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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010 REPORT

This year’s World Championships, held on the River Guadiana, Merida, Spain, has been an eventful weekend for Shimano Team Wales. The event is fished over two days - Saturday and Sunday, with plenty of days to practice on this year's venue - a huge 200m-wide river - the week before.

The target species were carp, carassio (similar to F1s), small catfish and bleak. The methods used were long pole and slider (and whip for bleak).

The river itself is was slow moving but depths varied enormously between pegs, meaning that a draw on a deeper peg was crucial to an angler's success.

The team, managed by Eric Humphreys, was Lee Edwards, Darren Frost, Ian Hughes, Andy Johnstone, Nigel Evans and Andy Amos. After 8 days practice, 3 days off the venue followed by the 5 official practice days, the team was confident in its approach having caught well throughout. With 2 weeks away, and significant costs, the team is very grateful to the support provided by their sponsor - Shimano.

After the 1st day, Wales were in 4th place with Ian Hughes on a Section win! The team was buoyant and hopes of a medal were high. Unfortunately, a series of poor draws and some lost carp saw the Team manage only 13th place on Day 2. More disappointment came as Ian Hughes scored a very creditable 4th place in section but finished in 7th place overall - still a magnificent performance but agonizingly close to an individual medal! The team finished the World Championships in 6th place from the 32 competing nations. A great result but tinged with disappointment from a team who have now finished in the top 6 in 3 of the last 4 World Championships but not yet gained a medal.

The team result is given below. Ian Hughes is pictured with both his day 1 and day 2 catches. The Team now look forward to the Celtic Cup to be held at Bron Eifion, Criccieth during the weekend of 31 July and 1 August, before the European Championships to be held on the Rio Sorraia, Coruche, Portugal over 4-5 September.

2010 World Championship Team Result

1. England

2. Italy

3. Netherlands

4. Ireland

5. Scotland

6. Wales

7. Hungary

8. Finland

9. Germany

10. Poland

11. Serbia

12. Sweden

13. France

14. Luxembourg

15. Czech Republic

16. Belgium

17. San Marino

18. Switzerland

19. Slovenia

20. Portugal

21. Austria

22. Croatia

23. Spain

24. Russia

25. Channel Islands

26. Romania

27. Slovakia

28. Bulgaria

29. Denmark

30. Bosnia & Herzegovina

31. South Africa

32. Montenegro

CELTIC CUP - REPORT

The Juniors Celtic Cup was fished out at Bron Eifion over the weekend of the 31st of July. The select eight for the match were, Jonathan Cooper, Cwm Celyn (A Section), Rhys Edwards, Holyhead (B section) Matthew Powell, Buckley AA (C section) James Clay Evans, Holyhead (D section) Ryan Wilcock, Buckley AA (E section) Matty Dawes, Airbus (F section) Ryan Hughes, unattached (G section) and Liam Parry, Airbus (H section).

Saturday turned out a bit of a nightmare with very little learnt on the day. The fish weren't feeding and a game plan could not be put together... A chat after the practice and with the Scottish crew left us feeling more positive as we had beaten Scotland on weight in the practice in at least 4 sections, however, not enough for a positive win.

Sunday came and it was decided that we were going to stick with our game plan and fish worm and black shallow, however, were going to introduce a small amount of groundbait into it, just to kick-start the fish feeding. This seemed to work well as Wales were well ahead after the first hour, easily winning six sections...as the match progressed it was clear that Jonathan Cooper of Cwm Celyn was not going to be caught and had built up a clear advantage over his section mate, Scott McCauley and in fact the rest of the field. The other sections remained tight; however, Wales were confident of three sections on the dam.

The final analysis however saw Wales win all four sections on the Dam with wins for Jonathan Cooper, Rhys Edwards, Matthew Powell and James Clay Evans. Wales' fifth section and a Celtic Cup win came from Matty Dawes, picking up his first home international cap and a section win off F section.

the final score was Wales 5 sections to Scotland's 3 sections, with Wales retaining the Celtic Cup.

WALES CELTIC CUP WINNING TEAM

IAN HUGHES WITH HIS DAY ONE SECTION WINNING CATCH

CELTIC CUP 2010 – SENIOR TEAM

Shimano Team Wales (Seniors) have regained the Celtic Cup on home soil. The important event, primarily used to blood potential full internationals and to give others greater experience at this level, saw Wales, Scotland and Ireland arrive at the Bron Eiffon fishery on 27 July 2010. A couple of practise days revealed that the normally prolific venue was being affected by the prevailing conditions and it was apparent that the venue would be technically demanding. It was clear that, as ever, feeding would be key. Tactics covered the use of caster, worm, maggot, hemp and corn in varying amounts and varying levels. F1 carp were the main quarry but silvers and ‘proper’ carp would also play a significant part.

The 7-man Welsh team comprised 3 of the recent world team (Lee Edwards, Ian Hughes and Nigel Evans) plus Ben Roberts, Shaun Sandham, Jimmy Price and Martin Churchill.

Wales won the first day with Martin Churchill winning with 63lb and Shaun Sandham coming second overall with 53lb. The team gained 5 section wins, one 2nd and one 3rd placing to score 10 points and lead by 2 points from Scotland. The Scottish team included 5 anglers form their recent World Championship team! Ireland recorded 20 points.

Day 2 saw Ireland improve; to be fair they had travelled with a development team with little previous international experience. As the weights were recorded it became clear that Wales had also won Day 2 (by a single point from Scotland) and regained the Celtic Cup! On Day 2 Wales scored 12 points with Martin Churchill again returning the highest weight (58lb). Scotland were second with 13 points and Ireland scored 17 points.

The overall result was:

1st Wales 22 points
2nd Scotland 25 Points
3rd Ireland 37 Points

While there is no official individual event within the Celtic Cup, Martin Churchill’s very impressive performances, with 2 match wins and a total of 2 points, saw him as the best individual with ever-consistent Lee Edwards 2nd with another perfect score of 2 points but a lower aggregate weight.

However, the Welsh National Manger Eric Humphreys was full of praise for the whole team and was especially pleased with performances from some of the poor pegs which were just as important in ensuring Team Wales won the event. This was just the boost the team needed after their impressive (yet frustrating) result in the recent World Championships where they finished 6th (with Scotland 4th and Ireland 5th). They now look forward to the European Championships in Portugal in September!

Finally, thanks to the Kevin Owen at Bron Eiffon fishery who hosted the event and provided the banquet at no cost and to Henry Jones (local builder, Criccieth) who very kindly sponsored the Team’s clothing and trophies for the event. Also thanks to Shimano for their continuing generous team sponsorship.

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

We travel to Portugal over the period 25-28 August (some by van with kit and some will fly) for the European Championships which take place over 4-5 Sep 10 on the Rio Sorraia in Coruche.

The team competing is:

Andy Johnstone
Darren Frost
Lee Edwards
Ben Roberts
Nigel Evans
Andy Amos

We will be looking to consolidate our recent very creditable performance in the World Championships - hopefully even better!