Not so lucky monkey

We all need a lucky charm sometimes. And Lucky Monkey, who I got by saving up the tokens on the tea we drank on the bank, plus £1.99 postage and packing, was mine.

After a while, it dawned on me that Lucky Monkey was not the luckiest knitted monkey going, despite the fact he offered a range of interesting photo opportunities and bore more than a passing resemblance to someone I used to fish with.

Other pike anglers' lucky monkies may well have brought them a clutch of upper doubles and the occasional twenty after they collected the tokens and sent them off to PG Tips, along with £1.99 to cover postage and packing.

But my Lucky Monkey appeared to be jinxed. And when I stopped taking Lucky Monkey fishing, my results seemed to improve - though I appreciate that success in pike fishing is down to a complex set of variables, of which collecting tokens and sending £1.99 to PG Tips to cover postage and packing probably plays an insignificant part.