Jarun rowing course was the venue for the 16 teams competing in the XII Ladies World Championships in Croatia. Tom Pickering (manager) – “It’s a great venue and has good fishing – which obviously benefits good teams. We’ve been practicing all week and we all like it here, myself and Alan (Alan Scotthorne – deputy manager) included.”

The practice and good fishing seemed to pay off when the first day saw the England Ladies take a comfortable lead over their nearest rivals with 12 points to Croatia’s 23 and Italy’s 25.

“We fished with a slider line and then 11m line, mainly using a mix of sensas lake and fine carp. We started with 3 litres of groundbait with just a handful of leam joker thrown in on top and a few castors, then moved onto double leam and joker. We were catching silverfish at the sides to start then just kept the pole out for the rest of the day.”

“We were very happy with the first days result but we never thought we ‘had it in the bag’ – I told the team its only half-time and we haven’t won anything yet. We knew the other teams would fight back and so they did, we just had to keep our cool and stick to our plan and our methods”

As it happened the weather changed overnight and the skies opened, making it a different match altogether on the Sunday. The Italians came out fighting the next day and caught a couple of big grass-carp early on. This put the pressure back on the England Ladies.

“I never thought we were going to be beat really – but there was a flash of lightening in the morning and for a moment I worried that they might just be ahead and the match could be stopped, that was the only time I was worried. Of course we knew that the men and the juniors had all picked up golds in their events and although that adds a little pressure it also inspired the team to build on that achievement too”

“We just carried on fishing, picking up roach and bream and some skimmers, we always knew that if we just fished solidly we had a very good chance”

The White Acres NFA England Ladies battled to the end and sure enough by the end of the day had gone 7 points clear of the Italians (an impressive margin) to secure first place, and a fourth(!) team gold medal for England this season.

“It’s a fantastic achievement; I haven’t got enough good words to say about them. It was a team effort and they all did amazing, I’m very proud of them all.”

England Squad

Claire Dagnall (Birmingham)          

Emma Pickering (Doncaster)         

Sandra Scotthorne (Doncaster)    

Helen Dagnall (Warrington)          

Wendy Locker (Chester)            

Julie Abbott (Notts)

Team Results

                                      Total points    weight           day1   day2

1          England                         37                     51.320              12         25

2          Italy                              44                     49.720              25         19

3          Hungary                         49                     44.820              33         16

4          Croatia                          65                     38.250              23         42

5          France                           68                     31.330              30         38

6          Germany                       77                     32.890              45         32

7          Portugal                         80                     30.390              30         50

8          Poland                           81                     29.210              49         32

9          Czech Republic               87                     30.430              36         51

10         Bulgaria                         87                     28.780              49       38

11         Serbia/Montenegro         100                   23.200              55         45

12         Finland                          106                   17.600              48         58

13         Spain                            111                   15.140              61         50

14         Slovenia                         112                   16.570              56       56

15         South Africa                   126                   12.760              61         65

16         Bosnia Hercegovina        130                   15.440              67         63

Individual Results

                                                            Total points        weight  day1     day2

1          Livia Hajdu                    Hungary 2                      19.220  1          1

2          Franca Tagliaferri          Italy      3                      14.660  1          2

3          Kamilla Justa                 Poland   4                      8.900    3          1

4          Simona Pollastri             Italy      5                      15.670  4          1

5          Wendy Locker                England 5                      14.110  2          3

6          Valerie Nadan                France   5                      9.100    2          3

7          Sandra Scotthorne         England 5                      8.780    1          4

8          Claire Dagnall                England 5                      8.530    3          2

9          Marie-Lise Garot             France   6                      8.570    2          4

10         Erzsebet Sajovolgyi        Hungary 7                      6.440    5          2

11         Albena Angelova            Bulgaria 9                      10.760  2          7

12         Giovanni Pasotti             Italy      9                      8.370    7          2

13         Helen Dagnall                England 10                     10.930  4          6

14         Sarka Svehola               Czech Rep.10                 8.350    9          1

15         Raquel Ribero                Portugal 10                     6.190    4          6

16         Biserka Trescin              Croatia  10                     5.990    4          6

17         Suzanna Stargl              Croatia  11                     13.400  1          10

18         Ivana Struncova            Czech Rep.11                 6.060    6          5

19         Astrid Bloch                   Germany12                   2.290    2          10

20         Emma Pickering             England 12                     8.970    2          10