One that got away

MEMBERS of the Carlsberg Tetley Club have been left reeling after the cursed pike which they were trying to sell became the one that got away!

The glass-cased pike took pride of place on the wall of the Long Lane sports and social club and as members died the pike got the blame.

To their relief, when the club was recently refurbished the decision was made that the pike no longer fitted in with the decor and was put up for auction, but the killer fish is refusing to go quietly.

The dreaded 20Ib pike, which was caught by club member C H Turner in Castle Loch, Scotland in 1935, was the only one of the 45 taxidermy lots which didn't sell in Chester on Thursday.

Legend has it that a picture of a bowls team once hung below the pike and as each of the members 'carped it' regulars blamed the pike.

The club's dominos team, who used to sit below it for their regular games, died off one by one and one member died the day after making the fatal mistake of sitting briefly under the fish.

Regulars became so suspicious of the fish's deadly influence that they would not sit anywhere near it.

Club chairman Tony Thurston said: "It became a bit of a joke that anyone who sat underneath the pike seemed to turn his toes up. It got so that everybody, especially the younger members, avoided it like the plague."

Adrian Byrne, of Halls Fine Art, who following the failed auction are trying to arrange a private sale, said: "Obviously the curse lives on because nobody was willing to buy it. In a selection of superb taxidermy it all sold except for the pike which is weird."

It is hoped that when the pike is eventually sold the proceeds could be as much as £1,500 which will pay for disabled toilets in the club.

But after the auction Mr Thurston said club members might be getting nervous again in case the pike is returned.

He said: "The mystery deepens because I have just been told that there are now no fish in the loch in Scotland where the pike was caught."