The Angling Trust & Canal & River Trust are delighted to announce that they will be working in partnership to launch a pilot Pairs Canal Championship on the Shropshire Union in the Soudley area on 14th September 2014.

This brand new Championship will appeal to anglers who prefer to fish natural venues who particularly enjoy this style of angling. The Championship is open to anyone 16 years of age and above with an entry fee of £40.00 per pair, with optional pools available on the day of £10 per angler.

Pegs are limited and therefore will be capped at 100 pairs. This year to support the pilot of the Championship it is not necessary to have individual membership of the Angling Trust, or to be a Friend of Canal & River Trust.

This Championship will also carry a prize pot for the top three pairs of; 1st pair £1,250, 2nd pair £750, 3rd pair £500 (Subject to entries and sponsorship).

As well as the Pairs Championship there will also be an open junior section run in conjunction with the main event on the same day open to anyone under 17 years of age on the day of the match. This event will be free to enter, and all junior competitors must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

John Ellis, National Fisheries and Angling Manager of the Canal & River Trustsaid “We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Angling Trust and Terry Nutt, and his team from Hodnet to launch this event. Canals are vastly underrated and offer some fantastic catches so we hope events such as this will inspire people to give their local canal a go. If all goes well this year then we hope to launch a full scale Canal Championships in 2015 with a series of regional qualifiers followed by a two day final.”

Ben Thompson, Senior Competitions Manager at the Angling Trust said “Todays announcement of this new competition is great news and a sign of our ongoing commitment to anglers and match angling in England. It is important to us that we provide opportunities for anglers to participate in a variety of competitions and with individual and team matches well established, this pair’s format will add to our offer to match anglers. We look forward to building on our existing positive relationship with the Canal & River Trust and hope to establish the Canal Championships as a mainstay of the match calendar for 2015 and beyond.”

Further details regarding entry details for this event will be announced soon.