Did you miss TV sport?

Did you miss TV sport? In a strange way it feels like we’ve been back to normal forever; that moment when the government released us from lockdown seems a great deal longer ago than five weeks. We’ve packed in a great deal of fishing since then! But then again, that is only fishing; the rest of the what is loosely called the leisure industry remains shuttered with much pain still to come. I regard ourselves as very fortunate, especially compared to our colleagues in Wales and Scotland.

Closer to home Stockbridge is busy; not super summer busy but enough to have the tills jangling with all the shops now open. The next shoe to drop will be in early July when our local pubs and hotels reopen. It is hard to get perfect information on the precise nature and character of the reopening. Many websites are at best confusing, at worst misleading, the home pages stating, “closed until further notice”. However, if you dig around the online bookings systems nearly everywhere is offering rooms from 4th or 5th July. The only exceptions to this in Stockbridge are The Grosvenor (1/August) and Lainston House (6/August). Likewise, self-catering weekly rentals and B&Bs through portals such as Airbnb and cottages.com are now taking bookings from 4/July. All that said I don’t think it is going to be a mighty bound to business as usual. Many of the hoteliers I have spoken to are planning a ‘soft’ reopening including restrictions such as dining confined to residents only, breakfast served in rooms and no walk-ins. Best to check exactly what is on offer before you travel, but its good to be one further step down the track to our new world.

Kingfisher Lodge - River Avon

How to spend a Sunday How did you spend last Sunday? If you were a river keeper on the River Test it is a fair bet, you were in waders with a scythe in hand.

This photo was shot soon after lunch on Sunday at Bullington Manor, a build-up of watercress, celery weed and ranunculus at the hatches on Beat 1. It took our team of four over an hour to move it through and a further two days to clear it on and out to our downstream neighbours. Sorry guys! By now it will be heading for the sea. After a dearth of weed last year, 2020 has been a bumper year. In my thirty years on the upper stretches of the Test I have never seen anything like it, no doubt a product of one of the wettest winters on record followed by one of the warmest springs. River weeds love sunlight and fast, oxygenated water – they have had it in spades. So, we are nearly done with the weed cut on the Test. It moves in tranches, so we’ll be on to the bigger river south of Stockbridge to wrap it all up on Thursday. Then all we have to do it hone and oil our scythes for the cut towards the end of July ……

It is not all hand scythes; we do make the odd concession to modern machinery. Here Kris (above) is using a strimmer with a hedge cutter attachment to cut the watercress. This is probably the closest a strimmer comes to its original purpose here in Britain, invented as they were in the Far East for cutting rice fields.

Did you miss TV sport? I was going start by saying I don’t watch much sport on TV but when I came to list the sports I regularly watch – horse racing, golf, tennis, motor racing and …. well, I better not go on as I’m rather embarrassed to see this list is rather longer than is decent. I am beginning to understand why my family roll their eyes at my viewing habits. But have I missed TV sport during the lockdown? Not a bit of it. After a few days of cold turkey Sky Sports was entirely erased from my consciousness. It was a relief to be spared those blathering football managers who mostly fill the sports news reports. I can’t say I’ve been weeping buckets at the postponement of the Olympics. My Coral betting account has remained blissfully undepleted. Now sport is back have I wrested back control of the remote? Well, not really. I dipped my toe in with the PGA from Texas last week sans spectators. Was it any the worse for the lack of crowds? Did we really miss that guy who travels to every golf tournament around the world to shout ‘get in the hole’ at the most inappropriate moment? Will our viewing experience be diminished by the absence of the director panning in on the gurning faces of the spectators? Royal Ascot was certainly less royal, but I watch horse racing for the horses not the people. I can see that BCD (behind closed doors) will play havoc with the finances of sport but I have to say a bit of me rather likes this particular part of the new normal as sport is honed back to its essence without distractions. And maybe that is no bad thing to like as I’m told many governing bodies are planning BCD for way into 2021.

Royal Ascot jockeys take the service tunnel to the paddock

My favourite night of the year By all measures the Summer Solstice this Saturday is my favourite day of the year; it is, all at the same time mystical, magical and significant, both the longest day of the year – 16 hours and 38 minutes and the shortest night with sunrise at 4.43am and sunset at 9.21pm. I often stay up all night; I love the fact it hardly gets dark, the grey/blue inkiness of the sky providing enough light to read a book. I’ve spent it at Stonehenge, on Glastonbury Tor, amidst Avebury Ring and upon the ancient hill fort of Old Winchester Hill. It is a dawn you only see once a year. A dawn that that our forebears chose to celebrate in ways we would not contemplate today. The solstice probably became a major celebration in the pagan calendar not just for its astrological significance (summer starts this day astrologically speaking) but because it marked a pause in the agrarian calendar. Lambing was done. The back of haymaking broken. Harvest was still ahead. It was the chance for rural communities to let their hair down. This was the time for holidays, such as they were, and the month of choice for weddings. And if you believe in the afterlife the eve Midsummer’s Day marks the point in the year when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest; the moment for fairies and an inkling to what is beyond.

Top photo: Glastonbury Tor. Lower photo: Old Winchester Hill.

Quiz A solstice theme this week but as ever, it is all just for fun with the answers at the bottom of the page. 1)     The new year began for which ancient civilisation close to the summer solstice? 2)     Are we closer to the sun at the summer or winter solstice? 3)     What belief did Galileo recant on this day in 1633?

Have a happy Father's Day weekend. Best wishes,

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Director www.fishingbreaks.co.uk

Answers: 1)     The Egyptians as it coincided with floods from the Nile used for irrigation. 2)     Winter. Heat from the sun is determined by tilt not distance. 3)     That the Earth revolves around the Sun. Even in doing so, Galileo still spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

School's out

School's out I will not tell you how early I rose this morning – you’d just get tired knowing the hour. Suffice to say our church had not banged out many chimes to mark the time at which the cuckoo started calling out for ten minutes straight.

Normally, I do not much care for the call of the male cuckoo; it soon becomes grating and repetitive. But this morning it was less so, our blue-grey African arrival far enough away for the call to be muffled by distance. But goodness how he set off the remainder of the bird world. Within a minute every bird with a voice was joining in. Frankly, it was bloody noisy. I gave up on sleep when some wretched cockerel awoke. To be absolutely fair the ending of my sleep was not all the fault of the predawn chorus. When I refurbished The Mill fifteen years ago the architect, Huw Thomas, persuaded me to remove the floor between the second and third stories and the ceiling above that to create a triple height bedroom. He also persuaded me to remove one end wall to replace it with glass. It is the sort of brilliant idea architects have mostly based on the principle that they rarely live in the houses they design. He further persuaded me (he is a persuasive type) to not sully the aesthetics of the room with curtains. Or blinds. Or basically anything that would shut out light. Down the years dawn has essentially become my alarm clock. How I sometimes yearn for winter ….

Up, I decided to walk towards the sunrise along the abandoned racecourse beneath the ancient hill fort of Danebury Ring. It is a stiff old climb to start with; Nether Wallop sits in a deceptively steep valley. By some accounts ‘wallop‘ means hidden valley. But once you hit the downs where the turf track remains it is kinder on the legs. Today, what was the six furlong straight, is a rarely used training gallop, the racing stables currently empty and the expensive all-weather surface a by-product of the owner, a member of a famous German sports car family.

It was cold; the sun was still thirty minutes away. Within a dozen strides the chilly dew had soaked through my shoes. I was destined to squidge as much as walk. There wasn’t much in the way of wildlife. A muntjac crossed way ahead of me. A few rabbits scurried back to safety. Some partridges got up on the wing, describing a short arc as they drifted back to earth a safe distance from me. There wasn’t a breath of wind. I even seemed to have left the birdsong back in the valley. It was very peaceful as the sun rose over a hill that has seen eight thousand years of human habitation.

On the way home I deviated from the turf to the headlands which surround the adjoining fields, which this year are growing peas. No wonder we are infested with wood pigeons. The headlands are stunning about now, the twenty-metre wide strips a cacophony of daisies. Later in the year the headlands will be red with poppies, but for now the soft wave of colour is white. Farming gets plenty wrong, but in the EU inspired (and funded) corridors nature thrives. Plants grow as the soil permits. Insects avoid pesticides. Birds forage for seeds. Field mice make their homes. Owls hunt the strip lands at night. However, even here it is plain to see how man can pervert natural growth when you have a chance to look. Compare the daisies that are growing along the margin to those in the headland proper. They are thicker, bushier and altogether more flowersome. Why? Well, simply put they benefit from the fertilizer laid down for the peas that leaches into the edge of the headland. That is not to say it is an entirely bad thing – they are, in effect, creating a barrier to keep the rest pure. So, as I trundle back down the hill the sun is up. It is still yet to reach a height at which it will penetrate to the houses alongside the brook, but it has touched the tower of our Norman church which chimes the hour again. I suspect this will be a long day.

School's out I am sure you were the same as me as you donned that itchy uniform ahead of the first day of term. Praying for the phone to ring, your mother shouting up the stairs, ‘You are not going to believe this darling, but the school has burned down.’ Cue total elation. I have to say I never factored a pandemic into my scholastic doomsday scenarios. How lucky is this current generation I think to myself? I know they all say they are really missing school. But I suspect those are words simply to delight parental ears. Out of sight I’m sure they are doing high fives and mouthing F**K YES! Of course, we should have known this was going to happen. Who would have thought Alice Cooper a prophet? His 1972 hit song School’s Out, the anthem of the academically disaffected and disenchanted, foretold the future. No more pencils no more books No more teacher's dirty looks Out for summer Out till fall We might not come back at all School's out forever School's out for summer School's out with fever School's out completely Kudos to you, Alice. However, this hiatus does of course beg the question of parents as to what to do with their offspring in the weeks and months to come. When it comes to fly fishing I’m sorry to say we haven’t been able to work out a Zoom solution but we have worked out how to safely run the Kids Fish Camp and other events here at Nether Wallop Mill over the summer. FATHER’S DAY FISHING DAY Celebrate Father’s Day weekend with a half day of fishing with your son or daughter. Tuition and tackle provided. Take home the catch. Morning or afternoon sessions. June 20/21. KIDS FISH CAMP Three days of casting, catching, fly tying, entomology 101 and much more both here at The Mill and on the River Test. Fully supervised. All tackle and flies provided. 10am-4pm each day. Groups for 8-11 and 12-15 years. June and July dates. FAMILY DAY Bring the family for exclusive use of The Mill with your own private instructor for the day. June- September. Weekdays and weekends. More details here ......

Three months in three weeks It is fair to say things went fairly bonkers for us when Boris announced, with two days’ notice, that fishing was to reopen. We effectively jammed three months into three weeks. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that we’ll make up for all the ground lost during lockdown but compared to many businesses I’m very grateful to be where we are today compared to where we thought we might be a month ago. To a certain extent we are still slightly hampered as it will be a long while before overseas visitors can make it and without local accommodation all trips have to be day trips. The hope has to be that our favourite pubs and hotels will open soon so that those of you who have missed out will be able to make up for lost time. If you are waiting for that first trip the one thing you need not fret about is water levels. Last month might have been the driest and hottest May for over a century but we are still, and will continue to have, full chalkstreams. It was an amazing winter that will keep us going all year with something to spare. But enough about us. How about other fisheries? I had a ring around the stillwaters who have been fantastically busy, the only pause for action being this week when the hot weather became unbearable. A common theme (and one I’d echo) has been the appearance of many clients not seen for years. That is one happy side effect of Covid. That said, I did hear today of one trout fishery that is now closed for fishing May-September but open for wild swimming and doing better than ever! You have to admire the ingenuity. As for Stockbridge. not too much change since the start of lockdown. The essential stores continue to do great trade, the long queues outside becoming something of a feature of the High Street, with the locals now having an algorithmic knowledge of the best times to shop. However, ever resourceful Alistair at Robjent’s has reinvented his store for mail order, click and collect and home delivery, wrapping parcels until 9pm having furloughed all the staff. The only good thing he tells me is that after 20 years of seven days a week he has finally had weekends off. But, despite that, he’ll be glad to open the doors again around 15/June. It has been a brutal three months. Across the road at Orvis they are also preparing for reopening, this time on 18/June. The store will be open every day from 8.30am, seven days a week though make a note that Tuesdays and Wednesdays will only be for a few hours in the morning, the store closed on those afternoons. But other than sensible Covid precautions it will be very much business as usual with full stock in the Stockbridge shops. The summer sale is planned for the last week in June.

Mayfly reports As I went to make the feedback draw for May I had a sudden panic. Did I forget April? And then I remembered: not a fly cast. Not a fish caught. So, I’m doubly delighted to say well done to Brian Gibson who fished at Cottons Fishing House on the River Dove in May. Brian, if you are reading this let me know if you have any interest in horse racing. If so, I’ll send you a copy of Frankel hot off the presses. After much delay it is due out in July. Failing that you are welcome to one of my other books or I’ll find some suitable alternative. In general, this has been a mixed-up Mayfly. On the Allen and the Itchen, it peaked whilst we were still in lockdown. Elsewhere it didn’t really get going until the third week in May, but the hot weather made things really hard on fish and fishers but when it was good, it was very good. I was on the Frome on Sunday night. In all my years I have never seen such an enormous quantity of Mayfly. The meadows at Ilsington were swarming with the dancing columns as far as the eye could see but they didn’t seem to be showing much inclination to head for the river for egg laying. I suspect this change in the weather with plenty of cloud cover for the next week or more might change things for the good.

BBC Springwatch The BBC episode of Springwatch on Wednesday evening (BBC2 8pm) featured a lovely two minute contemplative film shot on a north Norfolk chalkstream. Made by Josh Jaggard it simply features the sights and sounds of the river. No people. No commentary. Just nature doing the talking. It is rather special. Here is the link to BBC iPlayer. You'll need to scroll through to the 31 minute mark. I'm only sorry that the show opens with my bête noire, the beaver.

Quiz No real theme this week but as ever, it is all just for fun with the answers at the bottom of the page. 1)     What is Alice Cooper’s real name? 2)     Which cartoon character had nieces called April, May and June? 3)     In June 1215 Genghis Khan captured Zhongdu. What is the current name of this city?

Enjoy the weekend. Best wishes,

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Director www.fishingbreaks.co.uk

Answers: 1)     Vincent Damon Furnier 2)     Daisy Duck 3)     Beijing