ASPINDALE MATCH ROD

[John Harding]

[] Hello all,

Some of you may have seen a post I made last Monday regarding an Aspindale Croftdale aluminium alloy match rod which I had used for the first time, in the post I mentioned that I purchased another Aspindale match rod at the same time. I went out this morniing to give this rod a try, it is an Aspindale 13ft Frank Banner Match Rod, the butt and middle sections are whole cane and the top section is whole cane with a spliced in split cane tip.

This is the rod :-




The rod has been restored at some stage, the varnishing and whippings are nice, but for some reason, probably to cover up corrosion, the rings have been painted black, I may give them a rub down but on the other hand I can probably live with them as they are. Compared to the aluminium Croftdale rod this one is a little bit more responsive and the action progreses a bit more than the fibre glass tip on the other rod. I think as well it will cope with medium sized tench and maybe a small carp. Unfortunately I did not get much chance to test it on a lot of fish as I did not have a very productive time on the canal, I went back to the same spot as the last time but it took me quite a while to get a bite. The first fish was a perch of about half a pound, he gave a good account of himself and managed to get his own back on me by giving me a sharp jab with the spine on his gill cover, I always forget about those spines !. After the perch I only managed a small skimmer bream a tiny roach and another small perch. There was quite a cool breeze blowing early on and I don't think that helped, the sun took a long while to get on the water as it was blocked out by a very big willow tree, I think perhaps the fishing may have picked up as the water warmed up a bit, but I had to leave before that.

The meagre catch :-


I have not heared of the angler named on the rod, Frank Banner, I am guesing he must have been on the match scene in the 1950's to 1960's, If anyone has any information regarding him I would be very interested.

Regards,
John

[Olly]

""ROD: Aspindale of Redditch The Frank Banner Match rod, 13' 3 pce, whole cane button and mid sections, spliced split cane tip, lined butt & tip guides, high bells intermediated space whipped red, bronze ferrules, 23" cork handle, brass reel fittings, rare rod, fine condition, in MOB.""
From a sale guide last March.

But I am not aware of Mr Banner or the rod previously.

Black - anti-flash - rod rings were all the rage in the 60/70s. Copied today on modern rod rings.

[John Harding]

Olly,
Many thanks, my rod is the one that was in the sale.

Regards,
John

[Olly]

Well it could have been a custom job - they did make a few one offs!

[Jon Math]

Very nice rod!

[Nobby]

From the handwriting, particularly the letter A, I'd say that was an early rod from between 1946 and 1949 when the two brothers parted ways. After that the rods bore the 'Dalesman' name as well to distinguish them from the earlier company.
I'd guess the writing, which was on rods from both firms, was therefore done by James Aspindale, who had learnt his trade as a rod maker, particularly in hollow-building, before the War at Milwards.

In the second Aspindale incarnation of James and son Peter, they were later joined by Tony Croft from Allcock.

Tony Croft left and shortly afterwards Peter was badly hurt in a traffic accident. Unable to continue without his son, James folded the company and sold off the manufacturing equipment.

Tony Croft then returned to rod making and set up Croftdale, but confusingly, he was joined 2 years later by a recovered Peter and they decided to use the Aspindale name again as it had such a good reputation.

They developed the aluminium rods as they thought they could vastly improve on the steel offerings from Accles and Pollock Apollo Taperflash range, but the bank pulled the loan just as they were gearing up for mass production and both men had to sell their houses. They didn't speak to each other for many years...Tony Croft as rod maker had no idea where their money had gone and seems to have held Peter, as manager and salesman accountable.

These rare-ish aluminium rods were produced briefly in 1965...and this is where is gets a bit confusing as Aspindale were still in business in 1967.

So perhaps they made aluminium rods for a bit longer before the bank withdrew their loan? Either way, in 1967 Tony Croft moved South and joined Davenport and Fordham in Poole, where he stayed for 5 years.


So your two rods, though carrying the same manufacturers name were made at least 16 years apart.

[Paul D]

You really are a goldmine of information Nobby, you really are one of few chaps on here that should commit your vast knowledge to paper.

[John Harding]

Nobby,

Thanks once again for your fantastic knowledge, I am in full agreement with Paul D you should put your vast knowledge into book form, I would be first in the que for a copy.

Regards,
John Harding

[Nobby]

That's very kind of you fellers, but truth be told I'm largely passing-on the work of others here. Indeed most of the above should appear 'in print' ( I guess it might be digital these days) quite soon.

To complete the Aspindale story, as well as the three configurations above, Peter Aspindale continued to make rods after the split with Tony Croft .... or to be more precise it may be at this juncture that he actually learned to make rods, having been in the 'admin' side of the previous firms. Peter's rods can be identified by their sticky gold and black label, as opposed to a transfer.

Just to confuse the issue again however, Tony Croft literally had a firm created for him when he was head-hunted by Berkeley of the USA. Making rods for Normark ( the Rapala group) the new company was called Norcro ( Normark-Croft?) and used a near identical label to Peter's Aspindale one!

Peter Aspindale was a troubled man and he and his wife had only a limited output, working from home just down the road from the Kingsley Sports centre where the Redditch Tackle Fairs are held. Peter sadly passed away last year.

There are some other 'Aspindale' rods out there....some quite poorly written by an unknown builder and some under the Falcon name, which I think were by Ken Johnson, an Aspindale employee or possibly an 'out-worker', when Tony Croft joined the firm in 1954 when the Severndale and Avondale rods were so popular.


To add to this it is recorded that Tony Croft when working with Peter Aspindale was making rods for Richard Forshaw of Bootle and Lindop and someone was also making rods for Tom Watson of Nottingham, like his famous 'Wasp' which seems very similar to the early, early Aero 891 rod from the 1946-'49 period of the very first incarnation of Aspindale with James and brother William.


A convoluted history for a firm that was so short-lived, I bet there's still more to come out.......

[LuckyLuca]

I love threads like this!

I have a Falcon Aero 892. It's a pretty sorry state at the moment, but could be very nice with some tlc.