I seem to recall the Black Medallion range were Normark’s ‘budget’ range

not handled one so couldn’t give an opinion on quality

The Black Medallion was the budget range, they were made on chinese blanks as opposed to the japan made microlites ect

i have a black medallion quiver tip rod and its as good as any i’ve used including some at double the price.

Was the crusader at the budget end too fellas?

Crusader was one of the budget range. Unless it was a Team Normark, any other Normark rod is not worth mentioning in the same sentence as it is not built on a Diamaru blank. I don’t think the 2000 range were built on Diamaru blanks either but I could be wrong on that one.

the Crusaders were good rods when they were released in the 1990’s, not top of the Normark range I’ll admit, but I certainly wouldn’t have put them in the budget category, seem to recall they retailed around the £120 mark back then

there were 2 versions, the standard crusader, which was a nice, general purpose waggler rod, then there was the Crusader Ultra, which was a beautiful rod

it had a ridiculously thin blank, and weighed in around the 150/160g bracket

I was on the verge of buying one at one stage, but didn’t, can’t recall what I bought instead but if I’d bought the crusader I’d probably still have it today, not of much use in a post about the Black Medallion range though!

I had one side by side with my original titan and it was hard to tell the difference. Cost him about £50 new, that must be over 10 years ago though.

have a NCF 113 11′-13′ normark crusader fast feeder, would love to know the year it came out and is it a good un fellas?