Drennan Team England net podium position silver in the 18th European Championships

Despite Drennan Team England returning to the venue that they have secured individual medals in previous year’s it was going to be a hard act to follow in the European Championships on 23rd-24th June 2012 held on Spain’s River Guadiana, Merida with the Italian team in medal contension with Drennan Team England for the gold medal.
Drennan Team England consisted of Des Shipp, Sean Ashby, Steve Hemingray, Will Raison, Steve Gardner and Alan Scotthorne, and Joint Managers, Mark Downes and Mark Addy.
On day one Drennan Team England finished just 2 points adrift with Italy winning with 29 points to Drennan Team England’s 31 points.
Mark Downes, Drennan Team England Manager said “the team’s push to win faltered on day two as we underestimated the amount of big carp that would show. We elected to pot in at 13 metres as we did on day one, which on hindsight was wrong as we struggled to compete with the Italians who registered just 16 points to our 40 points, and we were third with 40 points on day two. Like Sean on day one our negative approach on day two saw Alan Scotthorne and Steve Gardner fall to 12th in the sections as other teams who fed positively went past them as the match progressed., and despite loosing a few fish and the fact we drew two difficult snaggy swims we cannot fault the Italian performance.”
Will Raison finished fifth overall by winning his section and the match on day two with 30 kg of carp and carrassio.
Silver was a fair result as the Italians who fielded a relatively inexperienced team tactically were far better, and felt completely at home in the 40 degree plus temperatures and a better knowledge of how to feed under such conditions.
Dick Clegg, OBE, International Events Manager of the Angling Trust said I was not surprised when joint Drennan Team England managers Mark Downes and Mark Addy made only one change from their 2010 World Championship team that had been successful in Merida. Steve Hemingrey replaced Stuart Conroy for this event and I know that the management were very confident in the teams ability and were very hopeful of winning on the venue for a second time.”
“The Italians made a complete change to their full team and brought in 6 younger anglers to give them international experience and it paid huge dividends. I do expect Drennan Team England to bounce back when they go to the Czech Republic in September for the World Championships but its hats off this time to the Italians for taking such a huge gamble with their team selection.”

Results:

Individual:
1st Mario Mateos Doncel, Spain 2.0 points
2nd Simone Carraro, Italy 3.0 points
3rd Yury Siptsov, Russia 4.0 points
4th Stefano Premoli, Italy 5.0 points
5th Will Raison, England 6.0 points

Team results:
1st Italy 45.0 points
2nd England 71.0 points
3rd Serbia 76.5 points
4th Germany 80.0 points
5th Belgium 83.0 points

Drennan Team England Classifications:
19th Des Shipp 13.0 points
26th Steve Gardener 15.0 points
28th Alan Scotthorne 16.0 points
107th Steve Hemingray 29.0 points
112th Sean Ashby 38.0 points