Angling Trust Match Team Challenge Saturday 18th April Barford Lakes, Norfolk

Fox Match Barford Lakes are organising an awareness and membership drive for angling’s new single governing body, the Angling Trust.  They hope to encourage anglers from around the country to participate  who were not a member of any of the organisations that have merged to form the trust (NFA, NFSA, ACA, SAA and NAFAC) as they will already be a member of the trust by default.  After fishing the event they will be a paid up member of the Angling Trust. 

A team of 8 event with up to 12 teams fishing (96 pegs).  Each team will be captained by a high profile angler and will be part of their tackle company’s team.  For example Andy May will captain the Ultima team, Grant Albutt will captain the Garbolino team and Derek Willan the Fox Match Team etc  

The match will be held at Barford Lakes, Norfolk on Saturday 18th April.  Entry costs £30, £10 of which will go towards pools (payable on the day).  The £7 peg fee is being donated by Barfordtackle.com to go with the anglers’ remaining £13 which will give them membership to the Angling Trust.

Sarah Thomson said “The Angling Trust can only make a difference to angling if they have the resources to do so – which will come from membership subscriptions.  This match is one for the “naysayers” really – those anglers who are holding off on paying membership to see how the Trust works – without their membership the Trust will struggle to perform to its full potential.”

Sarah continued “The match has received very positive interest from the tackle firms and the sponsored anglers I have contacted.  They all feel the Angling Trust is an important move for the future of our sport and businesses.  I believe this year is crucial for The Angling Trust and we’re pleased to help boost their membership whilst offering anglers a unique opportunity to fish with some of match angling’s stars”. 
 
Fox Match have already pledged a MSB1 Box (RRP£465) as a prize and a goodie bag, fleece and cap for each of their team members.  Other pledges have come from Garbolino (a prize and a T-shirt and cap for their team), Ultima (an array of line for their team), Shimano (team goodies and have promised a prize), Online Fishing TV (6 months subscriptions worth £30 for each of their team members) and Kev Wilmot at TCF magazine has also pledged goodies for their team.

Confirmed Teams are:

Garbolino (Grant Albut to captain)
            TCF Magazine (Kev Wilmot)
            Fox Match (Derek Willan)
            Shimano (Mick Bull)
            Ultima (Andy May),
            Spro (angler tbc)
            Online Fishing TV (angler tbc).
            Browning/Zebco (Dave Vincent)
            Angling Times/Dynamite (Mark Sawyer)
            Shakespeare (Neil McKinnon) Subject to confirmation

More teams and prizes will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

A ticket hotline number has been set up (charged at 5p a minute from BT landlines) which will be open at 10am on Thursday 5th March to accept entries.  Anglers wishing to fish the match should have their card details handy when calling.  Anglers will be allocated a team number and team captains will be drawn on Keith Arthur’s Fisherman’s Blues show once all the places have been sold.  The ticket hotline number is 0844 8849793.   

There is also a forum for the event where further details are available and it will also enable each team to make contact and discuss tactics before the event.  www.anglingtrustmatch.com . 

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust who will be attending the event said: “It’s fantastic that Sarah from Barford Lakes is taking the initiative to support the Angling Trust with this match.  This new organisation will take over running all the existing national angling matches. As a single, united organisation, we will be able to attract more sponsorship, prize money and anglers to make the competitions better.  We are very keen to hear any suggestions from match anglers about how to do this and anything else they want us to do for them as members of the Angling Trust.” 

Anglers are invited to do just that by logging onto www.anglingtrustmatch.com where there is a section called “Have your Say” which is dedicated to collecting match angler’s views on what the Angling Trust can do for match fishing.     

There are still opportunities to support the event as Sarah is looking for donations to add to prize bundles for team placings.  If there are any tackle firms that wish to pledge their support for the Angling Trust and this event please get in contact with sarah@barfordlakes.com or 01603 759624.  More information on the Angling Trust is available on www.anglingtrust.net