Press release from Kevin Webster of Whizzo

EVERY seasoned match organiser will agree with me when I say that we perform a thankless task. If it rains, we should have known, if teams drop out at the eleventh hour, we should have had extra teams waiting to fill their places, and strangely both of these things happened at our 2004 event.
A couple of weeks before the event two teams who had reserved places over 10 months ago dropped out without even an apology because parents could not provide the transport needed, and it did rain for an hour during the first half of the match…. though none of the competitors were aware of the downpour as the weeks of practising had rendered them so focused that only the call for “all out” would have warranted a response.

This year’s under 21’s teams of six consisted of:

Local side “Anglers Corner” Hull

Mercury Juniors (Sheffield)

Tameside Catch Nature

Team Liverpool

Sadjas Whizzo Gold (Stalybridge and District Junior Angling Society)

Sadjas Whizzo Black

Worksop Juniors

Team Yorkshire

8am registration was followed by the hum of team tactics and heated bait banter before the 8.45 draw. With sections selected and pegs picked the barrage of youths descended onto three of Risby’s four lakes. Sections A,B,C on the new Folly Lake, section D on the oldest, Tench Lake and sections E,F on the Specimen Carp Lake. For the Anglers that had put in some practise, D section was going to be rock hard and a bit of a spanner. E and F section in the Carp lake was an OK draw but everyone really wanted to be on the Folly lake, as it had produced the better weights and was rightly considered a far more suitable match venue. The all in signalled the start of five gruelling hours for all competing and attending. Old rivals Team Yorkshire and Sadjas Whizzo Gold were always favourites and had spent a lot of time on the bank practising. New comers Worksop have always had a great track record on the match circuit and must pose a threat, as would the local side Anglers Corner who had an obvious advantage. After an hour sections D,E,F were predictably struggling with one or two fish caught by most. The Folly lake started as it would finish and can only be described as speed fishing at its best. The next three hours passed pretty much as did the first hour did and the general consensus was that both Sadjas Whizzo Gold and Team Yorkshire had four or five good section places yet both had a weak link that needed strengthening in the last hour. Team managers, coaches and parents flooded onto the bank to watch the weigh-in as every ounce would make a difference. Section A saw a top weight of 86lb 8oz from Dave Moran SWG while TY took second with 54lb 8oz. Section B saw the lake record smashed as SWG James Howarth put an amazing 103lb on the scales with the nearest weight of 44lb 8oz credited to Worksop’s Gavin Tomlinson off the next peg. Section C got the crowd buzzing as young Jamie Banks on peg 1 weighed a tidy 44lb for third in his section from Liverpool’s Kevin Lavelle on 76lb 12oz (pictured below) and local star David Pulford on 59lb 14oz.

At the end of the Folly weigh SWG had 22pts, Yorkshire 16pts, Anglers Corner 15pts, Liverpool 14pts, Worksop 13pts, Tameside 13pts, SWB 12pts, Mercury 3pts.

Kevin Lavelle, Liverpool

Naturally everyone wanted to know what had happened on sections D,E,F!

By the time all the anglers were back at the café it was obvious that another close battle had been fought. Sections D saw SWG score a win with TY in fifth place then section E pulled Yorkshire back with a win from Mark Ruddock closely followed by SWG in second. F saw Yorkshire in fourth and SWG in seventh place. All the results were fed into the match computer and the final tally revealed:

Ivan Marks with the winning team, Sadjas Whizzo.

Sadjas Whizzo Gold 39 pts (total weight 298lb 13oz)

Team Yorkshire 33 pts (total weight 178lb 4oz)

Sadjas Whizzo Black 31 pts (total weight 160lb)

Liverpool 30 pts (total weight 173lb 10oz)

Anglers Corner 27 pts (total weight 161lb 2oz)

Worksop 26 pts (total weight 139lb 10oz)

Tameside Catch Nature 24 pts (total weight 132lb 14oz)

Mercury Juniors 5 pts Total weight 53lb 15oz)

Individual Top 5

1st James Howarth..SADJAS Whizzo Gold 103lb

2nd Dave Moran..SADJAS Whizzo Gold 86lb 6oz

3rd Kevin Lavelle..Liverpool 76lb 12oz

4th David Pulford..Anglers Corner Hull 59lb 14oz

5th Phil Ruddock..Team Yorkshire 54lb 8oz

Sadjas Whizzo Gold once again held onto their crown and proved what dedication and encouragement can get you. They are a credit to the sport and to their coaches who have always given 100%.

Team Yorkshire is a tremendously talented team of individuals who on the day got beaten in some respects by the draw as SWG had the end peg advantage and used it well.

Sadjas Whizzo Black are obviously following in their team mates footsteps and gained a lot from team talks and their more experienced peers.

Liverpool where always there in the frame and an extra fish would have produced a different result.

Anglers Corner, a new team with a lot to gain from team fishing which has been very poorly represented in the area for over a decade…maybe this will change now with the new talent that we saw on display.

Worksop came into the competition late and hadn’t seen the place before…something tells me that next year will be a different story.

Catch Nature held their own and was a young team cutting their teeth on the more experienced match circuit and produced a couple of excellent section results.

Credit to Mercury Juniors, they came not knowing what to expect. Knowing the venue as I do their end peg draw was definitely a disadvantage yet they still managed an average of just short of nine pound per angler.

The day finished with a splash as fellow team mates gave James Howarth an early bath for setting a new 5 hour lake record with his tremendous 103lb. Angling legend Ivan Marks presented the prizes and trophies to all the winners and reigning UK 5 hour match record holder Steve Gregory dished out the bait prizes.

Another great competition came to a close with everyone going home feeling well pleased with themselves. Special thanks go to the event sponsors:

Whizzo Groundbaits

Miracle baits

Anchor Tackle

Sheffield Angling Star

Risby Park Fisheries and the Clappison family

Master of ceremonies Chris Durrant for his PA performance

Chis’s son Thomas for bank running, and wife Susan for her computer skills and for producing everyone a full breakdown of the day’s results.

Senior Steward Neil Rogerson and all the stewards, team coaches and scales men who made the day flow faultlessly.

Next year’s date will go on the Risby web site at www.risby-park.co.uk very soon.

Under 16’s Classic

Orchard Pond

Risby Park Fisheries

Saturday 31st July

This was intended as an open competition for any local and visiting anglers who travelled with the teams. Places filled up quickly for this event and the final turnout was eighteen keen youngsters eager to catch. Everyone started the day with ten pounds worth of bait from Miracle Baits and the challenge was on to win one of the three trophies at stake. The “all in” saw a varied display of angling skill and everyone was enjoying themselves. Four hours later the talk was of lumps being lost and questions of when the next match might be!

The final result was Nathan Arrowsmith (Tameside – pictured below) 11lb 4oz closely followed by Mike Scott (Worksop) 10lb 10oz and in third place Brett Northage (Worksop) 5lb 12oz.

Nathan Arrowsmith, Tameside