Festival of Britain International Angling Contest
In 1947, Britain was still recovering physically, emotionally and economically from the ravages of WW2 and the Labour Government, found support from voters waning. To give the country and its own fortunes a much needed boost, it announced spending plans of £12M to finance the ‘Festival of Britain’ in 1951, timed to celebrate the centennial of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Across the summer, the Festival would promote British science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts. With much of London still lying in ruin, the centrepiece of this enormously successful venture was a vast exhibition on London’s South Bank which attracted almost 8.5 million visitors, but other events of all manner took place across the UK.
This included the first recognised international team fishing event to be held on British shores. The match was organised by the London Anglers Authority on behalf of the National Federation of Anglers (forerunners of the Angling Trust), who sent a letter offering entry to all NFA affiliated clubs. Any team wishing to compete had to provide twelve anglers and pay its own expenses. Of these associations, 46 were in favour of taking part, two announced that they had no desire to fish in the match, but were willing to subscribe, while a further I5 associations were against the acceptance of either proposal. Efforts were made to contact the officials of angling bodies overseas via the British Embassy in each capital on the Continent. This attracted entries from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany. 43 UK associations were prepared to contribute towards the cost of entertaining the foreign competitors. A team from the U. S. forces in England were invited but do not appear to have taken part.
The Thames at Reading was chosen as the venue with the draw and prize presentation taking place in the ‘Committee Marquee’ set up in the adjacent Hills Meadow on Saturday August 25th 1951. The event was overseen by NFA president, the appropriately named Alf Waterhouse often seen sporting a waistcoat chain bristling with solid gold medals and was noted for his witty and characteristic style. Waterhouse was a noted pollution fighter and pioneer of fish re-stocking. He also fished for the Birmingham Anglers Association in the National Championships at least seven times, so he wasn't a bad angler either.
In total 46 teams of twelve anglers took part and a 52-page souvenir brochure published at a price of 6d, though copies were already swapping hands for a reputed 2s 6d the week after.
On the evening before the match, a civic reception and dinner was held by the Reading Council with its Mayor, Coun. T. W. Wright welcoming as many that could make it of the foreign teams, NFA officials as well as LAA members 70 or 80 of which acted as stewards, scalesmen and recorders. The Mayor spoke of his trepidation in view of the kind of reception he had been warned to expect, but confirmed to his great pleasure he had been given every encouragement and assistance. The German Verband Deutscher Sportfischer team missed the speech, arriving later that night after two sleepless days travelling from Berlin and having made it to the bank next morning, retired from the match before the end. The Dutch team, who had not experienced so wearisome a journey, not only attended, but held a party at their hotel until the early hours and were declared last in their section because their captain could not be wakened. A member of the French team, Mme Reuff was unable to compete after falling downstairs at her hotel and her place was taken by a French Journalist. This left her countrywoman Mme Courty as the competition’s sole female contestant.
Come the day of the match, Associations arrived from all over the country, where Hills Meadow provided ample parking for the many coaches arriving. Of course travel was not as straightforward as it is today, with Cambridge Albions team for example, leaving at 3am for the 8:30am draw. Another, the Hull Angling Preservation Society left by motorcoach on Friday afternoon to stay overnight at Reading, returning straight after the match. Within three hours of their return early Sunday one member left for York to participate in another match.
The match took place under threatening rain clouds on an unseasonably cold and drizzly summers day. Around 600 fishermen lined banks of the Thames for ten miles between Reading and Goring. Whistles signalled the first cast at 11 am. The cold spell linked to a stiff cool breeze took its toll of the big Thames bream and roach, who declined to take part in the festivities. It was left to the suicidal bleak and dace to keep the anglers interested and by the end of the match most competitors had shallowed up in an attempt to support their teams with a backing weight of small fish. The match finished at 4pm, ten minutes before the threatened rain started.
In total, 987lb 15oz 4dr were caught, mostly bleak, a figure that might easily have been doubled had it not been for the fact that the match was fished to strict Thames size limits. All fish had to be measured on a Thames rule as per photo below and only ‘goers’ found their way to the scales. This fish measure conformed to the then Thames and Lee Conservancy fishery bye-laws. Since 1914, this had stated that ‘No person shall take in or out of the Thames, or have in his possession, or expose for sale on the river, or on the shores or banks thereof, or within 100 yards either side of the Thames, any fish of the species hereinafter mentioned of less than the sizes and dimension hereinafter mentioned’ Thus fish were landed, checked against the rule and if found to be of acceptable size by stewards, were swiftly weighed and netted. As usual for Thames contests it was flawlessly organized by R S Davison of the London Anglers Association.
Birmingham Anglers Association took top honours at the presentation, winning the H & G Simonds Cup and 12 silver gilt medals with 72 lbs 12 ¾ oz. Leading up to the match it had been uncertain whether as to whether BAA were going to take part. The NFA had accused them of attempting to ‘gazump’ another club over rights to a local water, being prepared to pay the higher rent for the fishing rights that present tenants Coventry Radiator AC had refused to pay. Birmingham took a stand and refused to renew their subscription to the NFA thereby barring themselves from taking part in national competitions. At the time, the BAA was by far the largest club in the NFA with over 50,000 individual members, so a threat to leave would have been disastrous for the NFA finances. There was a conflict of interest in that the NFA chairman Waterhouse, just
happened also to be President of BAA and somehow situation was resolved in time for BAA to take part in (and win!) the Festival of Britain contest.
They finished substantially ahead of Coventry & District AA who were presented with the Alfred Cope silver cup for finishing in second place with 47 lbs 5 oz. Peterborough AA claimed third place. Ralph Kay, of Birmingham, took the individual winner's gold medal and a voucher for twelve weeks supply of bait – value £3) from Dons Bait of Mexborough, Yorks, with I7 lbs 8oz of nothing but bleak apart from two dace weighing four ounces. The second individual prize went to Reading & District’s George Herbert with 13lb 7oz of bream earning a tackle voucher presented by the famous ‘roach pole’ specialists Sowerbutts of Commercial Street, London. Some famous names of that era to frame included Horace Story, in third place with 10lb 10oz. Horace, was later to go on to win the 1957 National on a flooded river Severn. Also, one of the greatest matchmen of his time, Chesterfields Bob Fuller took sixth place to win a Sowerbutts tackle case. Other cash prizes followed and consolation prizes of ‘Weston Biscuits’. Each competitor received a bronzed ‘Festival of Britain’ commemorative medal complete with the Festival of Britain logo.
These medal photos were kindly provided by Mike Newman whose late father Ernest Henry (Chick) Newman contributed 21/2 ounces to Cambridge Fish Preservation & Angling Society’s 40th place with a total of 5lb 9oz.
Alas, Newbury AA did not take part, though whether or not they received an invitation is lost to time. Our neighbours Reading and District AA, despite home advantage and George Herbert came a distant 19th. However, they did out-fish the London AA, who came a lowly 41st with 5lb 81/2. oz. Still, they did beat two of the continental teams, namely the Netherlands in 47th place with 1lb 3oz and the sleepy German team recorded a totally blank weight card. (The first ‘nil points’ – as they say in Eurovision).
The full result, including a list of prizes was as follows:
The Belgian Le Pecheur Belge team provided the most successful of the overseas teams, with M L Buydts winning a tankard as the highest scoring foreign participant. “The sport has not been good—but the river ah, it is better than we have in Belgium,” said one of their team to Bernard Venables, reporter on the Daily Mirror who had already created the Mr Crabtree books and would go on to co-found the Angling Times in 1953.
Venables also reported that ‘The styles of angling were as varied as might be. The delicate style of Sheffield, now used by many Northern anglers; the long, easy casting with heavier tackle in the style of Nottingham; the Thames men with their baits on the bottom for bream and the Continental styles. Some of the French and Belgian anglers used tackle as minutely fine as anything I have ever seen - One Belgian used a float about half the length of a matchstick - too small to be seen from a short distance. He was catching, bleak at the rate of two to the minute. Bleak, in fact, those silver slips of fish that go about twenty to the pound, almost had the day to themselves. I would have forecast that this match would have been won on bream, the great rolling bream of the Thames, but only George Herbert, of Reading, second individual winner with 13lb 7oz, seemed to find them. For the rest, it was bleak, bleak in such numbers as I have never before seen them’
Sponsor of the winner’s trophy, H & G Simmonds, were noted local brewers of the day. They produced a regular magazine called the ‘Hop Leaf Gazette’ for which their correspondent, the elusively named CHP, penned the following report:
INTERNATIONAL FISHING COMPETITION.
ANGLERS' MANY METHODS.
Hundreds of anglers including German, French, Belgian and Dutch teams lined the banks of the River Thames from Reading to Goring on the occasion of the International Competition arranged as one of the Festival of Britain's great attractions. Interested in all wholesome sports, the Directors of H. & G. Simonds, Ltd., generously presented a handsome silver cup for competition, and this was won by the Birmingham Anglers' Association. R. Kay, of Birmingham, took the individual winner's gold medal with I7lbs. 8ozs. of bleak. Not far behind was G. Herbert, Vice-Captain of the Reading and District Association. He caught only bream, one of which weighed 3 lbs. The total weight of his catch was I3lbs. 1oz. for which he received three guineas. (worth around £115 in 2024). To win such a prize in such a competition was indeed a great achievement by a great angler-for such indeed G. Herbert is!
PINK AND ORGANGE GENTLES
I spent a few very happy hours strolling up the riverside and chatting to the fishermen. It was most interesting, too, to see the many methods used in order to try and tempt members of the finny tribe to their doom. There were gentles (ie maggots) coloured bright pink and orange, while other anglers tried to tempt the fish with boiled wheat. Many were content with the familiar but by no means to be despised, bread paste. '
GALLONS OF BREAD BAIT.
As ground bait many gallons of bread must have been thrown into the water to attract the fish. In addition, the fish must have had a rare feed of gentles, boiled wheat and many other forms of food which the anglers threw into the water in their endeavours to entice the fish towards that bit of bait on the hook! The catch of the winner of the gold medal weighed 17lbs. 8ozs. and it was composed of bleak, fish no bigger than a sprat, and commonly known as "tiddlers." It must have taken many dozens of these little fish to make up that great weight.
WEIGHED ALL ALIVE AND KICKING!
All fish were placed in keep nets until the men came round with the scales to weigh the various catches. The fish were placed on the scales all alive and kicking, and then returned to the water. But, alas! the congestion was so great in some of the nets that many little fish were either dead or dying when returned to the water and I thought to myself, what a feed the pike and herons will have when the anglers have taken their departure! Much other food was left on the bank by the anglers, in the form of maggots, bread, cheese, boiled wheat, etc.
I GIVE A TIMELY WARNING. There are dozens of wasps' nests in the banks of the Thames, and on this occasion I noticed one angler was sitting on his stool right over a nest. I politely warned him of the fact. He promptly gathered up his seat and tackle and chose a less dangerous spot. He was profuse in his thanks to me.
After the match, the Dutch team chaired Mr Davison and sang songs in honour before he waved them off on their train at Victoria. The match had been such a success that a proposal for others was put forward at an International Angling Conference held in Rome, attended by President Waterhouse and other NFA dignitaries along with representatives from 19 nations. This may have led to the inception of the World Freshwater Angling Championships, England wining the inaugural tile in Dusseldorf in 1954. The previous year, Birmingham AA , Leeds AA and Alf Waterhouse had also played a significant part in England’s win in the European Championships at Lake Garda in Italy. The 1955 world championship would also take place at Reading, but that’s another story for another newsletter.
Huge thanks in helping to assemble this article are due to:
John Essex - National Angling Championship team medals with Leicester AS in 1971 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1977 and now revered angling historian – see his work on many historic articles in on the Canal and Rivers Trust’s excellent website.
Keith Armishaw - friend of the NAAN and senior officer of Angling Heritage - a charitable trust preserving Angling History
Raymond Simond – family member of H & G Simonds – supporters of the Festival of Britain contest Home - Simonds Family Website
POST SCRIPT: Birmingham AA still have possession of the H & G Simmonds cup. Sadly, it’s kept in a black bin liner with other trophies, but they do keep this celebratory certificate.