Full report
“Russia would have won off any draw,” claims manager
ALLYING 36 points across a weekend of action on Italy’s Ostellato Canal, Tommy Pickering’s Preston Innovations England side ended up taking bronze in the World Feeder Championships.
Russia took gold with an unassailable 21 points after a strong day one performance.
England couldn’t catch any bigger bream on day two, fish that would have secured a few extra points and given them a great shout at silver. Boss Tommy Pickering pointed to how other teams cottoned on to England’s day one approach, negating any edge they had.
“If you’d have given me 14 points before the match started on Saturday I’d have had your hand off. That was a great score and put us in a really strong position,” Tommy said.
“Come Sunday, though, the middle of the canal line that we’d had to ourselves on day one was being fished by everyone. That, and a lack of big bream to catch, added up to us just dipping out.”
Bream and skimmers dominated on the canal near Venice and Tommy, aided by new coach Dean Barlow and a host of backroom staff, fielded the same five anglers for both days – Steve and Phil Ringer, Mick Vials, Adam Wakelin and debutant Lee Kerry. Section seconds from Steve, Phil and Adam, a third from Lee and a fifth from Mick left them five points off Russia after day one.
“The first half of practice was brilliant. We caught lots of fish but the bream didn’t like the hammer and became harder to catch, so much so that by Friday we’d changed a lot of our plans and seen a line that the Hungarians were catching on,” Tommy revealed.
“Friday’s practice day was really good. We felt we’d got it sorted, and had a brilliant first hour on Saturday. However, Russia’s nine points was remarkable. If they fished that well on day two, silver was the best we could really hope for.”
England’s plan revolved around two open-end feeder lines at 42m down the middle and shorter at 15m. The shorter line was used as somewhere to go and nick a few skimmers while giving the longer line some time to settle.
All that went into the feeder was a little chopped worm, as joker encouraged small zander into the swim. Top hookbait was single maggot on a size 16 and a 50cm hooklink.
“If we had a fault on day two it was not being patient enough and waiting,” Tommy continued.
“By then every man and his dog had cottoned on to the line we’d fished the day before. Fishing further across was no better. It all came down to whether you could nick a few better bream to get you a few more points. We couldn’t, Germany and the Netherlands did, and that stole a handful of points off us.”
Steve Ringer won his section to finish on three points for fifth spot overall. Lee Kerry bagged second in section for a five-point score, while Mick Vials took fourth, Phil Ringer seventh and Adam Wakelin eighth to see
England in fifth spot on the day.
“Sometimes on World Champs the venue can beat you but this canal was very fair and it was a tactical match, not a peggy one and I think that Russia would have won off any draw,” said Tommy.
“If we’d have won silver than I’d be very happy with that but bronze leaves us a little disappointed. The team were brilliant as ever though and Lee Kerry making his debut fitted in perfectly while Steve Ringer was outstanding again with fifth individually.”
“The 2019 event is in February in South Africa. We’ve fished here before and can’t wait to put things right,” Tommy concluded. 7 France, 58; 8 Latvia, 62; 9 Czech Republic, 66; 10 Ukraine, 73; 11 Belarus, 75; 12 Austria, 76 (33-078); 13 Ireland, 76 (25-125); 14 South Africa, 79; 15 Georgia, 83; 16 San Marino, 85; 17 Serbia, 88; 18 Italy, 91; 19 Lithuania, 92; 20 Spain, 94; 21 Bulgaria, 95; 22 Slovakia, 104; 23 Denmark, 105; 24 Estonia, 111; 25 Romania, 112; 26 Moldova, 113; 27 Sweden, 122; 28 Portugal, 124; 29 Croatia, 129.
Individual result: 1 F Scheuermann, Germany, 2pts (21-958); 2 A Arutiunov, Russia, 2 (20-517); 3 A Dunaev, Russia, 2 (15-090); 4 M Sivak, Hungary, 3 (18-850); 5 S Ringer, Preston Innovations England, 3 (16-170); 6 K Lisovskis, Latvia, 3 (13-136).