THERE was a programme on the other night about the Krays, and whilst it was interesting to see how they rose to prominence within the ganglands of London, I thought of equal interest was the reaction of the general public to them.

You may have thought that being notorious criminals would have made it impossible for them to ever win the hearts of the British public, but after the law failed to lock them up and they walked away from the Old Bailey, apparently innocent, they surprisingly became celebrities.

I’m sure there is some psychological or sociological explanation for this type of reaction, but whatever it is it appears to be happening right here, under our noses, in Jersey.

I’m not suggesting that for one minute there are any similarities between Ronnie, Bernie and the Krays, although they could have easily been a couple of the twins’ henchmen, Ronnie the Bullet and Bernie the Bas-ket case. However it seems that they too are achieving something nearing celebrity status despite some pretty dodgy fishing escapades.

After months of early morning fishing sessions that have only produced three squid, one pollack and two rockling between them, it would have been understandable if they were subjected to abusive verbal assaults, like, ‘sack the coach’ and ‘you two suck’ whenever they were spotted out in public. The opposite seems to be true, however, and the less they catch the more popular they become. That being the case, they could find themselves subject to the type of frenzy usually reserved for pop stars after this article has been published, as it describes possibly the worst fishing trip since Peter and the other disciples spent all night fishing on the Sea of Galilee and caught nothing.

Luckily for the disciples, divine intervention saw them return to shore with more than enough fish for their early morning breakfast, unlike poor Bernie who, despite following Ronnie’s orders to ‘try casting a little to the right’ and ‘cast over by those rocks’ or ‘try a bit further out’, returned fishless, meaning it was boil in the bag again for supper. It was so bad my poor guest, Phil Evans, was offered a chance to repeat the experience a fortnight later. He eventually agreed, despite his protestations that there were surely others far more deserving, after Ronnie and Bernie made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Failure doesn’t seem to be a part of Phil’s vocabulary and everything he does he seems to do to the very best of his ability. He has therefore excelled at all of the sports he has chosen to take up in any meaningful way, including angling.

In his youth he played junior cricket for both Ogwr Borough and then Bridgend Town under 18’s against the rest of Wales youth cricket team, for he’s Welsh you see. His senior cricket started at Pencoed Cricket Club with whom he won division three of the Morgannwg league (Mid Glamorgan), and then went on to play for Coychurch Cricket Club in the first division of the Morgannwg league. He also played representative cricket against Minor County opposition, facing such fearsome bowlers as the West Indian test bowler Collis King.

He is a keen golfer and is likely to swap the game for cricket next season as he attempts to get his handicap down to below five, especially as his 14 year old son, Ryan, now beats him on a fairly regular basis. He has one other son, Lee, aged 12 who is also a sports fanatic and who accompanied us on the second of our fishing matches.

Before moving to the Island, 23 years ago, he played darts in the South Wales Super League. Since being in Jersey he has played for the Smugglers Inn, who won consecutive promotions, that took them from the 4th to 1st division, and more recently the Royal St Martin’s. He has also played in the Jersey Super League getting to the semi-finals of the Channel Islands Open in 2007, which was won by Jersey’s Ken Horton.

He has a wealth of fishing experience to his name. At the age of 18 he won a championship freshwater competition, and earned the right to represent Porthcawl in the King of Clubs competition which consists of five days fishing in Ireland and features many well-known professional anglers.

His favourite fishing destination is Namibia where he has caught Bronze whalers, a type of shark, of up to 150 lb, off the beach, but was faced with slightly different conditions on the day of the match with Bernie and Ronnie. The car temperature gauge showed it to be 1° outside, which would have been bearable had we been catching fish but, as we had nothing but a sea slug to show for the four hours we were there, it wasn’t.

The match was a tie but only after close examination of the small print revealed that our sea slug would not count as it was deemed inedible by Sean from the Lamplighter and the rules clearly state that ‘if Sean can’t cook it, it ain’t a fish’.

Two weeks later however and it was a different story. Conditions had improved markedly and so did the fishing. Three bass were landed, two for Bernie and one for my guest Phil, giving Bernie a much needed victory. Ronnie was pleased with Bernie’s performance and although the bass were small and returned, it was certainly a return to form.

‘When news of this reaches Alderney I would imagine there will be a few worried anglers,’ he said, and ‘he’s peaking at exactly the right time. We still have four weeks to apply the finishing touches, but at this time I couldn’t be happier.’

Bernie is also fairly confident, ‘I’ve never prepared so thoroughly for a tournament. Ronnie has certainly put me through my paces, but it seems to be paying off now. We’ve had some low times, getting beaten by Brian Heath’s blenny was hard to take, but The Bass is back! Alderney here I come! … ooh I hope they still have John Smiths on draught in the Murray Hall?’