We should be very grateful to Tracy Thomas and James Evans for organising our meeting at Aldermaston, because the new venue provides all the facilities and space we need to function really effectively. This was so clearly demonstrated on Sunday, a day when it seemed the Carribean came to Berkshire and the air-conditioned club house was hard to leave! In fact it was by far the hottest casting day I have ever experienced and says much about the BFCC’s tenacity of purpose, that our programme was completed, but how, goodness only knows? The only downside was that the hot weather caused a depleted turn-out.

On the coaching front we were very lucky when Brian Wickens passed on his knowledge of double handed speycasting on grass, which was fascinating to see and for Members to try. Also, on the single handed front, I was kept fairly busy throughout the day.

The competitions started with Accuracy, which was won by Tracy Thomas with 95 points, who showed the men how it should be done! This was followed by other events, of which the following were worthy of special note: James Evans won the #5 distance using a new AtomSix rod built for us by Steve Parkes; David Fisher won the new B110 class with 4 inches more than Mick Copeman; Steve Parkes won the T120 with an excellent 189ft 7ins, considering the conditions.

There is no doubt we will return to Aldermaston in 2014 and it is now time to look forward to Alnwick on Sun. 11 August.

Mike M.

The weather was perfect….for sitting in a deckchair with an ice-cream!!  However the 30 degree heat, high humidity and very light puffs of wind from random directions made for very challenging conditions for distance fly-casting.

This event saw the introduction of the B110 category for those who have been promoted from the B100.

Distances are in feet and inches:

#5F – James Evans 115.10; Mick Copeman 99.03; David Fisher 94.10; Steve Parkes 93.03;
Tracy Thomas 91.11; Alan Bath 90.10; Tim Marks 87.09; Steve Davis 85.00; Wendy Bath 78.10; John Dunmall 73.06

#7F – James Evans 123.04; Steve Parkes 110.03; David Fisher 110.01; Tim Marks 108.01;
Mick Copeman 105.04; Tracy Thomas 99.09; Alan Bath 88.04; Wendy Bath 83.01; Steve Davis 81.07; John Dunmall 73.04

B100 (#5 + #7) – Steve Parkes 203.06; Tim Marks 195.10; Tracy Thomas 191.08; Alan Bath 179.02;
Steve Davis 166.07; Wendy Bath 161.11; John Dunmall 146.10

B110 (#5 + #7) – David Fisher 204.11; Mick Copeman 204.07

ST27 – James Evans 134.03; Tracy Thomas 119.10; Mick Copeman 114.11; Steve Parkes 104.09;
David Fisher 101.03; Steve Davis 99.11

T38 – James Evans 147.01; Steve Parkes 146.06; Mick Copeman 130.09; David Fisher 115.07; Tracy Thomas 114.06

T120 – Steve Parkes 189.07; James Evans 174.00; Tracy Thomas 129.03; David Fisher 114.03

Accuracy (Points) –  Tracy Thomas 95.00; Steve Parkes 80.00; James Evans 75.00; Tim Marks 40.00;
Steve Davis 30.00; Wendy Bath 25.00; John Dunmall 20.00; David Fisher 15.00