RICHARD WALKER BARRED !**!
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:13 pm
Good evening all,
My local fishing club is celebrating it's 100 year centenary this year and our club chairman decided he wanted to mark the occasion by producing a commemorative brochure detailing some of the history of the club. A couple of months ago I was fishing on the local canal and who should come along but our chairman, he stopped for a chat in which he outlined his plan for the brochure. I happened to mention that in an issue of Angling Times that I have in my collection, there was a double page spread about our club, he said that it would make an ideal double page spread for the brochure, so I promised to look it out for him.
What has this to do with the heading of "Richard Walker Barred" you may ask, well, as I could not remember which issue the feature on our club was in I had to look through all of my old Angling Times until I found it. The problem with doing that is, that as you look through the different issues various headings and articles catch your eye and you end up reading them and the task takes two or three times longer than it should.
One such headline caught my attention and it read :- Walker barred from Royalty This immediately drew my attention and I had to read the piece, it appeared on the front page of the Angling Times, issue number 426, Friday, September 1st, 1961
The article :-
For those not able to enlarge or zoom in on the text, it reads as follows :-
Walker barred from Royalty
Dick Walker has been barred from the Royalty Fishery
Angling Times controversial columnist, on holiday in Bournemouth, went to the famous fishery on the Hampshire Avon to find a friend, Lincoln schoolmaster Geoff Shaw, and was told: “Leave these premises immediately.”
Dick said afterwards : “ I was looking for Geoff, not fishing, but I thought I should call at the bailiff’s office out of courtesy.
‘Jack Davis was in the office, and wen he saw me he said “Would you mind leaving these premises immediately’ I said I would but asked why. Davis just told me ‘I am not obliged to give any reason.’
“There wasn’t much point in arguing, so I left”
‘UNPLEASANT’
Although Walker was not told why he had been barred Peter Green, Fishery Manager of West Hants. Water Company, which controls the Royalty, told Angling Times :
“Mr. Walker has written some rather unpleasant remarks about us and so we suggest it would be better if he fished elsewhere.
“I have nothing personal against him but these remarks are not fair to the keepers.”
“He said, more or less, that if you go to the Royalty you will not get very much help. That is untrue.”
Mr. Green added that these remarks were made in a letter to an angler which had been shown to the fishery officials.
Asked why the Royalty officials had never answered Walker’s criticisms in Angling Times, Mr. Green said : “It is our policy never to write to newspapers on this sort of subject, or any other.”
=====================================================
I have had a look through the posts in the Dick Walker thread and I can not see any mention of this before, apologies if it has and I have missed it. I hope it is of interest and adds another little bit of history to the memory of our greatest angler
Regards,
John
My local fishing club is celebrating it's 100 year centenary this year and our club chairman decided he wanted to mark the occasion by producing a commemorative brochure detailing some of the history of the club. A couple of months ago I was fishing on the local canal and who should come along but our chairman, he stopped for a chat in which he outlined his plan for the brochure. I happened to mention that in an issue of Angling Times that I have in my collection, there was a double page spread about our club, he said that it would make an ideal double page spread for the brochure, so I promised to look it out for him.
What has this to do with the heading of "Richard Walker Barred" you may ask, well, as I could not remember which issue the feature on our club was in I had to look through all of my old Angling Times until I found it. The problem with doing that is, that as you look through the different issues various headings and articles catch your eye and you end up reading them and the task takes two or three times longer than it should.
One such headline caught my attention and it read :- Walker barred from Royalty This immediately drew my attention and I had to read the piece, it appeared on the front page of the Angling Times, issue number 426, Friday, September 1st, 1961
The article :-
For those not able to enlarge or zoom in on the text, it reads as follows :-
Walker barred from Royalty
Dick Walker has been barred from the Royalty Fishery
Angling Times controversial columnist, on holiday in Bournemouth, went to the famous fishery on the Hampshire Avon to find a friend, Lincoln schoolmaster Geoff Shaw, and was told: “Leave these premises immediately.”
Dick said afterwards : “ I was looking for Geoff, not fishing, but I thought I should call at the bailiff’s office out of courtesy.
‘Jack Davis was in the office, and wen he saw me he said “Would you mind leaving these premises immediately’ I said I would but asked why. Davis just told me ‘I am not obliged to give any reason.’
“There wasn’t much point in arguing, so I left”
‘UNPLEASANT’
Although Walker was not told why he had been barred Peter Green, Fishery Manager of West Hants. Water Company, which controls the Royalty, told Angling Times :
“Mr. Walker has written some rather unpleasant remarks about us and so we suggest it would be better if he fished elsewhere.
“I have nothing personal against him but these remarks are not fair to the keepers.”
“He said, more or less, that if you go to the Royalty you will not get very much help. That is untrue.”
Mr. Green added that these remarks were made in a letter to an angler which had been shown to the fishery officials.
Asked why the Royalty officials had never answered Walker’s criticisms in Angling Times, Mr. Green said : “It is our policy never to write to newspapers on this sort of subject, or any other.”
=====================================================
I have had a look through the posts in the Dick Walker thread and I can not see any mention of this before, apologies if it has and I have missed it. I hope it is of interest and adds another little bit of history to the memory of our greatest angler
Regards,
John
