The death of a legend

The death of a legend. Bernard Venables MBE, who was Mr Crabtree to millions of us, has gone from this life. No oak coffin for our Crabtree, he was laid out in a creel. There was no church service. His family and friends gathered in a village hall. Some wore the dandelion flower in their lapels. They wore country clothes. After a few talks by his beloved friends he was buried in the Hampshire countryside. Some dropped mayflies in the creel, one dropped a Crabtree type float. They then all went off to a local pub to quaff some ale. Throughout my life I have been very fortunate to have fished and met some great men. My two angling heroes Dick Walker and Bernard Venables who created Mr Crabtree. The Crabtree influence came to me through a comic strip in the Daily Mirror. Every time I got hold of the paper I used to read about Garth, Karen, Dawn and the professor; then it was Jane; and finally Mr Crabtree, the angler who was always catching big fish. I was enthralled by his writing and drawings on perch fishing. In my last year at Temple School I decided that I would have to work hard if I was to get a good report; in doing so I won the school Book Prize. The school secretary told me to choose a book to the value of two guineas, and I opted for Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing by Bernard Venables. It sold two million copies. The secretary came to me a few days later and said, “The book you have chosen is only five shillings, and you can have one for two guineas.” “I know Miss, but that’s the one I want. Could I have some floats with the rest of the money?” “You can’t do that. It’s one book only,” she replied. “Then it’s got to be Mr Crabtree” I said. Mr Crabtree showed us how to enjoy being by the waterside, and in a wonderful way he showed us what fishing was all about. When I read about the Royalty fishery on the River Avon, I thought it was where King George VI fished! I was an avid reader of Bernard Venables and collected all his books. It was Bernard who made Creel such a wonderful magazine but when he left the editor’s chair it immediately went downhill and became just an ordinary magazine. On my 52nd birthday I had the best present I could wish for when I travelled down to Bernard’s home to record a series of programmes for BBC Radio 5 and Radio Lancashire. He was ever so kind, and his wife Eileen made me a wonderful lunch. I took all my copies of his books and Bernard signed every one for me. We chatted about angling and about all the nice things from the past. Since that first visit Bernard, Eileen, my wife Kate and I often got together over a meal and a bottle of wine. The conversation was always sparkling and full of interest, and it was a real treat to be with them. Recently at one of these get togethers, the subject turned (as it usually does) to the old days when we both lived in Kent. But on this occasion we went further back in time, back to the days before I was born, when Bernard lived on Romney Marsh. He told us a story about the Romney Marsh sheep fairs when he was just six years old and his mother dressed him up as a bluebell fairy; I can just imagine him! Bernard was first and foremost an artist, and I know no one who can capture the countryside, its wildlife and fish quite the way he did. His paintings, in oils or in water colours, are to my mind the best. For me he captured the true spirit of angling. In 1949 Bernard had a wonderful book ‘A Fisherman’s Testament’ published by A & C Black. There is a chapter simply entitled ‘Pike’, and in it Bernard writes about his good friend St John Cooper catching a pike of thirty and a quarter pounds from a Berkshire lake. Last summer Bernard and I visited that same water to fish for tench in true Crabtree style with bamboo rods and centre pin reels. Bernard enjoyed being at the waterside as much that day as he did all those years ago when he was fishing on Romney Marsh as a boy. Thank you, Bernard, for Mr Crabtree and for all the other books which have flowed from your pen and the pictures from your brush. Rest in Peace dear friend.

Martin James