A COMBINED birthday and retirement dinner was held at the Arundell Arms, Lifton recently, in honour of Roy Buckingham. Roy is retiring after 39 years as fishing instructor and river keeper on the Arundell Arms water. Mrs Anne Voss-Bark, who hosted the dinner, said: 'It was a great pleasure for me to entertain Roy, his wife Margaret and many other family members and good friends.' Roy was born in Kilkhampton, moving to Launceston at the age of two, and lived in Newport, only yards from the River Kensey, where he learned his skills as a fly fisherman. He attended the national school, where one of his teachers was Charles Causley. Roy was a member of the Launceston Anglers' Association, first as a junior and eventually sitting on the committee. From 1957 to 1968 he worked as a water baliff for the Cornwall River Authority and, as a trainee, he was the first person in the country to take up that position. At the beginning of 1969, Roy started working for the Arundell Arms Hotel, where his casting skill was put to good use teaching many people the art of fly fishing on the Tamar and its tributaries. Roy will now have a little more time for fishing himself, but will still keep his finger on the pulse at the Arundell Arms with an odd day's teaching. David Pilkington, who joined Roy at the hotel in 1976, continues as fishing instructor and river keeper and is now joined by Tim Smith, also a qualified instructor whose family farms at Ladock, near Truro.