Drennan Team England’s chance of regaining the European Championship title on the Novi Sad canal in Serbia on 29th/30th June 2013 was blown away after the first days performance when the team could only finish the day in seventh place.
The England team consisted of; Will Raison, Alan Scotthorne, Sean Ashby, Des Shipp, Lee Kerry and Callum Dicks, and Mark Downes and Mark Addy (Joint England Managers).
Mark Downes, Drennan Team England Joint Manager stated “ A couple of bad draws didn’t help, and unfortunately some of the tactics that the management made also contributed to the teams result.”
Since Drennan Team England competed and won the title in Valence, Hungary in 2004 the team have managed to get on the podium several times without actually winning, but the shear consistency of Team England sees them still maintain their number one World ranking.
Day two produced a better performance and the team moved up from seventh place to finish just out of the medals in fifth spot.
Mark Addy, Joint Drennan Team England Manager said “ The two bad draws on day one ruined our chances almost immediately as both anglers were in an area that was much wider than the rest of the canal, and all the anglers around suffered similar problems. Although there was a lot of bleak to be caught at 4g each it was never going to give us a good enough section result to compete with the anglers drawn in the main part of the canal. We opted for a change of tactics on day two which pushed us up the leader board. By fishing long pole at the 13 metre limit we could target the skimmers, cat fish and carassio which made up the bulk of our second days weights.”’
Making their first appearance for the Drennan Team England senior squad was Callum Dicks and Lee Kerry, both of whom got the chance to fish and Lee did his future chances a power of good by finishing second in his section on day one.
The consistent Des Shipp was Englands top scorer with a two day total of 9 points, followed by Lee Kerry and Will Raison on 10 points, with Will having won his section on day two.
The Belgium team once more took team gold and have now won the title six times since its conception in France in 1994. England have won the title four times.
Top five team results:
1st Belgium 56 points
2nd Italy 57.5 points
3rd Hungary 58 points
4th France 59 points
5th England 76 points
Top three Individual results:
1st S Szilvasi- Hungary 2 points
2nd E deVenti – Belgium 3 points ( weight )
3rd A Dewimille – France 3 points
The Angling Trust and Team England would like to thank Peter Drennan and Drennan International for their continued support and sponsorship.
Photo – Lee Kerry (courtesy of Matchangler.com)
