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He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport five years ago following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.
Pilgrim’s Progress – read it every Thursday! Behind The Scenes At Britain’s Biggest Club Think of Birmingham. What comes into your mind? (We’re playing word association here). Aston Villa…Doug Ellis…The Bull Ring…Pebble Mill at One…Rover’s recent troubles…Red Robbo and Leyland in the 70’s…Crossroads…Duran Duran (Who, I hear you ask?)…Engineering…we could go on. But how many of you, when asked to consider Britain’s Second City, thought of the Birmingham Anglers Association? Started in 1883, when a small group of local angling club representatives met, BAA began life as ‘The Birmingham and District Amalgamated Angling Association’. How little would those nineteenth Century angling pioneers have realised the consequence of their coming together. Peaking in the mid 1970’s, BAA membership reached nearly 70,000. Sadly, today, with the general decline in fishing, the numbers are down. However, the club can still boast 17,000 members, making it Britain’s largest angling club in terms of membership. I wanted to see how the biggest club in Britain operates. The time I spent with John was really enjoyable. Spending time with him, one can see that if fishing was a crime, you would be talking to a lifer! He even moved from Birmingham to Kidderminster to be nearer the River Severn. A man after my own heart John! John showed me around the premises and pointed out some interesting memorabilia on display. Among the specimen fish in glass cases, relics of a bygone age when fish were killed and mounted rather than photographed, were a number of interesting items. I was particularly interested in a poster advertising a contest in the early twentieth Century, which took place on the River Severn in the Tewkesbury area. The weighing station was at Kempsey, so all fish were killed and brought there for verification, then taken home and eaten. How times have changed. I left John and the BAA offices behind feeling really blessed that I too was a member of the club. John’s personal dream for the Association is that it ‘will continue to prosper and provide future generations of anglers with the finest fishing available at an affordable price’. I don’t think any angler can argue with that. I usually take out a couple of new club cards every season. This gives me a whole new set of waters to fish, which I enjoy the challenge of. Then when the next year comes round I drop them and take out cards from another club. I very rarely take out a ticket for two consecutive seasons. However, the exception is the BAA ticket. I have owned one every year since fishing. It is always first on my list of priority. The reasons for choosing BAA are quite simple – value for money. This year (The club operates from January to December) BAA tickets are £ 22. This is the maximum that anyone will pay, as there are also concessions: joint membership, juniors, ladies etc. There are also day tickets at £ 3, which must be purchased in advance. For that, the amount of fishing is unbelievable. In fact, I’m not even going to start to list the available water, because if I did I wouldn’t be able to stop! There is 200 miles of water to choose from, with a wide variety of river, canal and stillwaters. Check out the BAA web site, the address is www.baa.uk.com. You will find a whole load of information on there, in particular a list of all the waters available. Believe me, a BAA ticket has got to be the best value club card in the whole country. You can even buy one on-line and have it delivered to your door. The Reverend Stewart R Bloor
The man who makes it all ‘tick’ is John Williams. One of the Vice-Presidents of the club, John is also the full-time General Secretary for BAA, assisted by a couple of part-time office staff. I had communicated a number of times with John by e-mail, but recently I paid a visit to the HQ of BAA. Armed with a camera and a note pad, I felt like a real journalist! 
It was also interesting to note that one of the reasons the initial angling club representatives met to form an association, was that they had more clout when lobbying the railway companies, so cheap fares could be procured for those wishing to fish at weekends. How fortunate we are in this day and age. We load the car and drive literally to the peg. It was different for anglers a hundred years ago, when very few owned motor cars. 
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216, Dudley. DY3 1GW.
Telephone : 01384 – 828033
Web site : www.sicm.org
e-mail : missionscentre@sicm.org
