hi mate, is it all the same format as last year or there any major changes? cheers

Changes have been made to the qualifying format for the final – the regional qualifiers have been scrapped.

http://www.matchfishingmagazine.com/news/item/572-county-champs-changes

Angling Times unveils new County Champs match fishing events

By Angling Times

Match News

23 February 2010 16:31.

Link – http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Times/Section/News–Catches/Fishing-Match/February-2010/County-Champs-story/

Angling Times editor Richard Lee said: “I’ve been in discussions over creating something all-encompassing for almost 12 months.

“This system is simple – virtually every match counts, the sliding points scale for pegs is fair, and over time it gives us an up-to-date weekly league table that pretty much includes every UK matchman. This isn’t a league for the same faces.

“After that, the pride of representing your county takes over and the individual tables take on a team flavour as matchman battle it out in the All England Final. This is a new concept that instills local pride and excitement into competitive fishing.”

Link – http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Times/Section/News–Catches/Fishing-Match/November-2010/County-Champs—let-the-battle-commence/
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County Champs – let the battle commence

By Angling Times

Match News

12 November 2010 16:30

Angling Times can this week reveal that the Shimano County Championships, a smash hit in its first year, will run again for 2010/11…and it all starts this week!

“The event was a bit of a leap of faith for both anglers and ourselves as nothing of its kind had ever been attempted before,” said AT editor Richard Lee. “Once people got to grips with how things ran, the excitement and interest grew and grew and so many anglers said they loved the competition ¬ in fact, we’ve had stacks of calls and emails asking when it’s all going to start again!

If your interested in the Angling Times County Champs. Then, this should be interesting reading – https://www.total-fishing.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=57519

Link – http://www.matchfishingmagazine.com/news/item/572-county-champs-changes

County Champs Changes

Alterations to national competition branded ‘elitist’ by match anglers.
The organisers of the County Championships competition have announced that the popular match series will go ahead in 2012 – but with some key changes.

Starting this weekend (January 7), the County Champs 2012 competition, organised by weekly publication the Angling Times, will run until August, with the final being held in September. However, qualifying to fish the final will this year be based on points earned throughout the competition instead of the previously used format of a regional eliminator.

The change will see the top three points scorers from each area go through to the final to form a county team, a move that has not gone down well with a number of anglers who see the change as elitist, believing that only those with the time and resources to fish as many eligible matches as possible will make the final.

“The previous top 20 qualifier format at least gave everyone a fair chance of getting involved and a good crack at making the final,” said Match Fishing Editorial Assistant and Ultimate Barnsley Blacks team member Joe Carass. “The new system of just putting just the top three anglers through based on points is definitely making the competition elitist as not everyone will be able to fish all the matches.”

Defending the changes though, Angling’s Times Match Editor Richard Grange described the new points format as the ‘essence of competition’ with only those anglers who post the most consistent performance being rewarded with a coveted place in the final.

”The old regional eliminators were on the whole so poorly attended in the two years that the County Championships has been running that we took the decision to allow the top three point-scoring anglers when the competition ends in late August to go through to the final to represent their county,” he told Match Fishing. “Yes, it will mean that the angler who not only fishes more but also frames more consistently will be in that final, but surely that is the essence of competition – to put in that extra time and effort to make the grade and qualify?”

Would be very interested to hear what Richard Lee or anybody else from Angling Times has to say. It seems that the whole focus of this competition has changed and is now only open to the professional/full-time match anglers.

If anglers dont attend the semi’s then i guess this is what happens. I thought the original format was right but with a lot of the semis being less than half full anglers obviously think otherwise. It seems a case of not being able to win either way. If anglers had supported the semis they would never have been the need to change. Now they are gone anglers are up in arms. As i have said many times we are our own worst enemies.

Almost seems like the Angling Times are attempting to alianate most match angers with these rule changes.

Some on this forum have argued for changes so more of us are given a fairer chance of competing including myself by only using the high points score for each weekend if any anglers score on more than one day.

Others have argued for the rules to stay as they are because it suits them. Clearly, it benefits those who match fish regularly on both weekend days. I can see your point of view Carpmagic as a match angler who sometimes cannot fish on either day on some weekends because of other comitments. It suited you personally and seemed fairer to you in your situation.

This new rule change goes against everything that was discussed in the thread on this forum in November. I see the excuse over not having the full 20 anglers fishing in each county fish-off as a bad excuse for making the new changes. If only 10 turn up and fish. Its still a qualifier with the chance to be one of the 5 who go though to the final as part of that Counties team. Im not sure many who fish in those County qualifiers are worried if only half of the qualifying anglers fail to turn up. Those who do turn up only have one thing on there minds. Qualifying for the final.

Do you need to register or are your points calculated automatically??

Carpmagic or Abi do you know the reason for reducing the County Team in the final from 5 to 3? Is it to put the final on just one lake, or give the anglers more room / better pegging on two venues? I’m pleased that it is going ahead again, looking forward to trying to make the final!

Stewart, i have no idea. I know there a fair few moans about how hard the fishing was, particularly at barston where the pegging was tight so maybe that has something to do with it.

Thanks Steve, thats what I was thinking. No doubt Abi will tell us for definite she does post on this forum

I think its a real shame that is only going to be the top three which goes through, having finished 7th last year it gave me a chance at the final, sadly not to be after a poor draw, finishing with just over a hundred points mainly from natural venues, but still nearly 200 points behind the top 3 (all three anglers fish both days over a weekend and are sponsored by either bait or tackle companies), was the qualifiers not fished very close to the angling times winter league final ? or is that my imagination, as I seem to remember thats why the Bucks match was poorly attended ( I maybe wrong)

My format would be top ten within the county, only one result per weekend, and semi final/qualifier for the top 3 spaces as the competition is basically now turned into a joke, I for one will not be entering this year, before they make decisions like this why not ask the angler what format they would like, a simple online database questionnaire would have given a good grasp of what people wanted.

@Johnny Mac wrote:

Do you need to register or are your points calculated automatically??

Put me on the gutted list!! I thought this competition was just going to grow but has been killed!! i was really looking forward to fishing a lot more opens this year to see if i could get into the top 20 cut off, never going to compete with the top 3 venue experts and can only fish once a weekend so never gonna compete anyway, real shame loads of anglers will not have same interest surely as top 3 out of reach for them, opposed to top 20. Like i said real shame for a large percentage of anglers 🙁 hopefully the competition will be changed again at some point for the better and grow and grow, fingers crossed.