"Tony keeling", journalist, expert Angler, and lifelong member shares the history of the club..."

As the name changed and the membership grew so did the list of waters but despite brief flirtations with ‘new’ venues in the main the IW(Stafford)AA had the fishing on the Staffs-Worcs Canal from Hazelstrine Arm to Milford Aqueduct, the River Sow (for some reason it was spelt Sowe in those days!) from the spinney above Shakey Bridges to the Great Northern Bridge, the latter being the old railway/river bridge behind the cemetery, - the downstream reaches were generally known as ‘Blackberry Lane’ as many will recollect. Also under the club’s control was the River Penk at Silkmore Hall plus the lengthy section from Radford down to Ladder Bridge.

Time moves on and 1938 was a good year to take the next summary as it was a landmark being 75 years ago. The membership card was ten shillings or 50p in todays money for an adult and five shillings (25p) for under-17s and ladies. It is interesting to note that over-65s and registered disabled paid the full rate. That particular year there was no less than twenty-seven committee members, this number did not include any officers whatsoever. The headquarters, as they were for many years, were the Talbot and Smithfield Hotel in Victoria Square. Just digressing a little the club had the fishing from Acton Bridge to Deepmore Lock on the Staffs-Worcs Canal that particular year but only from January 1^st to June 15^th, - how this came about I just don’t know as the Closed Season started on March 15^th!

The club continued with membership every year through World War II. In 1948 the waters basically remained the same except there was no fishing in the River Penk in the Trumpet Meadow and the lease, if there ever was one, was discontinued from the Acton Bridge to Deepmore length. For those that are interested I believe the now defunct Whitmore Reans AA took over the Acton Bridge section whilst the Birmingham Anglers Association had the fishing on the Deepmore length. The IW(Stafford)AA membership fees were exactly the same as 1938.

Leading up to 1948 the local canals were left to rack and ruin, several were filled in and it really was touch and go as whether the same fate would happen with the Staffs-Worcs Canal. The saviour was undoubtedly an organisation called the Inland Waterways Authority (IWA) who had the foresight to see the great potential the canals offered, including the ‘leisure’ point of view. To celebrate their 50 years the IWA sponsored a large match in 1998 on the Staffs-Worcs Canal at Stafford, - every competitor was offered a free meal and drink afterwards at Stafford Boat Club and anglers came from many parts of the Midlands, even some from London, to celebrate this contest. In all probability, without the IWA, there may well have been a lot fewer canals about than there is today. Another point of note was the IW(Stafford)AA joined the National Federation of Anglers around 1948/49.

Moving on to 1958 and the membership fees had gone up to 15 shillings (75p) for an adult or six shillings and sixpence (32 and a half pence!) for ladies and under-16s, - still no mention of a reduction for OAPs and registered disabled! The waters varied a bit whilst stretches of the River Sow at Chebsey and Shallowford were added to the list. I don’t know whether anybody else can remember but the Association also had the fishing on two small pools on Mr Hidderley’s land at Shakey Bridges. – members had to prior book to fish these as numbers were restricted, - the pools have since been filled in. It was around this time that an IW(Stafford)AA trout committee was formed as fly fishing was allowed on stretches of the rivers in the coarse Closed Season.

In 1965/66 the Club took the bold step to take on the Estate water on the Shropshire Union Canal at Cowley and Wood Eaton. This was eventually to prove to be a very costly exercise as the fishing dates were very restricted owing to the ‘shoot’ on the land. Dave Barnard and myself sorted out all sorts of accesses and even made car parks for members use. We also ran lots of matches there; in fairness the fishing was excellent and this was possibly the first canal venue in the area where ‘double figures’ often won and framed. The venue was well liked by all and the ‘wood’ area at Cowley, offered brilliant pleasure and match fishing. However, costs went up and up and Dave and I just couldn’t keep pace with running the amount of matches that were needed to allay the largest part of the rent needed, despite bribing the gamekeeper with a bottle of whisky per match to get a few winter contests there! In reality the IW(Stafford)AA were paying four times the value of the water so it just had to go.

It wasn’t too long after this the club fell on real hard times and there was very much a danger of running out of money followed by the inevitable. I was approached by the then Treasurer with the problem and a heavy programme of contests was organised over a four years spell. At this point it needs saying that the whole point of running contests in the first place is help to pay rents on the various clubs’ waters primarily as well as supplying match anglers with their hobby. Anyway over £10,000 was put in the club’s coffers over this spell and that gave the Association a lot of breathing space. It has to be said that an awful lot of work also went into these contests in obtaining sponsorship to attract such large entries. The waters also had to be used very sparingly and carefully as to retain the high quality of fishing.

In 1986 the club’s profile was raised by quite a chunk as the match squad improved year on year creating all sorts of records, winning various winter leagues, other leagues, championships and the coveted 500-entry Fish Aid twice The icing on the cake, of course, was the Division One National Championships on the Oxford Canal. As the only true ‘club’ side to have ever accomplished this Stafford Borough Council organised a Civic Reception, attended by the Mayoress and other Civic dignitaries. With the ‘National’ win came a huge sponsorship deal, a promise fulfilled by Maver UK. This was the largest sponsorship deal in the country, by some distance, at the time. As an added bonus from winning the National many members, nine in all went, were invited to fish in the World Inter Clubs Championships in Sweden. Every single one of the squad worked hard to obtain a lot of sponsorship and money towards this trip and occasion of a lifetime and that is how it turned out to be. For the record despite fishing against many countries with full international squads The Izaak Walton (Stafford) AA had represented England and considering the power of the opposition the result of finishing just under halfway was well acceptable.

It was just after this Maver UK increased the sponsorship deal. One or two of the squad had ‘retired’ and some others pointed at it; my fishing became very restricted as I chose to concentrate on work as I was a director of a growing business. Ironically I had a choice of a top job in fishing with the NFA but I took my name out of the hat to concentrate on my trade, printing; it is little known fact I did spend a year working for the Angling Trust (formerly NFA) at a much later time. As an added bonus the IW(Stafford)AA team were voted ‘Team of the Year’ two years in succession by readers of the Angler’s Mail, - beating Team England on both occasions, - an achievement that I always thought of as good as winning the ‘National’. That ‘National’ win also changed a few lives within the squad for the better. However, let me just say the team had started ‘drifting’ apart and not too long after and the ‘club’ side of things went with it. Eventually the sponsorship went to Barnsley and the team folded.

The club also had a fantastic junior squad and Pete Bryan was the man behind all that. He sorted out trips all over the Midlands for the lads and they in turn followed the example of the senior team by winning the juvenile National equivalent in 1994/5 on the local Staffs-Worcs Canal. It was a brilliant achievement and I am just as proud of being presented a medal for this as I was when we won the senior counterpart. This was also the last of the proper juvenile nationals before the teams were heavily reduced in numbers. I shall never forget the tears running down some of the parents faces as their offspring went up on the stage to receive their just rewards. As a matter of fact can any other Junior set up in the country boast two former Kamasan Matchmen of the Year champions from their junior ranks, - Andy Moors and Kieron Rich, - Izaak Walton (Stafford) AA can.

In recent years my main ambition in fishing was achieved; that was to organise a match on the three local canals at the same time. One was prepared some years back but fell through because of unavoidable sponsorship reasons. After running quite a few industry nationals, British Waterways matches (as they were then) plus the Division Three National Championships I put a plan together to run the biggest of the lot, the Division One Angling Trust National Championships some four years back. To be perfectly frank this would not have happened without the help of the likes of Paul Turner and my Eclipse team mates from the Potteries. Finding headquarters was a nightmare and pegging out the match was more so, - I was actually pegging one section out at 1am on the Saturday morning and had a taxi booked for 4am to get me to the Rodbaston headquarters where I had to erect all the signs. The practise matches and the National alone made well over £10,000 for the local clubs which was split between Wolves AA, Shugborough FC, Saracen’s Head

AG, Stoke City DAS and the Izaak Walton(Stafford)AA. One of the practise matches attracted 281 competitors which is a record in today’s climate.

This basically brings the Club up to date with obvious exceptions that you all know about.

With deepest gratitude to the late Walter Tooth who inadvertently supplied a lot of this information.