Ivan was my biggest influence ever. As a young man in Manchester in the 70’s, his weekly AT column was a must read along with Billy Lanes “Uncle Bill” column. I moved to Coventry in 1980 because of a job promotion. And I soon found my way to fishing at Coombe Abbey lake which at that time was the Mecca of bream fishing. It was a Wednesday when I first met Ivan. He had been fishing a Stamford Carpets invitation match. At the end of the match, Ivan, after having a not so good match came walking past whilst I was roach fishing on the straight. He asked how I was doing and I told him I was having s fish a chuck. He dropped his basket off his shoulder and sat down next to me, giving his advice on how I could catch better than I was, lol. After that first meeting, Ivan, and I became regular competitors against each other and we formed a friendship I treasure to this day. He taught me so much that I will always be eternally grateful to who I personally believe to be the best angler this country has ever produced.
I have only just found you on RU-vid. What a lovely piece on Ivan Marks. To me he was the greatest angler not to win the world title. His articles in the AT were so inspirational. I did meet him once at the draw for the The Beds Hospital cup. He didn't like his draw so didn't fish. Ivan would have been in the section I was stewarding. Cheers for the memories
Brought back some memories. Johnny Wilkinson of our old Elthorne club next to Ian Heaps in the England Team photo. Ivan chucking in bucketsful of groundbait at Marco's pit, going back to the tea tent for an hour, then emptying his peg of bream to win. My mate Bob beating Roy Marlow off the next peg at Chertsey using a slow sinking bomb that I devised to keep the bait out of the blanket weed on the bottom of the lake and catch on the drop. Too old for match-fishing now, but still feel the buzz
John Wilkinson took the match world by storm in the 70s and there remains an 'if only' moment from the 1975 World Championship; he cracked the method in practice but wasn't (wrongly in my opinion) in the final team lineup.
The tiny earnings from Kindle wouldn't cover the cost of converting the book into Kindle format and as the book is available at a reasonable price I'm going to pass.
