Keith Speer
Senior Member
Many years ago a club that I was a member of organised a 130 peg match on the first Sunday of the season, I pegged the water late on the Saturday night, I knew the water so I did not really look into each swim, just made sure they were fishable.
The following morning we were expecting 130 blokes in the lacal british Legion for breakfast at 8am, so I and my mate Terry walked the water at about 7am to make sure the pegs were all in place and everything was cushty.
When we go to peg 34, Tel noticed on the left of the peg in a margin bay a pair of feet sticking out of the water, from what we could see the legs were well bloated and the body had been in the water for some time.
At this point I should point out that this fishery was nestled between 3 of London’s Psychiatric hospitals and over the years several of the "patients" had used this lake to end their days!
Tel and I sat down and discussed the problem, we already had about 130 people coming from all over, the bloke in the lake was well past saving so in the end we decided that the path to the swim was very, very dangerous (it had not rained for weeks) and we should close peg 34 as too dangerous to fish, we then went and added an end peg to make up the numbers.
Everyone had breakfast, the match kicked off at 10am, finished at 3pm and everyone went back to the legion for a swift half, whereupon I (following the scales man) discovered the body in peg 34 and phoned the old bill.
When the Police arrived they asked the circumstances of the discovery and I had an interesting conversation with the copper that went:-
Me
"It's bloody obvious the path is dangerous!"
Copper
"But it looks exactly like all the other paths!"
Me
"But more dangerous!!!"
Copper
"No it isn't, it is flat an dry and clearly OK to walk on!"
Me
It does..................then you bloody walk on it then!!"
Copper then walks casually along the path:-
ME
"Christ ..Be bloody careful you nearly went in the lake then!!
It is for that very reason we roped this swim off!!"
Copper
It's fine......And I am a good 5 yards from the lake!"
Me
You don't know this area and just how dodgy it can be, this path is probably why that poor chap ended up in the lake!"
Copper
"But he must be a good 10 yards from the path, he could not possibly end up in the lake if he slipped!"
This went on for another half an hour with me arguing that the path was not just dangerous but lethal.
Every now and than one of the other anglers would turn up only to go and hide behind a tree before they burst out laughing in front of the copper.
It turned out that the poor chap in the lake had been missing for a week and had decided to end it all by tying a 28lb sledge hammer head around his neck and jumping in the lake
Un-believably I actually got away with this, it was the cause of quite a lot of mirth over the years and on nearly every occasion we toast the poor bloke who was obviously not well and is hopefully in a better place now.
The following morning we were expecting 130 blokes in the lacal british Legion for breakfast at 8am, so I and my mate Terry walked the water at about 7am to make sure the pegs were all in place and everything was cushty.
When we go to peg 34, Tel noticed on the left of the peg in a margin bay a pair of feet sticking out of the water, from what we could see the legs were well bloated and the body had been in the water for some time.
At this point I should point out that this fishery was nestled between 3 of London’s Psychiatric hospitals and over the years several of the "patients" had used this lake to end their days!
Tel and I sat down and discussed the problem, we already had about 130 people coming from all over, the bloke in the lake was well past saving so in the end we decided that the path to the swim was very, very dangerous (it had not rained for weeks) and we should close peg 34 as too dangerous to fish, we then went and added an end peg to make up the numbers.
Everyone had breakfast, the match kicked off at 10am, finished at 3pm and everyone went back to the legion for a swift half, whereupon I (following the scales man) discovered the body in peg 34 and phoned the old bill.
When the Police arrived they asked the circumstances of the discovery and I had an interesting conversation with the copper that went:-
Me
"It's bloody obvious the path is dangerous!"
Copper
"But it looks exactly like all the other paths!"
Me
"But more dangerous!!!"
Copper
"No it isn't, it is flat an dry and clearly OK to walk on!"
Me
It does..................then you bloody walk on it then!!"
Copper then walks casually along the path:-
ME
"Christ ..Be bloody careful you nearly went in the lake then!!
It is for that very reason we roped this swim off!!"
Copper
It's fine......And I am a good 5 yards from the lake!"
Me
You don't know this area and just how dodgy it can be, this path is probably why that poor chap ended up in the lake!"
Copper
"But he must be a good 10 yards from the path, he could not possibly end up in the lake if he slipped!"
This went on for another half an hour with me arguing that the path was not just dangerous but lethal.
Every now and than one of the other anglers would turn up only to go and hide behind a tree before they burst out laughing in front of the copper.
It turned out that the poor chap in the lake had been missing for a week and had decided to end it all by tying a 28lb sledge hammer head around his neck and jumping in the lake
Un-believably I actually got away with this, it was the cause of quite a lot of mirth over the years and on nearly every occasion we toast the poor bloke who was obviously not well and is hopefully in a better place now.
