OAKHANGER Angling Club has been reunited with its boat after four youngsters found it downriver, and transported it on their skateboards. The club had offered a £100 reward for the safe return of the aluminium rowing boat, which disappeared from the Mill Pool fishery (opposite Focus DIY) in Mill Lane, Alton, on the afternoon/ evening of Sunday, April 13. Described as being in "brand new" condition, the 10-foot long, bright silver boat is used by the club for fishery management of ponds in the Alton and Bordon area. Valued at £860, the concern was that it would to fetch a good price on the current scrap market. Club treasurer Alec Baker said earlier that day the boat had been pulled up onto the bank and overturned under a tree where it was hidden from the road but could be seen from the riverside footpath on the opposite bank. The oars and rowlocks had been removed. The boat, in a locked area, must have been pushed into the water by intruders and then allowed to float off down stream. The group from Eggars School had found it the day after (Monday) caught up in tree debris which had been tipped into the water from the bridge at Montecchio Way. Not knowing where it had come from, the four 13- year-old boys – Jethro Barnsley, Perry Lloyd, Jordan Fox and Josh Husbands, loaded the boat onto their skateboards and took it home to Holybourne. Mr Baker was impressed because the boat was still in good condition – the boys had treated it with respect – and that they had manoeuvred a craft which takes three fully grown men to lift. While Mr Baker had scoured the river as far down as Lower Neatham Mill near Bentley on the Tuesday, having spent Monday securing a new rowlock, he didn't find it because the boys had already taken it out. The article in last week's Alton Herald alerted Jethro Barnsley's father. He rang to say the boat was in his back garden, and Mr Baker turned up that evening to retrieve it. As it turned out, Jethro was a junior member of the Angling Club and so received a club shirt and a hat for his efforts, along with the £100 reward, which he is going to share with his pals.
