Angling club's silver anniversary

MEMBERS of the Warrington based Penketh and Old Hall Angling Society (POHAS) are celebrating the fishing club’s silver anniversary.
From its early days the club has now grown to more than 200 members and has a thriving junior section.
One of the founder members Alf Smith, (pictured right with an old fishing reel) aged 87, a local resident of Old Hall for 26 years said: “I moved to the area in 1982 having retired from Manchester Corporation. Close to where I live there was a pool nestled in a new housing estate, the road to which was named Livingstone Close.
“At the time most of Warrington was run under the auspices of ‘Warrington New Town’ and the pool in question was and is known as Whitegate Pool.
“At the same time my local pub then was the Sportsman’s Arms in Penketh.
“There were five of us drinking there who were keen fishermen but had nowhere to fish. To cut a long story short we got in touch with Warrington new town who offered us ‘Whitegate Pool’ for fishing. They then installed fishing platforms to make it a safe area to fish. From that day to this we still rent the pool, although it is now in the hands of Warrington Borough Council.”
The club officially started in September 1983 and at the time was known initially as ‘Old Hall Angling Society’ but soon became Penketh & Old Hall Angling Society after some members were from the Penketh area and wanted it incorporating in the club name.
Back in 1983 the club had one pool, about 15 members, no junior members and no matches organised just ad-hoc fishing on our pools.
Club meetings were then held monthly in a room at the Sportsman’s Arms, Penketh.
Between 1983 and 1985 the society gained two more pools from Warrington new town, Brownlee’s Pool in Shackleton Close near to Gulliver’s World, which they still retain today, although the land was passed to the Woodland Trust to whom we pay rent and the third pool was Mary Ann Meadows in Westbrook not far from the local ASDA supermarket. Unfortunately due to persistent vandalism and pollution they gave up rights to in 2005.
Frank Davies is the current club Chairman, who instigated fishing competitions for juniors.
The club expanded sufficiently and began organising matches for Adults initiated by former member Dave Smith
In 1991 monthly meetings transferred from the Sportsman’s Arms at Penketh to the Bewsey Farm Pub in Old Hall, now known as ‘The Maltings.’
A Junior development fund was formed in the 1990’s which was set up to support specific Junior activities. Now all Junior matches are free to Junior members, food and refreshment is also supplied free at each match and a ‘Summer Series’ falls in line with the school holidays.
The club has a recognised Child Protection Policy and they are currently in the process of organising members to attend a ‘Level 1’ Coaching Course which is a ‘1st4sport’ qualification and has been developed in partnership with the Angling Development Board (ADB) and the Environment Agency.
The Junior fund also allows free fishing equipment to Junior club members.
Club Secretary Paul Bryan added: “The club is moving with the times as it has to, especially when you deal with children and the requirements for risk assessments and health and safety etc are a necessity.
“We are aware that finances for most people are stretched, we are also very aware that today’s Juniors are our future. That’s why we do whatever we can to keep the cost down particularly for our Juniors. Whilst we have them at club matches or if we see them pleasure fishing on one of our pools they learn about things other than fishing, they learn about the environment, they learn about being part of a team, when fishing they are able to switch off from the pressures of school and it is a ‘switch off’ from computer games.
“Twenty Five years has seen a lot of changes, thanks to Alf Smith, Jack Crompton, Jim Galley, Rick Spencer, who started a great club, sadly Jack and Jim have since passed away and Rick is no longer a club member but he still lives in the area, without their efforts POHAS wouldn’t exist.”
Alf now aged 87 is still active and still bailiffs and fishes the pool at Whitegate.
Here’s to the next 25 years!
For more information on the club visit www.pohas.co.uk