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The charity making life better by water

Number 7: Benny Ashurst

As a boy I grew up reading the Leigh legend’s book on match fishing a dozen times over.

Benny Ashurst fishing 1930s
Match Fishing with Benny Ashurst book cover

Born in 1916, Benny was the top north west canal anger from the 1930s until his son Kevin became even better. (in my opinion anyway).

Benny developed the sinking caster. He never got the chance to represent England or to prove himself in the Matchman of the Year competition.

He helped a lot of young anglers in the north west, as Billy Makin recalls. Sadly, I never got to meet Benny. Whether he would have been delighted to be listed at number 7 in my all-time list or would have bitten my head off for too low a ranking is a matter of conjecture. You can find out more about Benny's career here.

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Last Edited: 06 June 2019

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