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CARP Team England came within a whisker of winning the World Championship following a close-fought contest on Lake Sava, in Serbia.
The six-strong team of anglers led for much of the three-day contest at the tricky venue near Belgrade, but were pipped at the post by the Ukrainian and Croatian teams and eventually had to settle for third place on the podium.
As well as the team bronze, the pairing of Harry Charrington and Karl Pitcher also came third overall.
Blue skies and high daytime temperatures, combined with chilly nights and crystal-clear water conditions, meant that bites were hard to come by for all 27 teams taking part, with 17 nations failing to catch – including the pre-tournament ‘fancies’ Romania and Russia.
The competitors were split into three sections across the lake, with every nation having a pair fishing in each.
England took an early lead after Wayne Mansford and Ryan Need landed three quick fish, then the Ukrainian team took over after landing a huge fish of around 33lb.
After adding a couple more fish to their tally, England reclaimed top spot going into the final day, but the scoring system adopted for the contest meant that the capture of a fish by the Portuguese team at 3.15am on the final day relegated England into the bronze position.
Despite coming so close, team manager Rob Hughes was immensely proud of his charges.
He said: “Conditions were really tough and there simply weren’t enough fish to make heavy baiting a viable approach. It really was ‘scratching time’, with PVA bags and ‘singles’ tactics dominating. We were spodding out liquids to encourage the fish to feed, but without risking filling them up.
“We came so close, but the way the competition works it’s decided by a combined total over three sections, in a bid to award team consistency. It was immensely fair, and we have no complaints, but it’s agonising to come so close. There were only four teams who caught in more than one section, including ourselves.”
Despite his pride, Rob felt that it could have been a different story had the England team had the chance to visit the venue to
practise, as some of the other nations did.
He said: “We went over ‘blind’, with nobody having even seen the venue, never mind practise on it. It all comes down to funding, or the lack of it. It cost us around £8,000 to do the trip, and the limited coffers we have simply wouldn’t stretch to a recce trip beforehand, which is a shame.
“Without the funding shortfall, it might have been a different story.”