Nottingham attacks: Angling club pays tribute to Ian Coates

Friends of a man killed in the Nottingham attacks have paid tribute to their fellow angling club member.

School caretaker Ian Coates, 65, was one of three people who was stabbed to death in the city on 13 June.

Members of the Lake Snakes Angling Club held a minute's applause before taking part in their first angling competition since his death.

Mr Coates' friends said the keen and vastly experienced angler would be sorely missed.

He was preparing to retire in September, when he would have dedicated more of his time to his passion.

The club has set up an online fund to help his family, which has so far received more than £27,000.

Club founder Ben Dutton, 34, had known Mr Coates since he was 13 years old, having studied at the school where he worked.

He said he would be "forever grateful" to his friend.

"[He] set up a small fishing club for the kids to learn how to fish, to keep us out of trouble basically," said Mr Dutton, who works in the fishing industry.

"I'm here today fishing because of Ian - simple as that.

"It won't ever be the same, it's going to take us all a long, long time to get over this."

Mick Ryan, who also helped to set up the club, said there was a sombre mood on their first event without their friend.

"I can already tell the lads are struggling a little bit, because it's ever so quiet," he said.

"It's never normally this quiet - there's normally lots of banter flying around, and I've not heard a peep from hardly any of them.

"All the lads love it, Ian especially loved it, it was all he could think about.

"He was getting ready to retire, he'd just treated himself to a new fishing van... the fact that we're never going to see him again is heart breaking."

Jacob Brown said he first met the "cheeky" Mr Coates in a tackle shop.

"He always used to make me laugh," the 28-year-old said.

"Recently I've just become a father, and he was always asking after him and asking about my missus, and he was always a kind, caring person.

"You couldn't get anyone better, really."

Colin Ife said he was "absolutely gobsmacked" when he heard the news about his friend, who was looking forward to joining him in retirement.

"We were looking forward to having some time together," he said.

"Ian was about another three months off retiring, and when he did we [were] going to start going out pleasure fishing and fishing a few matches.

"He was really looking forward to it, [but] it's been taken away."

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