The White Acres NFA Ladies Team England once again finished fourth at the World Championships held in Toledo, Spain this weekend.

In 2006, the team narrowly missed out on a medal despite a good team performance and unfortunately the story for 2007 proved the same with the team unable to recreate the success of Gold in 2005.

The weekend of competition started well enough with the team fishing exceptionally well on day one finishing in second place behind the leaders Italy who proved eventual champions. Wendy Locker who finished runner up in this year’s NFA Ladies National was the high point on the first day’s fishing winning her section with 21,800g.

Unfortunately for the White Acres NFA Ladies Team England, the second day did not prove as successful with the whole team struggling to catch. This gave the other countries a chance to catch up and meant that England was pushed from second to fourth. Despite the troubled second day, the team only lost out on the bronze medal by 120g to France.

Overall it was Italy who fished brilliantly on both days finishing with a total points tally of 33 and a weight of 231,660g. Last years winner Portugal couldn’t quite emulate their success finishing in second place with 56 points and 196,860g of fish thanks largely to a great day’s fishing on day two. Third place obviously fell to France with 61 points and 182,660g with England just behind in fourth with 61 points and 182,540g.

Individually it was last year’s silver medallist Virginia Ferreira from Portugal who took gold with a weight of 66,860g and 3 points. Her nearest rival was Italian, Simona Pollastri who finished with 4 points and a weight of 56,340g over 10kg behind the winner. In bronze medal position was German, Stephanie Bloch who finished with 5 points and 51,840g. England’s highest ranking angler was Claire Dagnall, who finished 14th with 8 points and a weight 41,280g.

Tom Pickering, Team Manager commented, “Day one went really well with Wendy Locker winning her section and Claire Dagnall coming in second place on her section. However, on day two we just couldn’t catch, we employed the same baits and tactics as we did on the first but we just had no success. Everyone did exceptionally well though, but we are all understandably disappointed.”