Further report, direct from Jon Arthur:
World Club Championship (30th)
Lake Malta, Poznan, Poland
Day 1, England 8th, 32 points
Day 2, England 4th, 27 points
Overall, England 5th, 59 points
31 teams this year, which is a new record (26 last year)
Shakespeare will be the last team ever to represent England in the World Club Champs by winning the Division One National – something it has done 3 times.
We are all really chuffed on our top-five finish, especially as unlike the other top teams we had no internationals in our squad. We had a poor draw on Day One else we could have easily come back with a medal. It was mostly a skimmer match but big fish (mostly carp) made a massive difference in zones but some areas came down to a perch race and we were one of the top teams at this.
The original venue was flooded off after the worst floods in Poland for 50 years. The reserve Lake Malta rowing course was an excellent venue and the Polish did well to make it fishable with less than two weeks notice. I wish we had a ‘reserve’ venue like this in England! The only problem was weed which went out as far as 20 metres on some pegs. The only line worth fishing was 13 metres as closer was too weedy and the waggler wasnt very productive – the fish wanted shallow water really.
It was out and out balling it in with bloodworm and joker plus occasional bonus fish on maggots. Netting carp and skimmers on the same gear with weed stretching several metres out was a tactic we all had to master!
It was also a case of adapting to overnight weather changes as we practiced all week in temperatures up to 37 degrees, then had a massive downpour Friday night and temperatures nearer 18 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. The wind and undertow meant that overnight it turned from an off bottom skimmer race to decking bunches of bloodworm near the bottom.
The main species were skimmers from 3oz to 6oz but there were also millions of tiny perch and lots of bonus carp in areas averaging 3lb. Other species caught most days included tench, crucians, carassio and ruffe. There were surprisingly few roach.
England must be one of the only Nations that doesn’t give this event much publicity in the angling press, which is a shame. One look at how seriously the likes of Italy and France took practicing, bank running (one runner every five pegs and watching us practice every day!) and with all the internationals they had fishing and helping shows they wanted this trophy badly.
Shakespeare Superteam:
Nigel Bull
Rob Middleton
Jon Arthur
Michael Buchwalder
Rob Quinn
Leigh Gardner
Coach: Neil McKinnon
Manager: Paul Bick
TF_andy cranes mate.
