Ivan Marks – One of Englands finest
7th December 2004The cheeky grin is no more, cigarette sales tumbled long ago and gone are days when producing his landing net meant untangling half a dozen reels from it.
Untidy, but undeniably brilliant, Ivan Marks succumbed to cancer on Sunday, December 5 aged 68. He represented England on a number of occasions in the seventies and early eighties, the highlight being in 1976 in Bulgaria when he won the individual silver medal.
As a member of the crack Leicester Likely Lads match team, he could take large fields apart using float or swing-tip tactics and his rich array of hauls included winning the Great Ouse Championships three times in four years when fields were over 1,000 strong.
For many years he had a weekly column in Angling Times when his rival was the late Dick Walker. He attracted a crowd of spectators wherever he travelled and certainly played to the gallery but in a nice way and the audience just loved it.
“Ivan Marks was without doubt one of the top match anglers of all time and in his heyday was a household name at a time when carbon rods and 16 metre poles were non existent,” said NFA president Terry Fell.