Wrexham, another perspective

From our on the spot roving reporter Roger ‘the dodger’ Miles

 

Wrexham

 It all started several months ago when JR (our own John Reynolds) said “What about Wales”.

Now I know what Mike Marshall is like, in a previous life he must have been a sniffer dog, because when he is on the trail, nothing distracts him.So it was with hundreds of telephone calls, scores of meetings and a lot of arm twisting that the Wrexham meeting was nailed down, by the boss.Off we went, myself,  Mike Heritage and Alex Titov, trekked on Saturday 12th June to Wrexham.We eventually got there five hours later, via looking at rivers, motorway cafes and goodness only knows how many smoke breaks.

 I should have known it was going to be a special meeting as we stayed at the “Beeches” Premier Inn at Wrexham on Saturday and also dined there.Alex and Mike found a bit of grass (Lawn) outside the restaurant so we went out there at eight o clock at night and started swishing around. There was a small crowd gathering as they probably have never  seen anything like this before. I am sure I heard someone mention me, in as much by saying “that short chunky one holding the rod has had one too many puddings”.Mike ended up trying to teach someone the roll cast only to be told by me “he cannot hear what you are saying Mike” “why not” Mike says “He’s deaf” I said. It ended up a real hoot.

 Mike Marshall has documented the sequence of events on Sunday at Wrexham and I can say that it was truly an extraordinary sight to see so many people with their fly rods “having a go”.

 Now on to a slightly different view on that day. A lot of the fly fishers out there, see and have always seen Qualified Instructors as sometimes unapproachable, that is probably, due to the fact that they cast so much better.

In the BFCC we have GAIA, AAPGAI, FFF, and other qualified instructors, so we encompass the whole spectrum of instructing and instructing bodies.At the Wrexham meeting there was a very good representation of the GAIA instructors, indeed some of the top guys.From the word go they got stuck in with helping out, laughing and joking and having a go at the competitions and badge schemes, and all the time encouraging the others to join in, in other words very very approachable.Although they are experts in their own right they were all humble enough to take a few pointers to improve their out and out distance casting.They still showed everyone that they could cast more than a 30 yard line on a five weight not an easy thing to do especially  given the conditions.On the subject of Instruction I think this was probably our biggest turnout as far as the amount people that was being taught at any one time.It is very hard to convey the sense of fun everyone had, but more than a few people asked if we could another one this year, so that alone speaks for itself.Mike Marshall has already given thanks to those that made it possible so I can only echo that with a few additions.

 A BIG congratulations to our very own James Evans for winning the five weight event. I know how long he has strived for this, so we all feel really happy for him.Thank you from myself, personally, to Louis Noble and Mike Roden for spending their time with me on Instructing matters.Thanks to Vera and  Bob for being so charming and witty, and of course helpful.To all you girls and guys that turned up to “your meeting” the BFCC says Thank You.

Mike Heritage tells me that he is thinking of learning sign language so whomever that guy was at the restaurant, watch out as “We Will Be Back”.

  Roger Miles 

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 20th, 2010 at 8:22 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

Comments

Got something to say?