Mark Downes, England Team Manager has decided to announce this year’s England European Team and the England World Nations Team.

Mark Downes and Darran Bickerton will be continuing with their youth policy which continues to grow.

The youth element of the team/s is growing year by year and all are gathering valuable experience as they look to continue the legacy of Team England.

Cam Hughes and James Dent miss out this year but are both still active members of the squad and as well as helping this year’s teams on the bank they will be involved in other international events across Europe. Cam will be going to Portugal to assist the team and James will be going to Italy.

European Championships
The FIPSed 26th European Championships will be held on the River Sorraia, Coruche Portugal on 25th/26th July 2020. This is always a difficult venue, but one the England U25s won on 3 years ago.

Mark Downes said “With the venue being dredged and the banks re-built it will be interesting to see what species will show up along this unpredictable length. Generally it will be a distance waggler event with small barbel being the target species. “

Joining the team this year will be current England World U25 no 1 Rory Jones. Rory has excelled at U25 level and will suit this style of fishing.

The team will be;
Alan Scotthorne
Will Raison
Steve Hemingray
Matt Godfrey
Matt Derry
Rory Jones
Mark Downes (Manager)
Darran Bickerton (Assistant Manager)

World Nations Championships
The FIPSed 67th World Nations Championships will be taking place on the River Mincio, Italy from 12/13th September 2020.

Mark Downes stated “This is a notoriously difficult venue normally strewn with weed. Alan Scotthorne took an individual gold medal win in 1996. Since then the venue has become very temperamental, two years ago it was excellent, then last year the sport declined badly, but the Italians have a knack of putting on great fishing matches, so the team are looking forward to competing this year.”

The team are;
Will Raison
Sean Ashby
Des Shipp
Alan Scotthorne
Steve Hemingray
Matt Godfrey
Mark Downes (Manager)
Darran Bickerton (Assistant Manager)

Darran Bickerton said “We have a great future and our youth policy over the last 10 years is really coming to fruition. This plus the Guru sponsored “Angling Trust England Talent Pathway” means that the team/s will be well covered for years to come.”

Mark Downes added “We are desperate to find new coaches, anglers who have had International experience but want to channel their efforts into helping the England Teams continue competing at the highest level. If anyone is interested please contact Sandra Johnson at the Angling Trust at; email Sandra.johnson@anglingtrust.net.