The Craft's two rulers honoured the Club - and dozens of disabled young people - by spending several hours among them as they enjoyed a day's fishing at Castle Ashby, home of the Pro Grand Master, the Marquess of Northampton.

One youngster and his caster caught a staggering 56 perch, roach and bream, another 50. But a lot of others didn’t get a bite. That is fishing, we were told! The Pro Grand Master, the patron, also generously sponsored the event, which perfectly fulfilled the club’s aim of bringing fishing and countryside experiences to mentally and physically disabled people.

While the Castle Ashby day was mainly course fishing, the club’s roots are in fly fishing for trout. There were trout - a lake was specially stocked with 200 of them for the day, and several fly fishermen and their young charges tried hard to catch them - but only 199 of them got away!

Gerry summed up his day: “I have worked all my life and you just plod on and you take no notice of some of life’s challenges…. doing this for the children makes my day.

Sometimes you go home and have a tear in your eye. Just to see their faces at the end of the day makes it very important. There are some people who take the day off work to come to a fishing day like this. We are giving something back.”

Another fisherman casting his line from a wheelchair said he had enjoyed the fishing - “but I like the people who are helping us to do it.”

Club member Gary Ferris of Friendship Lodge No 8357 in St Albans, Herts, is a golfer. Now he is also a fishing fan. “This is my 10th or 11th event like this in the last two years. I have never had a bad experience. We go home with a warm feeling because we know the children have enjoyed themselves.”

After lunch HRH the Duke of Kent handed every participant a certificate, passed to him in turn by the Pro Grand Master, sometimes plunging into the excited crowd of participants to reach a smiling, satisfied, wheelchair-bound person.

As the “guests” left, the Club president RW Bro Gordon Bourne reminded us of his words already on the website:

“All our casters and helpers gain hugely from their experiences during these days. Many have not had the experience of witnessing first hand the problems that many of our participants face in their everyday lives, and it is a real education to us all when we spend time with them. We have all become much more aware of the great amount of work that goes on in the specialist schools and centres.”