► CONSERVE SEA FISH

At the annual dinner of the Teignmouth Sea Angling Society at the Royal Hotel on Saturday, Mr Ronald Doel reported that the Urban Council were trying to get a marina at Polly Steps which would provide 60 spaces for boats and car parking facilities. Their club was very successful and had 250 members. It might look very rosy, but to him the situation was very bleak. Salmon and coarse fishing were protected, but the poor plaice, flounder and bass had not yet got any help at all. 

The sea fisheries officer and others interested had got in touch with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who wrote back: ‘What a load of rubbish you are talking;  we aren’t going to do anything without proof. How can you prove that the fish aren’t here like you used to catch when you were children?’

► MISSILES LEFT ON SEA BED

A free-for-all discussion has taken place with the Flag Officer, Plymouth, Vice-Admiral McKaig, on complaints by South Devon fishermen that missiles were left on the sea bed in Torbay, after the naval exercise last year. Reporting on the talks to Devon Sea Fisheries Committee at Newton Abbot last week, Mr Noel Ford, the clerk, said that in future the Navy would cooperate as far as possible over leaving behind detrimental substances after exercises. Regret has been expressed about the delay in the recovery of dummy mines, due to the exceptionally bad weather.

► HAZELDOWN PLAYING FIELDS

The Education Committee of Devon County County Council considered an item raised by Mr Arthur Bladon, in which he called for support to prevent the selling of Hazeldown playing field for development. It was unanimously agreed to resist any attempts to sell, and to support the local interest that it should remain as playing fields. Mr Bladon demanded that it should be aired publicly, and assurance given to this effect.

► SOME COUNCILLORS ‘WALLFLOWERS’

Half-a-dozen members seemed to run Teignmouth Urban Council, and the rest were just like wallflowers, it was claimed last week. Mr Albert Whitlock was complaining at a Public Health and Housing Committee that the same people always seemed to be picked for the jobs. On the selection of a working party, Mr. Whitlock also thought that members of the Teignbridge Steering Committee should not be on the working party, as “they could not serve two masters.

► PET SHEEP KILLED IN ERROR

A Shaldon farmer offered the South Devon Foxhounds the body of a ewe which had died after giving birth. He thought the meat could be used for feeding the dogs. While the farmer was out, the boy from the hunt called, but missed the ewe, and humanely killed the family pet sheep, which had been raised on the bottle. The boy had found the ewe lying on its side in the barn, and thought it was the one he had come to slaughter. ‘It was a simple mistake to make, and we are very sorry.’ The boy returned to the farm, paid for the sheep, and apologised ‘like a man.’

► RIVIERA CINEMA

The ‘cliff hanger’ serials which kept patrons waiting an anxious week to discover how Pearl White could possibly be saved from the blazing shack which the baddies had pushed over a 200-ft cliff, are now memories. Occasionally, however, comes a genius who creates the same seat-gripping tension in a continuity of surprise.

‘Where Eagles Dare’ was a classic example, and now comes another, Alistair Maclean’s ‘Fear is the Key’. It is the big thriller of 1973. Do not miss it. 

On the other hand, if you are squeamish, you are advised to miss ‘Frogs’, a slithering , slimy horror film, with the normally urbane Ray Milland right in the thick of it. ‘The Hard Ride’, a story of motor cycle gangs, makes a thrilling supporting feature.