Organisers hail Fish 'n' Frolics festival as most successful yet

Budding anglers enjoyed a fun three days in Shipston as the town held its fourth annual Fish ‘n’ Frolics festival last week.

The event, organised by the acting chairman of Shipston on Stour District Angling Club, Stuart Fleming, took place from Friday to Saturday as part of National Fishing Month.

Stuart said: “The festival is all about getting juniors involved with fishing. I’m a level 1 coach and we also had a number of level 2 coaches down there teaching fly and course fishing. I think we must have had more than 50 youngsters giving it a go over the weekend and every one of them caught something.

“The catch of the weekend was a one-and-a-half pound brown trout caught by James Wheildon. We ran a number of competitions too and Chris Coleman was named the event’s overall top angler.”

For those not so keen on fishing, the event had plenty of other entertainments at Shipston Sports Club, with stalls, a raffle and a pig roast along with performances from 20 live bands.

Stuart added: “This was our most successful event yet, we’d be daft not to do it again. Every year more and more people come and we’ve had such amazing local support from the council and the sports club. It’s such a fantastic festival and the club don’t make money out of it, we just put it on for the benefit of the community.”

On 24 July as part of the festival, The Great Duck Race was held at Shipston Bridge, raising £250 for Shipston Home Nursing.