Justice in the rough

The Golf Ball One has been freed. A small victory for common sense was delivered by the Court of Appeal when Mark Collinson's jail sentence for fishing for golf balls at Whetstone golf course, Leicestershire, was quashed. Admittedly, Mr Collinson was a prolific ball-hunter, perhaps the best. At his original trial at Leicester Crown Court, we learned how Mr Collinson, in wetsuit and flippers, had been caught with 1,158 balls he had fished with nets from ponds during a nocturnal expedition at the course.

A custodial sentence was always absurdly harsh for a man who was, after all, just doing his bit for the recycling movement. Perhaps now Whetstone golf course, and others like it, might consider a new, more co-operative and mutually advantageous arrangement with the Golf Ball One and his counterparts. After all, golf-ball diving might make for a slightly more exciting spectator sport.