England’s Veterans angling team continued to impress when winning their third consecutive team medal when they were narrowly beaten into silver spot on the podium by host team Belgium in Gent from 10th – 11th July. 

However, the event was marred by the passing of Jackie Dupuis (pictured), long time secretary general of the world governing body of match fishing.

The rowing course had been the venue for other England angling successes and was where the junior team won gold and later in 2008 Callum Dicks won the individual title.

Manager, Joe Roberts and Dick Clegg were joined on the bank for a couple days by Mark Downes whose knowledge of the venue from his previous visits was invaluable.

At the start of practice small roach and perch provided most of the weights but as the week progressed, quality bream began to make an appearance and team tactics had to be spot on for the weekend match.

Eight countries lined the banks in temperatures that reached 36 degrees making bankside fishing almost unbearable.

The match tactics were to feed joker in a leam based mix at 11.5m for bream and a groundbait and leam mix targeting small fish at 6m. England started well and after the first hour the team was on course for a good position. Knowing that bream would feed later in the match England fished for roach on 6m at the start and switched later to 11.5m as the match progressed.

The team selected for the first day consisted of: Terry Lancaster, Roger Holmes, Stan Binge, Dicky Carr with Don Slaymaker as the reserve.

At the end of the first day England were in 3rd position with hosts Belgium and Holland jointly in the lead with 11 pts. Both Holland and Belgium had ignored small fish going with an out and out bream approach.

World Veterans Championship Day 1
1 Holland 11 pts
1 Belgium 11pts
3 England 14pts
4 Italy 16pts
5 France 17pts
6 Hungary 18pts
7 Germany 26pts
8 Portugal 31pts

Don Slaymaker replaced Stan Binge for day 2 which saw little change in team tactics but everyone had to be aware that a switch to bream fishing would come earlier in the match. Again tactics were almost spot on with three of the team landing quality fish, and Don Slaymaker the top weight in the match with 12.900 kilos.

World Veterans Championship Day 2
1 Italy 11pts
2 Belgium 12pts
3 England 13pts
4 France 15pts
5 Hungary 16pts
6 Holland 23pts
7 Portugal 27pts
8 Germany 27pts

World Veterans Championship Overall
1 Belgium        23               49.240
2 England        27               42.185
3 Italy             27               38.345
4 France          32                32.005
5 Holland        34                33.155
6 Hungary       34                31.415
7 Germany      53               14.765
8 Portugal       58                12.000

Individuals
1 Gustave Van Extergem Belgium 2pts
2 Roger Santermans Belgium 4pts
3 Roberto Torri Italy 4pts

England team
Roger Marlow 6th 5pts
Terry Lancaster 7th 6pts
Dicky Carr 16th 9pts
Stan Binge and Don Slaymaker fished one day only.

Dick Clegg, OBE, International Events Manager said “The competition site and the organisation was excellent, but the occasion was sadly tinged by the death of my long time friend Jackie Dupuis who has been involved in running both the French Federation and has been Secretary General of FIPSed for many years.”