European Freshwater Police Angling Championships: Full report from winners

[TF_geepsterParticipant]

European Freshwater Police Angling Championships 17th – 18th September 2010 Makins Fisheries Nuneaton Warwickshire.

Report by
Richard Caplice.
An Garda Siochana, Team Manager.

The famous commercial Fisheries complex at Makins in the UK was the venue for the 2010 European Police Fresh Water Angling championships hosted by West Midlands Police over the weekend 17th and 18th September.

Preparation for the 7-man Ireland squad of An Garda Siochana commenced at least four months in advance of the event and indeed stealthily a year ago when the event venue was announced and visited by the two delegates on the European Police Angling Federation Richard Caplice and Eamonn Bracken.

At that time the expert advice and assistance of local Angling Guru and tackle dealer Stuart Killen based in Leicester was sought and was forthcoming in abundance.

This man with obvious Irish connections who readily agreed to act as the Ireland team coach has an Angling pedigree of awesome proportions having spent many years on the most famous of all England Angling squads, the legendary Barnsley Blacks and he has coached in the past alongside the Ireland Team manager Richard Caplice at successive World international Championships.

In the months preceding the event the Ireland squad manager Richard Caplice liased closely with Stu and by travel time on the 12th September our 7-man squad was primed and eager for action with a strong view, rightly held by all, that if we kept it simple and fished to our strengths we could pull off the impossible and gain a first ever nations medal for An garda Siochana the national Police force of Ireland.
Weeks of preparation including practicing the advised methods of our mentor went well and we set off for the event with some justified confidence.

The team comprised serving, retired and reserve members as follows Team manager Richard Caplice Carrickmacross, Donnacha Maguire Ballymun, Ernie Henderson Tralee, Eamonn Bracken Castleblaney Co Monaghan, John Nee Athlone and the Dunne brothers Rory and Shane from Roscommon.

Logistics manager Kieran Roche from Carrickmacross who also provided his own transport to ferry the bulk of the squad members supported this group acted throughout as helper, adviser, bank runner and was to play a vital role in our bid for some expected degree of glory.

The first day of practice commencing Monday at 7.30am on phase one of this famous fishery was devoted to a method alien to all of our angling squad, that of the method feeder and it soon became apparent to mentor Killen that we had prepared well, as he was astonished at how proficient all of our squad members were and would later say astutely, that he saw a surprise on the cards even then.

Day two on the more accustomed discipline of the long pole went equally well and confidence was building that the England view of every travelling team realistically fishing for 7th place behind their six expert squads could be dashed.

Stuart Killen was present throughout practice on both days and the squad then practiced assiduously as a determined and cohesive group alone for the remaining two days with every confidence approaching day one of the event on Friday the 17th Sept that an upset could be on the cards and An garda Siochana might spring a surprise.

Shane Dunne was delegated to do the impossible on the eve of event and draw our team ten good pegs over the two days, an act he performed with mixed success.
Advice was sought on each and every peg drawn and following a dizzying degree of information from Stu and collective input, we slept fitfully that night anticipating a battle royal on Friday morning at 9am start time.

Day one was that of the pole championship and our team turned in a masterly performance in some sections only to have the difficult draw in two other sections yield higher than expected points.
The points tally of Richard Caplice 3rd with third best weight, Rory Dunne 5th Eamonn Bracken 3rd Shane Dunne 10th and Ernie Henderson 11th gave us some justified optimism in fourt

[Del-boyParticipant]

Great report and congratulations on an amazing achievement, well done.~clap ~clap ~clap

Del-boy

[Author]

Posts