Drennan England U23s and Sensas England U18s representing their sponsors and the Angling Trust competed on the Nord Willan canal, Holland in the FIPSed World Angling Coarse Championships from 25th – 26th July.
It soon became apparent though that the match length was fished as totally different venues, with the U18s stretch holding far more fish as the canal improved the further up the canal you went, and the U14s stretch above the U18s was an excellent stretch.
U18s
A great result on day 1 saw the team score 10 points well ahead of the polish squad on 15 points and hosts Holland on 23 points.
The team caught bream and roach both short and long over groundbait, leam laced with joker, casters and chopped worms.
Matt Barnett chipped in with a section win with 4.123 kgs of bream and roach.
Day 2 was much more difficult as the shoals of roach and bream moved further up the canal.
Their score of 27 points gave them a total of 37 points only to be overtaken by the French team who had an excellent 10 points. England held off the Polish team by a further 2 points.
Top 5 team results
France 35 points – 23.544 kgs
England 37 points – 18.619 kgs
Poland 39 points – 20.170 kgs
Italy 45 points – 15.732 kgs
Germany 57 points – 15.412 kgs
Team England Individual Results
5th Joe Kent 7 points 3+4
6th Bradley Gibbons 7 points 3+4
13th Matt Barnett 11 points 1+10
15th Jacob McNeil 12 points 2+10
U23s
Mark Downes, Drennan Team England Manager said “From the onset this was going to be a tough event…despite great practises which saw the U23s easily beat Poland, France and the Czechs off the next box catching roach on 6m and 13m. The weather was hot and we were confident of catching roach and skimmers on our tactics.”
“Day 1 saw a huge weather change and the fish switch off. As sometimes happens the draw was crucial….you had to draw a low number on A we drew High, Low on B we drew middle.Low on C we drew 8 and High on D we drew 4. In fact Rory Jones of peg 4 in D section had 2 bites in 4 hours for 137 grams and beat 5 around him in fact pegs 1-9 all finished in the bottom 9 places most catching just 1 fish. There was a similar story in B sector….pegs 1-5 filled the first 5 places. Our total of 31 points put us 5th with Poland leading on 10.”
“Day 2 we drew well……..winning the day with 20 points, Rory Jones 2 points, Matt Derry 3 points, James Dent 3 points, but our top rod Matt Godfrey had 3 small perch in the first 5 minutes and never had a bite for the remaining 3 hours 55 minutes, his 100 gm saw him finish 13th place. All in all it was an extremely poor match length….on day 1 our total team weight was 3 Kilos.”
Top 5 team results
Ist Poland 33 points
2nd France 37 points
3rd Czech 42 points
4th England 51 points
5th Slovakia 59 points
Team England Individual Results
James Dent 6 points
Matt Derry 11 points
Rory Jones 14 points
Matt Godfrey 20 points
Dick Clegg, OBE, International Events Manager said “The under 18s have once again maintained their supremacy in this category and a great deal of credit must go the management team of Steve Sanders and Joe Roberts. It’s very difficult to maintain the level of form that this team has over the past few years especially when we in England fish very few FIPSed rules events”.
“The under 23 squad must have had a terrible draw in their event since I know that this team is second to none and all the members are simply fish catching machines.
“According to all the managers the venue was exceptionally difficult with far less fish to be caught that befits a World Championship match. I know that Mark will be very disappointed with fourth place, but the team will surely bounce back next year especially with the strength in depth that we have a this level.”
Next year the U18s and U23s World Championships move to Serbia and already rumours are rife that it is a difficult venue, The talk is they will be restocking the match venue to hopefully help make it will be a good event.
