As I begin to write this the BarclayTrust Taxation Service (my employer) is on the point of being sold off and the 1997 Barclays Inter-district Sea Angling competition is still a few days away. As this may be the last such competition with which I will be involved this would seem to be a good time to set down my memories of the previous matches that I have attended.
Please bear in mind while reading this that after even as comparatively short a time as 13 years memories become corrupted by conflicting recollections, misapprehensions at the time, different viewpoints and stories being embellished in the retelling. Consequently if you, the reader, attended any of these events and remember them differently do not worry about it. I have tried to ensure that, whether or not they turn out to be the strict truth or ‘artistic licence’ the events in these memoirs could have happened, and almost certainly did happen, as I remember them now. I believe that, in some instances the humour of the situation is much more important than the absolute, literal truth of it. If you still have a problem with that please feel free to write your own version and we will compare notes!
I would like to thank ALL of those who appear by name in what follows, as well as the unnamed majority who have come and gone over the years, for providing me with a fun experience every year since 1984. I am particularly grateful, for reasons that will become clear, to Ian H., Mike J. and David Sh. and I hope that some of us at least will be able to continue fishing together in the future even if it has to be under a new banner.
David S. 18.11.1997
Editorial comment added 22.11.2004 – What a pessimist! Still going strong 7 years on!
