Nigel Goddard from Doncaster has become the 2008 NFA Individual National Champion after recording 2.690kg on the River Nene, on Saturday 27th September.

Disappointingly, the venue did not perform as the NFA would have liked with most anglers struggling to catch, a story which is reflected in the full match results. With clear water and bright sunshine on the day, the match was always going to be tough although it was Nigel who adapted best to the conditions.

The match started positively enough though for the eventual winner, who discovered from local anglers, the first twenty pegs had been fishing well with a number of silver fish up for grabs. From peg number two he set out to catch the smaller fish, fishing the feeder with chopped worm for the first hour. After only his third cast, Nigel got himself off to a great start landing a perch over 1lb.

However, as the match progressed it became evident that a change of tactics was in order switching to feed pinkie and maggot on the pole at 16m. This proved a wise move as he went on to land 48 roach on the pinkie which tallied to around 4lbs worth of fish.

The Daiwa Doncaster angler is well known in the angling world and had the likes of Alan Scotthorne behind his peg offering encouragement for the fellow Yorkshire man. Talking to Nigel after the match he commented, “I had a good day and was over the moon to win. It sunk in on Sunday when I was back out on the bank in the Super League and people came up to me saying well done.”

Nigel was well ahead of his competition as the rest of the 119 anglers who competed in the invitation event were all stuck under a kilo. The runner up spot fell to Scunthorpe & District AA angler Graham Mumby from Gainsborough who finished the match well behind with a final weight of 0.930kg. In third place was Simon Fry from Stratford upon Avon with 0.580kg who completed a great season adding a third placed Individual success to his team gold with Starlets at the Pentax NFA Division One National.