The ABC Club Members Matches will be held on a number of venues, including rivers, canals and on some “wild card venues” not necessarily on the current match circuits.
The ABC set out to dramatically change Club fishing and although the 50K prize certainly does just that, we can now reveal our real eye opener. This may take some people a while to get their heads around it, but once they do it will change Club match fishing forever in terms of fairness and excitement.
One of the biggest objections to competition matches of this sort was that Mr. Average didn’t like the odds when faced with a Professional Superstar Angler that had drawn a flyer of a peg. It seems obvious that given certain environmental conditions, combined with a swim with natural fish holding features that a good angler would be at a serious advantage. The ABC wanted to change that reality and so Denzil Thorpe’s evolutionary idea will be brought into play on the ABC Club Matches.
The ABC matches will eventually whittle down to two (2) eighty peg QUARTER FINAL QUALIFIERS.
These 2 quarter finals will be fished under the NEW odds and evens ABC Match Rule. The eighty peg quarter final will have 40 sections. Yes…forty sections!! Each section winner will go through to the semi-final. For those struggling with the concept, its a TWO MAN SECTION. The ABC introduces the very exciting Odds and Evens rule. This means the angler on peg 1 (odd) is fishing against the angler on peg 2 (even). The angler on peg 3 is fishing against the angler on peg 4. The angler on peg 5 is fishing against the angler on peg 6, the angler of peg 7 is fishing against the angler on peg 8…. etc. Each angler only has one angler to beat and he/she is sat on virtually the same part of the water. No more feeling down in the dumps if the wind is on the other bank or because the superstar angler is on a flyer of a peg. You only have to beat the angler next to you and lets face it, if you have drawn a poor peg….chances are so has he or she. You will be able to count their fish, see what tactics they are using, glance at their bait and they will not be out of view during the entire match. It’s as close to being a level playing field as can be. Having minimised some natural advantages such as wind direction etc. the anglers skill, knowledge and water craft elements etc. can truly be used to good effects. From a competition viewpoint this is truly head-to-head stuff and very exciting as well as fair.
We believe that this evolutionary odds and evens system makes thing a little more interesting. It also ensures that people don’t feel like packing up even before they have set up because of a poor peg draw.
Each QUARTER FINAL will produce 40 winners to go into an eighty peg SEMI-FINAL. The 80 peg semi-final will be under the same odds and even rule with the 40 section winners going into the FINAL.
We have made every effort to produce a competition that demonstrates great sporting equality but that allows anglers to demonstrate their skill. The winner of this competition could be absolutely any ABC angler. We hope that the match scene embraces this system and joins the ABC to be a part of a club dedicated to improving the profile of angling.
