The Championship had a great turnout of 17 teams but proved to be a tough competition for the medals. The river provides great fishing for most of the year, but sadly on the months of June and July the fish are simply not there.

Team England consisted of;

Alan Scotthorne
Will Raison
Steve Hemingray
Matt Derry
Cameron Hughes
James Dent
Mark Downes (Joint Manager)
Steve Sanders (Joint Manager)
Darran Bickerton (Delegate)

On practise Team England did well catching weights from between 500g and 3 kilos, but it was obvious as the practise week went on that the fish were getting fewer and fewer as opposed to the theory that it was going to get better.

They thought Team England’s bloodworm and joker approach would hold them in good stead, catching small perch early in the match and by introducing “tiny Top-ups” they would find one or two of the bigger elusive roach and hybrids.

Day one saw Team England struggle with a couple just finishing with ounces and apart from James Dent on an end peg it never happened at all, so it was a re-think for day two.

Mark Downes, Team England Joint Manager stated “We switched from a Sensas Lake and Leam approach to a far more active groundbait mix of Gros Gardons, Lake and Canal Fine Noire with added grilled hemp for activeness. Again after being ahead of the field for an initial spell we started to drop as those bonus roach eluded us. Apart from Will Raison who’s second place in his section was our highest score of the weekend and pushed Will up to 12th Individual.”

“The team finished eighth after the two days far from satisfactory, but with three of the top five internationally ranked teams finishing below us it showed what a difficult venue it was.

Huge congratulations to winners Lithuania, their first podium ever, a simple approach, Active groundbait, dead pinkies and loose fed maggots saw them winkle out a few, but massively important big Bann roach. Thanks to everyone who contributed to organising the event, the organisation was excellent, it was a pity the huge shoals of Bann roach did not turn up for the occasion.”

Top 4 team results;
1st Lithuania – 49 penalties
2nd France – 55 penalties
3rd Netherlands – 58 penalties
4th Ireland – 66 penalties

Top 4 individual results;
1st Ramon Ansing, Netherlands
2nd Stephane Linder, France
3rd Tomas Buzas, Lithuania
4th Mindaugas Alekna, Lithuania