It is with love Mr Menhennet, best known as Pedro, shared his fishing advice for four decades in a column in The Courier. He was happy to share the best fishing spots about the region so publicly, not holding back, because he said "you have to give with your heart".

It was also with such passion Mr Menhennet put Ballarat cricket rollers on an international stage because he believed we could be the best.

William Maurice 'Pedro' Menhennet died on Saturday, aged 79.

Mr Menhennet always quipped he never played cricket but knew how to make the best cricket rollers in the world from his factory, Mentay Steel Fab Constructions, in Ballarat's west.

The story goes, designing a roller started as a challenge amid what he would say was an argument with then-Ballarat Cricket Association president and high-profile sporting identity Rex Hollioake in the early 1970s.

Mr Hollioake had been showing off a new cricket roller he purchased for the association from Melbourne.

Mentay had been repairing cricket rollers for years and so Mr Menhennet declared he could design a pitch roller far superior to any one the BCA could buy.

The company continues to make some of the world's most highly regarded turf management machines which can be found in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Dubai and South Africa. Mentay rollers also operate in the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Gabba in Brisbane and Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

"It's not hard to see on television that a Mentay roller has been used," Mr Menhennet told The Courier in March 2006.

Just as he never played much cricket, Mr Menhennet also proudly never typed up one of this estimated 2000 fishing columns for The Courier on a Friday.

When signing off in June 2015, Mr Menhennet quipped he made it his business to not know how to use a computer. Instead, he would make a few notes, recruit people to type these up and look to The Courier's sub-editing team to help shape up his column.

Mr Mehennet's love for fishing grew from a chance to escape the family dairy farm and milking duties once a week. He would get out on Lake Burrumbeet with his brother Jeffrey and told The Courier he seemed to be the only one catching many fish.

Mr Menhennet is survived by wife Maureen. He is the father and father-in-law of Symone, Dean and Annette, Heath and Ruth, Tristan and Jacqueline with five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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