After a week’s long, hard practice in blistering Italian temperatures up to 39 degrees, the Drennan England U25s came home with a stunning silver team medal and were very unlucky not to scoop gold on the Cava Lama Canal.
The team consisted of Captains, Mark Downes and Darran Bickerton. Team members were Rory Jones, Alex Clements, Matt Barnett, Tom Moretti, Conor Barlow and Brad Gibbons.
The target species on the huge canal were small carp and Carrassio. The team started by feeding five small balls of groundbait (Sensas Fine Carp and Sensas Carp Black) with dead maggots and a touch of Joker at around 6m. They also put two balls of sticky mag and black gravel on the same line. Then just half a meter further out we fed a full pot of Hempseed and a few grains of sweetcorn. They then fed our two litres of Maggots in four litres of black gravel in small balls, all thrown onto the 6m line, and concentrated our fishing over the hempseed with maggot on the hook. Maggot was best for the small 35 gm carp and Bloodworm best for the Carrassio. Unbelievably the team were targeting between 180 and 240 fish!
Day one saw the team amass a very respectable 18.5 Points, just 1.5 behind Croatia yet only 3.5 ahead of favourites Italy and Hungary, with Germany also on 22 and current World Champions France on 25. On day one stand out performers were Rory Jones and Alex Clements, who both came back with perfect scores and Brad Gibbons and Tom Moretti brought our total to 18.5 points.
Day 2 was very similar in that the team drew OK, but Mark Downes was worried a little about Rory’s peg, as the end 3 pegs in section D were very poor on the first day.
Matt Barnet stepped in for Tom Moretti. Overall the second day was tougher for the team, Alex was flying again, only to be beaten by a late, late, monster Dutch carp of 3kg. Whilst the others all came back with 6’s and 7’s. Coincidentally the teams 22-point day 2 score was good enough for second place on the day again.
Mark Downes commented “We had done all of the hard work; clawed ahead of Croatia, went clear of Italy, Hungary and Germany… only to find that the Dutch had put together an amazing performance and moved 8 points clear of the field”.
A great performance by the team and Alex scooped the bronze individual.
That last minute Dutch carp prevented both Alex picking up an incredible second individual gold, but also Drennan Team England the top podium place. Such a close result, but we’re sure it will drive the team on even harder for next year in Spain. Our thanks must go to Drennan Team England on their continued support for the team.
Results
1. Holland 33 pts
2. Drennan England 40.5 pts
3. Croatia 45 pts
4. France 48 pts
5. Italy 49 pts
Individuals
1. Lucien De Rade Holland 2 pts
2. Romain Guerau Belgium 3 pts 16.619 kg
3. Alex Clements England 3 pts 15.370 kg
