Fishing against the best in the world, Preston Innovations-backed England entered two teams of five anglers – an A and a B team – to compete in the precursor to the main event taking place this July. Made up of some of the best feeder anglers in the country, including Steve Ringer, Darren Cox, Mick Vials, Dean Barlow and Phil Ringer in the A team and Kieron Rich, Adam Wakelin, Rob Wootton, Adam Rooney and Match Fishing's own Alex Bones in the B team, all of the England anglers involved impressed. And with the venue for the weekend being the very same that will also host the World Feeder Championship competition in the summer - the Water Sport Centre at Ghent in Belgium - this will be seen as a hugely positive sign of much bigger things to come on the international stage.
“Every single one of the England lads did a brilliant job over the weekend and I was very happy with the performance, everyone was very tidy,” England feeder squad coach Glen Lawrence told MF. “The aim of the competition for us was team building and to give the younger lads some international experience. In fact B team blitzed it on the first day, and were unlucky not to take the gold spot, which was great to see.
“Individually Steve Ringer was unbelievable, the bream seem to just follow him around,” continued Glen. “It was very cold over in Belgium at the weekend, so we’re not yet thinking about tactics for the World Champs. We’re back out there again in June though, when the warmer conditions should give us more of a steer as to what the team tactics will be. Overall though, it’s a great start to the England campaign.”
Overall Results Individual Top 10
1 Steve Ringer, England A, 27.928kg, 3 points
2 Adam Wakelin, England B, 22.390kg, 4 points
3 Keiron Rich, England B, 17.191kg, 4 points
4 Kris Huybrechts, Belgium, 14.053kg, 4 points
5 Darren Cox, England A, 17.881kg, 5 points
6 Marco Hofman, Netherlands, 20.965kg, 6 points
7 Peter Van De Willik, Netherlands, 13.517kg, 6 points
8 Michael Mayer, Germany, 10.964kg, 7 points
9 Alex Bones, England B, 11.246, 8 points
10 Jurian Bulten, Netherlands, 29.597, 9 points
Rest of England Squad
11 Dean Barlow, England A
18 Mick Vials, England A
25 Phil Ringer, England A
32 Rob Wootton, England B
36 Adam Rooney, England B
England B team impressed, pushing for the top spot over the two days.
