The Welsh Home Boat Team of Liam Williams, Colin Orme Thomas, Rod Adamson, Phil Clarke, Byron Jones, John Law and manager Robbie Roberts ran out winners of this year’s SALC Home International Boat Angling Championships held at Milford Haven.

A closely contested Championships saw England take a narrow lead after Day One, and at this early stage the Championships appeared to be developing into a two-horse race for top honours between England and Wales, with Ireland and Scotland scrapping out the minor places.

Day Two saw the Welsh dragons (pictured below) fighting back and eventually overturning England’s narrow lead with a final points total of 887.09 to England’s 874.47.
Ireland came third on 681.41 ahead of Scotland on 628.04.

In such a closely fought contest, competitors were left contemplating the effect of an unfortunate two-hour loss of fishing time on Day Two on one of the competition boats, which may or may not have influenced the final places for all competing nations. However, for Wales this result was an acknowledgement of the progress that Robbie Roberts and his team have achieved during the past 12 months, and sends out a message to the other nations that Wales are back competing at the top level once again.

Wales’ Colin Orme Thomas was top individual, followed closely by England new boy Gary Galbraith from Kent, with England’s Cliff Newbold from Portsmouth in third. Competitors look forward to re engaging once again next year when Scotland are the hosts.