World Champs
report from Belgium
DRENNAN Team England may have returned from this year’s World Championships without a gold medal, but second behind Belgium saw them retain their number one world ranking.
Two third places plus silver this time around see them confirmed as the most consistent match fishing nation in the world since the World Champs began.
Things could have been even better, as the side finished the weekend of action just three points behind host nation Belgians on the Ronquieres Canal.
However, manager Mark Downes acknowledged that a tactical slip-up on day one could have ruled the team out completely.
Scoring 11 points on day one, England sat three behind Belgium, day two seeing them tie with the champs on 10 points apiece. France won the day with eight points to take bronze, as they had a nightmare 10-point score in one section on the Saturday to leave them with too much to do.
Three section wins for Will Raison, Steve Hemingray and Alan Scotthorne saw England handily-placed. Day two produced a second in section for Will as he took fifth spot overall, and the same for Steve as he took ninth overall. There was a section win for Sean Ashby and a maximum for Des Shipp – impressive scores in what became a three horse race as fourth-placed team Switzerland ended the match a massive 24.5 points behind the French.
“It was a great performance from the lads. The French and Belgians picked anglers who live within 20 minutes of the canal and fish it regularly – effectively, they are venue experts!” Mark said.
“Winning gold is no longer an easy thing, even on venues such as this one that suit English fishing, so a silver cannot be sniffed at – and it returns us to number one in the world overall. However, we got things wrong on day one and I’m thankful we didn’t pay the full price.”
That blunder saw England feed a leam-based mix for roach, and as the results came in on day one it became apparent that it hadn’t worked. Belgium used more groundbait, and that saw an England tactical switch for day two that proved miles better.
“We got away with it really,” Mark added. “I think looking back that we could well have won it had we got it right from the start but that’s the way things go in World Championships. By feeding 70 per cent groundbait and 30 per cent leam we caught far more roach, and our scores on day two were better.”
England’s plan on the deep and wide canal revolved around catching small bullheads at 6m on small pieces of worm over groundbait and leam before moving out to the 11m line for roach with bloodworm. They also had a bream line
at 13m, although this proved unreliable, Will Raison catching four of these on day one and Sean Ashby taking the same number on day two. Other than the odd bream elsewhere in the match, that was all England saw of these bonus fish.
“Practice had been good because there were four or five big barges going through. These coloured the water. We expected the same on Saturday but not on Sunday, as the barges don’t work on that day,” Mark continued.
“On the face of it, this doesn’t sound like it would make much of a difference, but coloured water meant that the roach fed better and at shorter range too so we expected to catch shorter on Saturday, only to be told an hour into the match that no boats would be running.
“Even stranger was that the match started half-an-hour late due to a pegging error, but at two o’clock, when the match was supposed to finish, a barge motored through. Coincidence? I couldn’t possibly say!
“We knew Belgium would be hard to beat as they had those venue experts. Luc Thijs, who won individual gold, was one of them – he mixed the groundbait for the entire team but didn’t tell them what was in it!” revealed Mark.
“They knew the venue and got the mix right, so hats off to them. At the end of practice I was confident we would win a medal because no one was close to ourselves, Belgium and France. It ended up the three horse race that I thought it would be. Beating France was pleasing, though, because they also had their experts on the venue and were a dangerous team.”
Team result: 1 Belgium, 18pts (8 10); 2 Drennan Team England, 21 (11 10); 3 France, 24.5; 4 Switzerland, 49; 5 Poland, 51; 6 Italy, 56.5; 7 Hungary, 62; 8 Croatia, 63; 9 Netherlands, 66; 10 Finland, 72; 11 Czech Republic, 72.5; 12 Bulgaria, 78; 13 Slovakia, 82; 14 Russia, 84; 15 Serbia, 89; 16 Luxembourg, 92; 17 Spain, 92.5; 18 Austria, 94; 19 Tri-Cast Weston Team Wales, 97; 20 Belarus, 107 (17-948); 21 Lithuania, 107 (17-366); 22 Ukraine, 113 (19-403); 23 Portugal, 113 (17-320); 24 BosniaHerzegovina, 115; 25 Slovenia, 116.5; 26 Romania, 118 (19-947); 27 Sweden, 118 (17-457); 28 Germany, 123.5; 29 Ireland, 125; 30 Scotland, 138; 31 Norway, 138.5; 32 San Marino, 146; 33 Denmark, 151; 34 Cyprus, 154; 35 Macedonia, 155.5; 36 Channel Islands, 159; 37 South Africa, 160; 38 New Zealand, 178.
Individual result: 1 L Thijs, Belgium, 2pts (17-011); 2 S Linder, France, 2 (12-181); 3 G Duquesne, Belgium, 2 (11-577); 4 A Ferretti, Switzerland, 2 (11-081); 5 W Raison, Drennan Team England, 3 (15-652); 6 F Vanparijs, Belgium, 3 (11-780).