Maybe no-one is doing a report for them?
Maybe there’s some commercial hook-up?

The deadline for publishing is stupidly early because of the Tuesday publishing date. Unless it is with the regional co-ordinator by 7pm on the Sunday, then it doesn’t get in. Match organisers have enough to do before and after the match whilst everyone else is in the boozer quenching their thirst. All they want to do is get home have a shower/bath and put their feet up. The last thing that they need is keep dialling a busy number to meet the deadline.

I remember when i was on Angling Times the Sunday match shifts used to run through till one in the morning regularly and that was not in the most desirable area of Peterborough to be walking back to your car in at that time. But we genuinely cared about getting all the results in. But you are right, I think if I look back that was for a Wednesday deadline. Why it changed to Tuesday I’m not sure, although I think Angler’s Mail may have pushed this. Pushing the publication date forward a day was always going to hurt the match coverage.

I can only praise the east mids correspondant who i contact,Ted Rowe.I fish down the east coast on dragon watermeadows most w/ends from march-mid july,i either email Ted or ring him,9 times out of ten he will insist he calls me back,no matter really as i seldom run out of mins on my phone.Bear in mind it is not always the regional chappies fault,he relays the info then its upto AT to put the result in,Ted always tells me the week before if there is an early deadline,bank hols/free gift in paper etc.

WHAT MATCH RESULTS THERE AIN’T NO MATCHES AROUND HERE 😮 😮 😮 😮 😮 ANYMORE 🙁 🙁 🙁 unless you can get on a 50 peg club match 😮 😮 😮 😮

Its a new chap covering that area, can’t find his number right now as I am not in my office. had a chat with him and he was very keen so somethings gone wrong. I will tip him off and see if he wants his number up on here or get him to get in touch.
As to getting results in, I have been in both camps, but even if a match finishes at 4pm that still leaves 3 hours to get the result over, which usually takes 2 mins or a little longer for bigger matches or when the C.Champs are running, leave a phone number and you should get a call anyway!.
Anglers like to see their name in the paper, clubs/lakes like to see their results going in so its to the benefit of all to get it done on time which someone did state at around 7pm, although I have still been collecting them in quiet a bit later!!

Hi all

We received the match result too late to get it in the paper. The correspondents need them by 7 so they can get them to us by 8. It was only Keith’s second week of being a correspondent – he even sent the report over at 10 o clock that night to try to get it in for the match organiser but by this point it was too late.

Tight lines, Abi

Off the thread a little but could ken wade comment on the winter league sittuation regards A.T giving it up (and angling trust taking it over) as ita getting closer and speculation is rife? and i see he’s posted on this subject but not the “come on spill the beans post”

page 3 at the moment.

is it a secret?

ABI surely its time for a rethink on deadline times or are A/T JUST NOT BOTHERED WITH UP TO DATE MATCHES meaning they might report it a weekl later :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ps maybe they should tap into organisers phone more often poor show imoa

Anglers Mail, Andy Love, phones organisers on a Sunday night. Say no more :confused:

ANGLERS MAIL website shows all the regions weekends match results from around 4 pm on a monday afternoon , much more reliable 😉

@proper tidal boy wrote:

ABI surely its time for a rethink on deadline times or are A/T JUST NOT BOTHERED WITH UP TO DATE MATCHES meaning they might report it a weekl later :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ps maybe they should tap into organisers phone more often poor show imoa

But we are keen to get the results in and up to date!!
Each one of us calls those that run matches, we get calls and a few e-mails too, most before a 7pm deadline. Some come in quiet a bit later but even then we will try and get them over to the paper as quickly as possible and as long as the paper has not gone to press then those working in the office will include them.
The Mail can call later or even on a Monday morning because they are NOT getting fresh results going into their paper they are a week behind for most of their results.
BUT if the clubs and waters really want their matches in then they do have three or even four hours to get them in one way or another. To call as late as 8.30pm or after will not see the match going in until the following week, which would then be the same as the Mail.
I am not knocking the Mail, that’s the way the like to do it, but to say the Angling Times are not bothered is wrong. What would be the point of having 10 or twelve people working on a Saturday/Sunday night if we did not care or for that matter want to get the results from that weekend in the Tuesday paper.

I am not sure what you mean by “Tapping into organisers phones more often”, as we all call them/they call us, as and when we know matches are on? :confused:

We all make mistakes and some matches do get missed from time to time, sometimes our fault and sometimes down to the match organiser but on the whole I do think we keep the results as up to date as possible. I know Angling Times correspondents work really well with their local match organisers, there was a problem on the matches you have mentioned, but I do feel you have gone a little too far with your criticism. 🙁
Ken Wade

Ken, I know that you do your best having either rung in or emailed in results to you for the matches that I ran.

However, wouldn’t reverting to a Wednesday publishing date with up to date results be better than trying to be equal first on the newstands? Obviously it would need a lot of advance publicity to make sure numbers didn’t fall. I don’t suppose that you know the answer but, has there ever been a study as to how many copies are sold on Tuesdays off the racks compared with how many subscription and ordered copies are sold? If those sold off the racks in newsagents far outweigh those guaranteed to be sold each week then changing the date may be harmful. If that is the case, then I would be very surprised though, not only would it be a very precarious business but, my newsagent for instance buys 35 copies. 5 for the shelves and the rest collected or delivered.

ken i think online results are quick and easy and adds pressure to you and your paper ,but lets not forget competitive anglering is now only a small part of your paper i see that through the people who buy it from the our shops. gary smith has opened a shop in the town and is doing very well but even he will tell you its not the match angler thats making his trade up its the pleasure anglers and the carpers that don’t moan about prices and just find the time for a few hours fishing
i’ve always said it, yours is the hardest job in angling as is tony keelings 😉

@Waveney One wrote:

Ken, I know that you do your best having either rung in or emailed in results to you for the matches that I ran.

However, wouldn’t reverting to a Wednesday publishing date with up to date results be better than trying to be equal first on the newstands? Obviously it would need a lot of advance publicity to make sure numbers didn’t fall. I don’t suppose that you know the answer but, has there ever been a study as to how many copies are sold on Tuesdays off the racks compared with how many subscription and ordered copies are sold? If those sold off the racks in newsagents far outweigh those guaranteed to be sold each week then changing the date may be harmful. If that is the case, then I would be very surprised though, not only would it be a very precarious business but, my newsagent for instance buys 35 copies. 5 for the shelves and the rest collected or delivered.

Sorry mate, can’t reply to you as I really do not know
Ken

Hi proper tidal boy

No it is not time to rethink deadline times. If we pushed our deadline times back any later then the paper wouldn’t get printed on time. If we were to print on Wednesday we would probably lose sales as another angling weekly is out on a Tuesday and a lotof our sales are on a Tuesday.

@joffmiester wrote:

ken i think online results are quick and easy and adds pressure to you and your paper ,but lets not forget competitive anglering is now only a small part of your paper i see that through the people who buy it from the our shops. gary smith has opened a shop in the town and is doing very well but even he will tell you its not the match angler thats making his trade up its the pleasure anglers and the carpers that don’t moan about prices and just find the time for a few hours fishing
i’ve always said it, yours is the hardest job in angling as is tony keelings 😉

Hi Joff, not sure I agree about online results, they are JUST results, not reports and I would love to know how many anglers look at them.

As to the paper, its not mine so all the the questions about publishing and times goes way, way, way above me mate so i can’t comment
Last post for today as I am getting busy(thank god)
Ken

mr wade and ABI i still stand by my critism ,shame neither of you grasp the words of tap or deadline dates which shows to me you dont want to sort the problem arising again out ??? as wavenney points out moving to weds would be the most sensible answer, as to A/T PUBLISH DATE tuesday abi WHY AM I STILL WAITING FOR DELIVERY ON FRIDAY through the post which ive paid for in a yearlly subscription to arrive . obviously time to asses this purchase method for the future :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

@proper tidal boy wrote:

mr wade and ABI i still stand by my critism ,shame neither of you grasp the words of tap or deadline dates which shows to me you dont want to sort the problem arising again out ??? as wavenney points out moving to weds would be the most sensible answer, as to A/T PUBLISH DATE tuesday abi WHY AM I STILL WAITING FOR DELIVERY ON FRIDAY through the post which ive paid for in a yearlly subscription to arrive . obviously time to asses this purchase method for the future :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Hi “proper tidal boy”, not sure of your name :confused:
My name is Ken Wade, by the way, not very often anyone calls me Mr. Wade so thanks for that 😉
The publishing times and dates have nothing to do with me, you are talking about a massive company, I am just a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny cog in the wheel.
As to grasping of the word tap, I am not the world’s greatest brain that for sure but I still do not get it. :confused:
We all call match organizers on the phone, is that what you mean :confused: We all get calls from match organizers, is that what you mean :confused: .
We get e-mails from match organizers, is that what you mean :confused: .
We all try and cover as many matches as we know about, be they leagues, big/small opens both on naturals and commies, indeed any matches at all.
We do miss some that is quiet true and we do try and get them in the following week.
Matches that come in late on a Sunday or even through the week will hopefully go into the following weeks paper. But I am sorry to say some of the smaller matches do not make it into the paper, but again that has nothing to do with those that get the matches in. We all make mistakes and indeed it would seem someone has forgotten to send your recent Angling Times out on time, but once again that has nothing to do with the lads and lasses that get the results in, which is what this thread was about! I would think there is a phone number for you to tap into to get a full answer as to why it was so late. 😉
I hope that this is a full reply along with the other posts l and l see Abi has made with regard to your posts. You have every right to air your views on this open forum and it would seem we will have to beg to differ on this occasion. 😎 😎 😎
Regards
Ken Wade

Mr wade thanks for your reply, so 2x 100 peggers are small matches that in my eyes are big matches???? : with no reports ON either so we obviously agree to disagree then 🙂 🙂 🙂

@proper tidal boy wrote:

Mr wade thanks for your reply, so 2x 100 peggers are small matches that in my eyes are big matches???? : with no reports ON either so we obviously agree to disagree then 🙂 🙂 🙂

Did I ever say they where small matches?? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
I though Abi had posted why they where missed.
OK you win we agree to disagree 🙂 🙂 🙂

Hi guys
Sorry for my slow reply, I don’t come on here very often.
Proper tidal boy if you have a problem with your subscription please email Emma Reynolds on [email protected] and she will check if Royal Mail have had any delivery problems in your area. All copies of AT have reached the Royal Mail on time in recent weeks so it is likely that there has been some delivery problems.
As previously stated Angling Times will not move to be published on a Wednesday as another weekly is published on a Tuesday and this could affect sales. We are the only weekly that print match results in the week after they have been fished. If we were to publish them a week later then there would be a lot of unhappy match anglers.

Abi I presume that is a different Emma Reynolds, not the one that we both know and love!

Hi Richard, yes a different one! Are you going to fish your county champs qualifier?

Unfortunately as it is a Saturday, it clashes with the R Yare so I will give it a miss. I have just sent email to Mary-Ann.

I have read the thread with interest and agree with my former colleagues Abi and Ken. Most of the time, match organisers have only themselves to blame for non appearance of matches in the paper.

This is because they expect to telephone at 8 pm on a Sunday for a match held the previous day or even midweek! Many [late] matches are only reported for County Championship purposes.

Things have got a bit harder as the match planner in both papers is much more hit and miss and there are usually quite a few ad-hoc matches. League organisers usually gave me dates in advance. Unfortunately gifted issues sometimes queered the pitch as it meant an early deadline and that meant only very large or particularly newsworthy matches made it the following week (eg match record). The reason for this is that adverts/White Acres or other Festival matches limited the space available.

Many a time some of my write ups have been chopped because too much material was provided – that is always a risk. My successor Keith is very much still finding his feet but he is keen to make a good fist of it.

Angling Times continues to publish fresh reports but it is always best if the local correspondent is contacted by phone and/or by email as soon as possible after the match to give a good chance of publication. Inevitably the phone will be engaged but most people have a back up voicemail. I can tell you that it can does get very busy on a Sunday evening but hopefully viewers can understand we try our best.

@mickyd wrote:

The last 2 weeks we have had matches on the Basingstoke canal with around 100 anglers on each, AT have been given the results but for some reason they would prefer to report on matches of only 20 or so anglers WHY.

dave thanks for coming on the bandwagon in your collegues defence i wouldnt of exspected anything less 😀 😀 😀 MAYBE YOU COULD EXSPLAIN why two matches of these numbers where missed in the reports colums 😮 😮 .
ps ABI STILL WAITING for this weeks weekly late reports :p :p :p poor service 😮 😮

proper tidal boy: You must have missed this. Perhaps now you’re carp fishing more it should have a buzzing noise fitted…LOL

We received the match result too late to get it in the paper. The correspondents need them by 7 so they can get them to us by 8. It was only Keith’s second week of being a correspondent – he even sent the report over at 10 o clock that night to try to get it in for the match organiser but by this point it was too late.

Tight lines, Abi

as Dave says, the match organiser was late, or the new recruit is fibbing. I know who I’d believe…

ah the missing gooner journo on the thread a s well now 😀 😉 shame my postman hasnt been on this thread maybe then i could read last weeks match reports. kieth do you get yours on time kieth in sunny ham????mine in Richmond still not arrived maybe ille go to the shop and but another one NOT, posted on this prob before abi and phoned still not sorted ????maybe ille post a thread every week on here just for good measure 😀 😀 😀

I get two copies every week Brian, don’t ask how because I don’t know. One copy is a subscription, the other a ‘contributor’s copy’. One comes in a clear plastic wrapper (subscription) the other in a brown envelope. The plastic one is usually here on Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday and occasionally later. The brown envelope one is usually here on Thursday or Friday but last week both came on Tuesday. This week I don’t have one yet.

Every paper or magazine – or business come to that – is only as good as its weakest link. There is no benefit to Angling Times in NOT providing as many results as possible as early and accurately as possible, indeed it is a BENEFIT as the more accurate and recent the results the more likely that is to have a positive impact on sales. Virtually the entire back half of AT is match-orientated.

If its was in the midlands or up north its wood have gone in .what is it about the south you get shit match wright ups and no news stories .sort it out a.t

Go for the job Simbad…

I dont know what all the fuss is about……Do what i do and just get it from your local Newsagent.I have never known it to be missing from the shelf.
Keith……….I would gladly do the job,and be proud of it..lol.God help our team now mate.Its about to become fact…..we are already gone this season.Still,the good thing is we will never go skint. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

@simbad wrote:

If its was in the midlands or up north its wood have gone in .what is it about the south you get shit match wright ups and no news stories .sort it out a.t

Love this one, Simbad is as bad at spelling as I am!!

Do you get the Angling Times??
The South gets just as much coverage as all other area’s of the country and so it should. The phone numbers to call if you have a match are in the paper most weeks, please, please give the contacts a call, we really DO want to report your match results 🙂 🙂 🙂

abi pIgeon post arrived today YIPEEEEEE
KIETH brown envelopes ???? whatever next a bent gooner manager ??????
Bookie the A/T SUBSCRIPTION ANNUALLY was a chrimbo pressy from my love one so i dont have to walk to the corner shop in the wet or snow V TO V LOL

Speaking as one who knows how the angling weeklies’ match reporting system works, albeit one of ‘yesterdays men’, I believe any criticism of AT’s current service is harsh.

In my opinion the move to Tuesday publication (circa 2002/3 from memory?) by both weeklies not only made an already difficult co-ordination service far harder for the dedicated regional ‘stringers’, but hastened the decline of team match fishing and bigger entry matches.

This decline was already underway due to the dual growth of low-entry commercials opens plus the more affordable club scene, but during my years on Angler’s Mail there were always ‘live’ weekend results on a Wednesday morning. Yes, some were missed, but the accuracy of our end of season Kamasan table was all-important to me and my team at the time.

As Gareth indicated, Angling Times always ran Sunday night shifts in their Peterboro HQ to gather in the results and get them ready for print. In my time they had some Monday morning leeway to add latecomers too, but once Tuesday publication was introduced Ken Wade had the unenviable position of a 7pm Sunday deadline. And over the past 7-odd years him and his team have done a damn good job of it in my opinion, still producing a decent read of combined actual reports + shorter results in brief for the match fraternity.

On the Mail in my days, we used to do 7.30am starts at the central London HQ to get everything in and off to press by noon-ish. When there were covermounted gifts which brought the print deadline forward, we’d do Sunday night shifts instead. I can’t speak for AT, but I’d imagine most of their folks involved lived within 20-odd miles of the office. At AM, most of us had 50-60 mile drives from home to London.

You can probably see where this is leading…The cost in overtime + mileage to have a chief sub, a reporter, a copy typist (more reports were faxed or phoned in than e-mailed in those days) plus two designers in the office on a Sunday night was one that AM’s publishers IPC wanted rid of. When then-editor Roy Westwood retired and his job was up for grabs, I stood my ground on wanting to maintain the same match service and I believe this is one of the reasons (by no means the only one though) that I was passed over for the job, resulting in my departure soon after to go freelance.

Nowadays I very much appreciate the Mail’s online results service which I read on Monday evenings, but I do miss the more in-depth printed reports including ‘picture matches’ which we used to rotate around the regions as (expensive) page lead stories. No criticism is intended of Paul Dennis the Mail’s match editor nor Tim Knight the editor, as the decision to abandon ‘live’ results was purely commercial and made at a higher level than them. Nor of the Mail’s team of stringers who gather up loads of results for the website by Monday noon.

The bottom line is…who else would do the job to supply what every match angler surely dreams of: a totally up-to-date set of reports and results every Tuesday in the mags + earlier on websites? The Angling Trust?? Please…this is fishing, not professional football we’re disussing here guys!

A very informative post there Tom.

As I suggested right at the start, the move to a Tuesday publishing date was what ‘started the rot’ but I don’t suppose that a return to Wednesday’s will ever happen. I do have some doubts as to the Angling Times commitment to match fishing though, whatever they say. Recent developments seem to bear this out but we will wait and see what happens I suppose.

What are A/T worried about?? another publisher post on a tuesday and they might loose a few punters /???? much rather have up too date info than stuff not in it at all cause of poxey deadline dates to tight ??? :confused: :confused:

Excellent reply by Tom Legge. Thank goodness I am not doing the job of regional correspondent as I got back from Framfield at 19.00 last night.