One of many happy memories of Simon

I will never forget the time I took young Simon fishing at Hengistbury Head. He must have been no more than 12 years old at the time – and as chirpy as they come! Anyway, we took sandwiches and came prepared to spend the day casting our lines from the long jetty there. Late afternoon came and I had drawn a blank, but Simon had caught two ballan wrasse, which he returned to the water as they are not exactly gourmet items, being full of bones. We decided to call it a day and called in to see his grandparents, Jo and Dick. I told them how Simon had shown me up on the piscatorial front by catching two to my zilch! Much to my embarrassment Simon announced that in fact HE had caught nothing, but Uncle Chris had caught two fine fish. It was useless for me to protest. Afterwards I told Simon that he was an extremely modest young man for handing me the credit which was rightly his. Whereupon Simon, deadpan, but with a twinkle in his eye, came back with “Yes, Uncle Chris, but did you know that when it comes to modesty, I’m the very tops ?” Bless him!!

Chris Pelly