Had a weekend in evesham with the Mrs, must agree the festival was a bit cheap and cheerfull, only really the Preston stand to talk about and they were only on show, selling nothing. £5.20 for a pork and stuffing batch £1.60 for a small paper cup of tea!!! Once bitten!!! Will I go again, doubt it.

Went last year for the day on the Monday and really enjoyed it, to my surprise the wife insisted we booked into a hotel this year however that turned out to be a complete disaster when we arrived and checked out after one night – the hotel was a complete ****hole despite having some decent reviews on Tripadvisor. Stayed round and watched the match for most of the Sunday before heading off home back North.

Highlight of the weekend for me was chatting to Andy Findlay for half an hour what a really nice bloke and a true ambassador for the sport.

Hi there i visited the festivel on all 3 days to fish and to watch some of the best river anglers around.I understand the need for the anglers to be left to do there thing during the competitions ,but just feel that matchfishing could have made the event a bit special by having some form of teach in on part of the river for the older angler.I know the younger people are catered for but after walking the event on monday i had loads of questions i would of liked to ask during the day perhaps to a paid proffesionall demonstrating various river tatics or a teach in of some sort.just a idea .must say enjoyed the event and will be back next year not very often you get to see these quality anglers in the area

EVESHAM is the best festival on a nature venue there is we fish the Mondays team champs and believe me its the best competition to fish in .the boys who organize it do a terrific job as do the ladies in running the qualifiers
from the competitors view the Mondays match is a team match and everyone wants to do well for the team a lot of anglers will answer questions while they fish,but believe me its hard to hear the questions when you are10 foot down the bank .its great seeing so many people that are interested in watching river anglers do what they know best and i was lucky this year as i drew the other end in the high numbers giving me and the spectators chance to talk and ask questions and of course a laugh on the way .perhaps matchfishing could or might have the chance to interview one or two anglers while they fish and pass on questions from the spectators i think this would be a great idea
next year i’l be trying to qualify for all three days so don’t hesitate to ask questions even though i’m not the best on show 😉 😉 😉

Evesham, has always been one of the highlights of the match angling calendar for me, I feel though you also have to know all about the trials and tribulations those anglers fishing the finals on bank holiday weekend, have gone through to get there.
Some have fished a number of qualifiers to gain a finals place and then they are asked to tackle one of the most difficult river match venues with thousands of spectators walking along often high banks behind you. It’s more like Total Wipe-out than a river match, with all the obstacles and barriers that are in the competitor’s way.

Each winner on two of the days and even more so the team winners on the Monday, have had to overcome just about every problem a match angler faces in an entire year!
The entrants every year love it, to them its the ultimate test of a match anglers capabilities, there are regulars who have been entering since the beginning, with never even a sniff of the presentation podium and still they return.

And the spectators turn up every year, some to buy a major piece of tackle, some to have a feel of that rod or pole they still can’t afford and some who just walk away with their carrier bag of freebies! Roll on next year.

I enjoyed it! 🙂

The match started at the right time for you this time Jon 😉 Hitting good form for the winter JA, I’m covering plenty of canal matches through the colder months. 😎