Charity Fly Fishing Competition Raises Money for the Countryside ...

Narborough Fisheries once again hosted the charity fly fishing competition Bank Partners, to raise a
magnificent £1026 for the Countryside Alliance Foundation – Fishing for Schools Programme, within East Anglia. Fishing for Schools is dedicated to transforming the lives of disadvantaged children and young people by taking them out of the classroom and into the countryside.
This year four Norfolk schools have been adopted, making all this possible for over 40 students,
many of whom have educational barriers to learning.

Fourteen competitors battled it out for a demanding five hour intense competition, to be ‘Crowned’
Bank Partners 2025! Points were awarded for the weight of each fish caught, according to their size, which was verified by an independent competition adjudicator, before the majority of fish were carefully released. The Bank Partners Competition encourages those new to the sport or competitive fly fishing to give it a try; there are ‘points’ awarded like a golf handicap to those that are younger or less experienced contestants.

Competition organiser and lead instructor within Fishing for Schools (Eastern Region) - Richard
Winser said “It was a great honour to dedicate this year’s competition in the memory of Brian
Beattie. Brian was an avid fly fisherman, Captain of the Cambridgeshire Police Fly Fishing Team,
Eastern Region Coordinator for the England National Police Team and former member of the
Nomadic Alliance. His last fly fishing competition was Bank Partners, again held here at Narborough, in April 2024. Tragically he died in October 2024 following a short illness, this year’s event will be
held in his memory. Brian will be sadly missed but fondly remembered”. Brians widow, Sue, chose the Countryside Alliance Foundation as the charity for this year’s event for their commitment to enrich education, their inspiration to young people through angling and their engagement to safeguard the future of fishing.

Phillipa Winser, also a lead instructor for Fishing for Schools and second half of the organisational
duo added; “We are also indebted to YETI, who have kindly sponsored some phenomenal prizes for
this event, their products are second to none and we are very grateful to have support from such a
high profile international company – a massive thank you”.

Narborough Fisheries is situated in its own private 26 acre West Norfolk site. It has beautiful chalk
stream water from the River Nar, one of less than 250 chalk streams worldwide, running through its
five fishing lakes. It offers a mix of coarse and fly fishing with one trout lake, the venue for Bank
Partners 2025 – Willow Lake. Day ticket permits are available on site for both coarse, specimen and
fly fishing. In December 2024, Narborough came under new management and new owners Eric and
Keith of Castle Leisure Group, enthusiastically embraced the venue.

As the competition ended, scores were totalled and the winning pair were announced as local
Narborough regular, Tosh McCarthy and his partner Steve Kimpton with a fantastic 84 points,
narrowly followed by Roger Adams and Karl Osmond with 68 points, then Fishing for Schools very
own Sally Acloque and the legendary Robin Window taking third position with 52 points!