ENGLAND COME TENTH IN EUROPEAN CHAMPS
Our lads finish well behind hosts on Italy’s Bianco Canal
DRENNAN Team England’s quest to win European Champs gold came unstuck on a changeable Italian tidal river last week as the youthful squad could only finish tenth.
Home side Italy won, followed by Belgium and Hungary.
Fielding experienced Alan Scotthorne and William Raison plus young guns Matt Derry, Matt Godfrey, James Dent and Callum Dicks, England had a good week’s practice on the Bianco Canal near Venice. However, come the two match days, a different tide with stronger flows and the vanishing of the target skimmers saw plans scuppered.
Scoring 62.5 points on day one, they needed a spectacular result on the Sunday to pull back. Day two produced 53.5 points, sadly not enough to hoist them up the leader board.
Manager Mark Downes said: “What worked in practice just didn’t in the match. The venue changed after practice and from catching well with small skimmers in the week, we were faced with a canal that was flowing harder and those little fish didn’t feed. Our feeding wasn’t suited to catching anything bigger. We changed on day two, fishing positively, but the damage was already done.”
Top England scorers on day one were William Raison with five points and James Dent on 8.5, but a lowly 23 points for Matt Derry showed just how tough the canal had become.
Day two saw William record a third in section to finish eighth overall, Alan scoring a sixth in his zone.
“Weights were typically a quarter of what teams were catching in practice and I think that tells the story,” Mark continued. “I also think the high
scores from all teams over the weekend shows you how hard the fishing was. Belgium had a great 14-point score to win day one and then had 57 points on day two!
“I felt sorry for the young lads – it was a bit of an anticlimax – but they are the future for England and a tough match like this does them no harm at this stage – it tells them that England don’t have an automatic right to win a medal each time we fish, and they’re mature and experienced enough to take the knocks and come away better for it,” Mark explained.
“Next up is Belgium and the World Champs, and that should be a better match. There will be a lot of flat float fishing which the Eastern European sides are masters of but we’re equally comfortable fishing the tactic.”