I’m only 53 is that young enough 😉

I think I know the point you are trying to make Gareth, I, as you know ,have recently returned to river fishing in my area, and one of the biggest things that has become apparent is just how old we are all getting, last week on the Yare I helped a bloke called Peter Dade to his peg with his gear, he was really struggling to get up the flood bank, gasping for air and bent over double, Dave Dowcra was pegged next to me and was having similar difficulty’s too, before yesterdays tragic match the great Dickie Carr turned up with just two feeder rods and no pole gear, he was one of the very best in his day on the pole ….but he just could not carry the necessary GB and gear to fish it on the river.

I look around and it is as if match angling is growing old and dying… never to return.

There are so very few young match anglers, but there are even fewer match organisers , they are a steadily diminishing group of people that will never be replaced IMO.

If you look into angling politics the same can be said of that, stalwarts and club officials that have for donkeys years attended meetings on behalf of the membership, are dying of old age or illness ……never to be replaced.

Match angling is dying a slow, drawn out death………. and it saddens me to witness it.

Yes it is very sad to see. Lee Taylor is not that old and doing a great job with barston matches, maybe he will move on from this and get into the uk champs or even organise more events like the masters on different venues.
We might all just be pleasure fishing in 15 years time. I doubt there will be any nationals after about 2018. Sad but true.

Agree re young match organisers being very thin on the ground.

Not sure I agree with Swimfeeder on committees, feels like the old un’s don’t wanna let go and remember fondly the good old days of getting 3-5lb and framing. Just got to move on as match fishing has. IMO Its fragmented I agree but we have never had it so good in terms of choice and catches

With life expectancy growing so are the number of wrinkly’s imo.

….. hasten to add I am a budding wrinkly but then aren’t we all……junior member is just a distant dream!!!

Ian

Ian has it mostly right, the old uns are lasting longer and the young guns are fewer or have less opportunity to start organising matches.

For the males: There’s far more distraction for the current run of young blood’s attention, computer’s, gaming, girls with morals of alley cats, the ever growing cult of narcissim..the list goes on.

For the females: the sport is overly male dominated and still very chauvinistic, and offers fewer opportunities for the sport to be of interest unless they have a family member to go with or a partner that they join rather than beat on.

Mostly we’re spoilt for choice in terms of venues, where the commi owners often run the whole show and leave little opportunity for anyone but family and close friends to get a toe hold. Rivers offer some chance but I don’t believe the interest nationally is there anymore except through the ever ageing diehards, again a closed shop to most.

The last thing we need are more committees to run things..our sport is over complicated in its plethora of national and local bye-laws and venue rules..if we need anything it’s a revamp of the whole governing body including the AT which still appears to be a toothless Quango. Quite in what direction it needs to go is for another thread.

From my own observations locally, the number of under 20 year olds that turn up for a match have mostly started out as ‘tag alongs’ with dad but still number in single figures.

We have to accept that the sport is changing and that competition fishing doesn’t figure in many youngsters calenders.

Youngest I can think of round these parts are Marcus at Head Fen and Pete at Chestnut, both of whom have a couple of years on me (and I’m 45!)

Way back when I was 17, driving my awesome bronze Allegro 1.5, I co-ran an evening series on Burwell Lode with my cuz Ian Darler who was mid-20s then. Phil Briscoe used to fish these sprints, he repped for East Anglian Rod Co in Newmarket back then and was a bread punch bitterling wizard 😉

From my early 20s to mid-30s I ran the Drennan Super League & Kamasan finals for Angler’s Mail. In the first few years took a lot of stick bordering on abuse at times on the chin, but I was being paid for it! The average match organiser barely covers their expenses.

It’s no surprise to me that only the older generation who can shrug off most of the whinging like water off a duck’s back are still prepared to do the job. Plus of course the Commercials people who are also getting paid thru peg fees + in some cases ‘venue own bait’ only.

Maybe all this will change when Cameron’s Big Society vision finally kicks in…? 😉

@geepster wrote:

Are there any young match organisers?
What I’m thinking is, who exactly has the mentality and time in the younger generation to sacrifice their own performance to organise matches…???

a sad reflection of our sport at the moment the only young anglers on the seen are being brought up on commercials [not all of them but a good few]
do the youngsters feel the same way as we do after all they wouldn’t of even seen a 300 peg match where you only had 20 yards before the next man pegged on every inch of spare water you could get on the Trent,Welland and nene jam packed with matches
I’ve organised matches for 20 odd years but there is point where you have to say enough is enough as it has become a hostile environment with very little respect from the competitors i’m still waiting for someone to take over
like you said geeps arguable the sacrifice to your own fishing is massive your own tackle care goes to bits with phone calls bookings and the paperwork

its sad as one of the best match organisers past away at the weekend KIETH FORD died doing something he loved and is another unsung hero’s of the competitive sport of angling and will be sadly missed

Youngest on my circuit are mid 40s – come to think of it, the same can be said for the competitors! That is much more worrying, as has been said above.

I’m not sure if it is the hassle and grief, as if the fishing and turnouts are good someone would step forward, although anglers can certainly be their own worst enemies. I do believe that it’s the diminishing turnouts.

We may have greater choice and catches – but quite honestly there’s nothing to beat the atmosphere of a big match. I’d rather catch 5lb to be 5th on a 100 pegger than catch 200lb to win a 20 peg match.

I’ve ran quite a lot of matches and am only 31 😀

@NathanWatson wrote:

I’ve ran quite a lot of matches and am only 31 😀

YOU DONT LOOK 31 NATHAN…….YOUR PAPER ROUND MUST HAVE BEEN UP HILL

well done at the weekend Nathan just get yourself organised for the final !!! no hiccups this time :p :p

I can see where people are coming from I am 28I have helped in running and promoting some charity matches. I just dont find time to organise matches let alonne fish on a regular basis with my current job so when i do get the time i just like to match fish.

Hi I am 26 and am the match secretary for my works course fishing section!
I am the youngest I know off but i am sure there must be more surely! I love it!

My first big match was the opening Surrey Winter League contest on 4 September 1977. I had replaced Dave Harris of Leatherhead as Secretary and therefore running the show.

The match was held on the Rother at Iden Lock and I was parked up doing the results and outside there was a big hiatus as Ray Mumford, Mick Beard and John McCarthy** were entangled in a fight!

I was aged 21 at the time and it was 120 pegs strong with ten teams, though my side were actually two light on the day. I don’t believe I ran an open until 1979 as my club were a bit nannyish.

Later on in Warlingham, I had Colin Bateman and Doug Manser on the Committee and they were under 21 but we shared the workload for Thames matches, though because there were three of us, it confused the hell out of those booking in!

** As a result of the fight, John McCarthy was subsequently labeled “Brawling John McCarthy” by the Snide Rumours and Dirty Lies in Coarse Fisherman

im 31 and have been running open matches for 10 years now. i must admit that my results have taken a dramatic dip over the last 2 – 3 years since i have taken on more and more matches (whether that is due to the pressure of running them or that my luck has finally run out who knows). at times it is very hard listening to the constant stick you get for the decisions that are made but to be honest i am one of the worst for voicing my opinion on how to run a match that i should just take it on the chin!

might i add before anyone jumps in that i have drawn 4 end pegs and 1 off the end in the last 5 matches so that may put paid to the idea that my luck has run out. but its also added to the grief on the bank. as you can imagion……lol 😀 😀 😀

how many match organisers get a Christmas card off the competitors every year 😀 😀 😀
how many get a free beer for doing the results while everyone else can discuss there days fishing 😀 😀 😀
how many organisers get a discount by the tackle shops and industry for keeping anglers coming into there shops and buying tackle 😀 😀 😀
on the whole a thankless job i work six days a week why work seven 😀 😀 😀

i’ve just taken over a small angling club as chairman and i’m 32, also i run a few friendly matches in the south.

Nathan I think Mentally your even less! 😀

@Alibongo wrote:

might i add before anyone jumps in that i have drawn 4 end pegs and 1 off the end in the last 5 matches so that may put paid to the idea that my luck has run out. but its also added to the grief on the bank. as you can imagion……lol 😀 😀 😀

So crap ya gotta fiddle! 😮