News

Superteam's glory on Midlands canal.
Shakespeare Superteam have won the Angling Trust Division One National Championship on the Burton and Rugeley stretches of the Trent & Mersey Canal.

The event - which is the largest annual match fished in the UK - was contested by 56 teams of ten. Shakespeare's captain, Darren Massey was delighted with the result, and commented:

"To win off the draw that we had - that included five pegs that we thought would be really bad - was a great achievement. Where we were perhaps a little bit more fortunate than a lot of other teams is that a lot of our squad fish the venue regularly, so we had a good idea of what to expect.

The team plan was to fish two chopped worm and caster lines- one at the bottom of the nearside slope down our peg, and the other at the base of the far slope. We also planned a squatt and groundbait swim across the far side of the canal, where we hoped to catch roach once we ran out of bites on our chopped worm lines. As expected, the roach fishing was quite patchy, and it was chunky perch on our chopped worm lines that accounted for the bulk of our fish. Stand out performers for me were Tony Barker, who did brilliantly to come well up in his section from a terrible draw, and Jason Cunningham, who finished joint second overall on the match with four kilos."

In the individual stakes,it was Simon Fields of Barnsley & District who took the honours, with a 4 kilos 010g net. Drawn on peg 56 in C section at Rugeley, Simon caught a handful of roach on squatt fished over groundbait, and several good perch on chopped worm and caster.

The top ten teams in the competition qualify to compete in the Preston Innovations World Club Classic, which takes place on the Great Ouse at the end of the month. The winning team from that competition go on to represent England in the World Club Championship, with £7,000 worth of backing, courtesy of the sponsors.

The bottom ten teams face relegation into Division Two.

Result:

Teams:
1 Shakespeare Superteam 442
2 Maver Image 429
3 Daiwa Dorking 416
4 Maver Northwest 408
5 Tri Cast Calder 396
6 Ted Carter Southport 394
7 Browning Hotrods 386
8 Wellingborough Nene 381
9 Sensas Oakwood 370
10 Hull Works Sports AAS 366

Individuals:
1 Simon Fields (Barnsley & District) 4.010kg
2 Matt Derry (Kamasan Starlets) 4.00kg
  Jason Cunningham (Shakespeare Superteam) 4.00kg
4 Liam Darler (Browning Hotrods) 3.800kg
5 Dave Denton (Ted Carter Preston) 3.680kg
6 Dan Hurst (Garbolino RAF) 3.400kg

Relegated To Division Two:
47 Dunlop Worksop DAA 203
48 Winterton AC 202
49 Stoutshill AC 190
50 Tubertini Ludlow 186
51 Colin Barlow AC Sale 186
52 Yarm Angling Ltd 186
53 Scunthorpe & District 182
54 Slaithwaite AC 172
55 Matlock AC 162
56 Apollo Godalming 115