THREE teams from the West Midlands are through to the final of the Van den Eynde Clubman team competition following a hotly contested Midlands final at the weekend.

Fifteen teams who had already been through several knock-out rounds went head to head at Woodland View Fishery, Droitwich, with five to go through to the prestigious final at Uttoxeter’s JCB Lakes in July, which will see one outfit crowned the top club in the country.

It was Wolverhampton Post Office who went through in top spot, with just 19 points from their six anglers. That represents an average position of around third in section, a stunning effort on what was a tough day for all the competitors.

Wolverhampton Post Office also provided the second individual overall in the shape of their skipper Martin Pritchard, who weighed in 48-10-0.

We did little in the way of real practice, said Martin afterwards. Our plan was just to place anglers on the pools they felt best on and to keep things as simple as possible. We have to fancy the final because some of our anglers fish JCB a lot.

The area provided the second placed team as well in the shape of Halesowen’s 20AC, who scored 26 points. They also provided the joint third placed angler in Matt MacDermott, who weighed in 45-6-0. Also through are Cradley Heath Labour, who finished fourth with 39pts to complete an excellent result for the area.

Perhaps the outstanding performance was the qualification of Norfolk team Jolly Boys, who had to travel all the way from Great Yarmouth for their practice sessions but who eased through in third with 37 points, while fancied teams such as last year’s second placed team Matlock and third placed team Grebe AC fell by the wayside.

In the event the venue fished much harder than expected with many anglers struggling to make double figures. The winning individual was Kevin Boam of Rugeley based Lea Hall Miners, who went through in the final qualification spot. He weighed in 50-9-0 from peg 9 on Arles Pool, taking carp on red luncheon meat.

It was a great result, said Kevin (36). But when I weighed in I never expected that to be enough to win on such a prolific venue.

Result: 1 Wolverhampton PO, 19pts; 2 20AC, 26; 3 Jolly Boys, 37; 4 Cradley Heath, 39; 5 Lea Hall Miners, 40; 6 Royal Mail Northampton, 44; 7 Grebe AC, 47; 8 Royal Ordnance Factory, 49; 9 Matlock, 50; 10 Guy’s Cliffe, 51.

* This Saturday June 15 sees another big club match at Woodland View, the Midland Angler Club Champion of Champions individual event. The match takes the form of two three hour fish-offs kicking off at 9.30am and spectators are welcome.