The Angling Trust Preston Innovations Team England Feeder Team travelled to the Bloemhof Dam, South Africa to take part in the 3rd FIPSed World Feeder Angling Championships on 23rd – 24th November with high hopes of beating last year’s result of third place.
The Team England squad, led by manager and captain Tom Pickering, assisted by coach Glenn Lawrence and delegate Darren Cox consisted of brothers, Phil and Steve Ringer, Mick Vials, Adam Wakelin, Grant Albutt. Tom wanted to take the squad to South Africa earlier than most other teams to get a feel for the venue and the style of fishing in the build up to the World Championships which would see sixteen teams take part.
Day one and Team England were very confident with their approach and lined up with Tom Pickering, Adam Wakelin, Mick Vials, Steve and Phil Ringer. Their confidence was evident and justified as England ended the day in second place with the host nation South Africa finding themselves in pole position.
With the England line up achieving success on day one, team manager Tom Pickering kept faith with the anglers and Grant Albutt missed out on selection. The host country South Africa won again on day 2 giving them five section place wins to push Hungary into second position and with Team England finishing in fifth place on the second day, it saw them finish the World Championships with third place overall, enough to secure the bronze medal. England were delighted to get on the podium with a bronze medal finish and team manager and captain, Tom Pickering led the way for England finishing with an individual sixth place and just missing out on the medals.
Top 4 Team results
1st South Africa – 39 points
2nd Hungary – 48 points
3rd England – 48 points
4th Czech Republic – 55 points
Top 4 Individual results
1st Casper Willemse (South Africa)
2nd Josef Konopasek (Czech Republic)
3rd Mayas Sivak (Hungary)
4th Neville Johan Foord (South Africa)
Angling Trust Preston Innovations Team England placing
6th Tom Pickering
8th Steve Ringer
10th Phil Ringer
24th Mick Vials
27th Adam Wakelin
A fantastic team performance and result by the South Africans was capped as Casper Willemse achieved a two point score over both days to take the World Individual Championship trophy and complete a clean sweep for South Africa. Josef Konopasek of the Czech Republic finished second and Mayas Sivak of Hungary took third place to secure the bronze medal.
Dick Clegg, OBE, International Events Manager, Angling Trust said “ I would like to offer congratulations to Angling Trust Preston Innovations Team England bringing home the bronze medal in a well run World Championships. The team and Tom have put in a lot of hard work and thoroughly deserve this”.
“Next years 4th FIPS-ed World Feeder Angling Championships will be taking place in Inniscarra, Ireland, subject to a visit by myself to check on the bank access work being started in the next couple of weeks, or so, and Team England will once again be aiming for the gold medal”.
The Angling Trust and Team England Feeder Team would like to offer their appreciation and thanks to their sponsors Preston Innovations for all their continued sponsorship and support.
A full report from Manager Tom Pickering will be available soon.
