now just heavily edited highlights mg:

 

[silvers]

yep - the two big mail order businesses (along with bennetts and Mullarkeys) of my early days in the 80s were Billy Knott and Jim Johnson (of south london). both were well known for selling Mitchell reels (300 and match) at way under what you could get them from locally. it was Bill Snr who started both the businesses, and they were run from Marazion in Cornwall. I think Dennis Salmon was also heavily invovled with the bookies (and Essex County AA).
There's some great references to Bill Snr in Mike Whinney's immortal "up for t'cup".

I used to fish with Tony Holmes - who fished for barclays in the Div 3 nationals in the late 80s (Trapper was his nickname). Very good canal angler.

Mark Wintle - are you by any slim chance a relation of Phil Wintle from Towcester?

 

[binka]

Nice one silvers, you've put me out of my weeks long misery ever since the question originally cropped up in another thread

I knew I hadn't dreamt it...

 

[Mark Wintle]

yep - the two big mail order businesses (along with bennetts and Mullarkeys) of my early days in the 80s were Billy Knott and Jim Johnson (of south London). both were well known for selling Mitchell reels (300 and match) at way under what you could get them from locally. it was Bill Snr who started both the businesses, and they were run from Marazion in Cornwall. I think Dennis Salmon was also heavily invovled with the bookies (and Essex County AA).
There's some great references to Bill Snr in Mike Whinney's immortal "up for t'cup".

I used to fish with Tony Holmes - who fished for Barclays in the Div 3 nationals in the late 80s (Trapper was his nickname). Very good canal angler.

Mark Wintle - are you by any slim chance a relation of Phil Wintle from Towcester?

Got a feeling Billy Knott Snr and Jim Johnson were getting 'grey' imports of Mitchells from Europe hence lower prices. I can remember the official importer getting upset about it.

I remember Tony Holmes, wasn't he one of the Slapheads Team? He would have only fished Div 3 once as the team went from Div 4 (87) to Div 1 (90) in consecutive seasons though they were only 3 years in Div 1 after which the team fell apart, mainly because where do you go after Div 1? As a true works team (all members actually worked for Barclays) we couldn't bring in outsiders. I last saw Tony at a Barclays Individual match when queuing at the draw; he said he wanted peg 19 and drew 12, I got 19 and won. Second day (team event) I had 12 and 3rd from it.

I've known of Phil Wintle for many years but when I put a family tree together I found no links. Wintle is an old Gloucestershire name.

 

[silvers]

thanks Mark,

That's the one.
I thought it was div 3 on the leeds-liverpool (my first national) in about 87 ..... but I could be mixing things up. That was also the national that Phil Wintle won individually.
Tony certainly fished the grand union circuit around that time with some success, although I haven't seen him in years.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Barclays fished Div 4 (Nene) in 87 (4th), Div 3 (Leeds & Liverpool Canal) in 88 (3rd), Div 2 (Huntspill) in 89 (2nd), Div 1 (Witham in 90, Trent & Mersey in 91, Trent in 92). Don't know after that.

 

[silvers]

It must have been that 88 match .... Glevum AC (Shakespeare Superteam) were also fishing. I suspect that they matched your promotion record!
Our club team (Vauxhall AC) were promoted a year or two later on the Trent, then again to Div 1 on the same river a couple of years after that.
One year in Div 1 (Gloucester canal match that Steve Tyler won) was enough - as we were relegated. One of our guys must have sat next to the winner that day on the Gloucester - as I was next to John Brown (both fished for ABC) .... but I can't remember who.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Got a feeling Glevum had 3rd(poss 2nd), 2nd, 3rd in 87,88,89. For our team to have consistently shadowed them so well was quite an achievement considering the big names in their side. In 87 I was 3rd in section on the Nene with Dave Harrell winning it.