Oh what a perfect day. Lovely weather, lovely people. What more could you ask for?

Now I don’t compete with the same level of intensity I did a year or two ago and I am more focused on the instruction part of the meeting I get a slightly different perspective on how the day goes. In fact it’s pretty much switched 180deg as I now see far less of the competition and a lot more of the people who come for the instruction and have a far greater appreciation for what they get out of the day. We can make a huge difference in many cases. For instance we had two guys, Phil Stott and Raj Boojawon, who would have struggled to hit forty or fifty feet in the morning and by the end of the day were double hauling like pros and getting their 25yd badges. Huge smiles all round, not least on the face of Mark Surtees who has to take the lions share of the credit for getting them there. Other successes include Paul Ainsworth who did the treble and achieved his 25, 30 and 35yd badges and Richard Jaques  his 30yrd badge and Nigel Conlon who achieved his 50yd badge with the T120 during competition. Absolutely well done guys.

It was a very well attended meeting so I won’t be able to mention everyone but congratulations to James Evans for winning the #5, #7, ST27 and T120 events with some really nice casts that saw him the over all winner on the day. John Reynolds popped out a good cast on the T38 to take first place and then finished with a flourish to win the accuracy event. Steve Parkes is still suffering from tennis elbow but managed to throw some very respectable casts, even I managed to come second in one or two.

Not forgetting the Ladies, well done Tracy for extending her T120 record to 163′ 7”.

Many thanks to everyone for helping out during the day, we really do appreciate it, the meetings would be very difficult to run without your help.

Finally, a big thank you to the rugby club  for being such great hosts.

See you all next year,

Mike H

The weather was mostly sunny with the temperature reaching 20 deg C.  The wind was light and blowing from the north although there were spells when it dropped to nothing.  In the morning session the T38 and T120 outfits were cast, leaving the #5, #7, ST27 and accuracy for the afternoon.

All distances are in feet and inches:

#5F – James Evans 122.05; Steve Parkes 118.10; Mike Heritage 115.00 ; John Reynolds 109.09; David Fisher 97.05; Tracy Thomas 96.10; Mike Lonsdale 94.00; Alan Bath 91.07; Pat Stevens 90.05; Paul Ainsworth 90.04; Richard Jaques 84.04; Dylan Roberts 83.02; Nigel Conlon 80.09; Jon Vautier 79.11; John Forbes 76.07

#7F – James Evans 130.08; Steve Parkes 129.00; Mike Heritage 122.06; John Reynolds 120.08; David Fisher 111.01; Paul Ainsworth 103.00; Tracy Thomas 101.07; Alan Bath 96.06; Pat Stevens 95.07; Richard Jaques 94.00; Dylan Roberts 93.03; Mike Lonsdale 84.07; Jon Vautier 79.09; Nigel Conlon 79.07; John Forbes 74.00

B100 (#5 + #7) –  Paul Ainsworth 193.04; Pat Stevens 186.00; Mike Lonsdale 178.07; Richard Jaques 178.04; Dylan Roberts 176.05; Nigel Conlon 160.04; Jon Vautier 159.08; John Forbes 150.07

B110 (#5 + #7) – David Fisher 208.06; Tracy Thomas 198.05; Alan Bath 188.01

ST27 – James Evans 143.04; Mike Heritage 135.03; Steve Parkes 134.07; John Reynolds 133.04; Paul Ainsworth 129.07; Tracy Thomas 114.11; Dylan Roberts 106.07; David Fisher 98.06; Nigel Conlon 88.05; Pat Stevens 77.04; Mike Lonsdale 77.02

T38 – John Reynolds 172.10; Mike Heritage 150.06; James Evans 146.08; Steve Parkes 128.09; Tracy Thomas 125.00; David Fisher 112.06; Nigel Conlon 110.04

T120 – James Evans 202.00; Steve Parkes 199.11; John Reynolds 165.11; Tracy Thomas 163.07; Nigel Conlon 153.09; David Fisher 132.06

Accuracy (points) – John Reynolds 47; Mike Heritage 39; Steve Parkes 27; Pat Stevens 27; Tracy Thomas 25; James Evans 24; Phil Stott 24; Richard Jaques 23; Mark Surtees 23; Jon Vautier 20;
David Fisher 14; Paul Ainsworth 11; Mike Lonsdale 11; Nigel Conlon 8; Dylan Roberts 7

Overall (points) – James Evans 13; Steve Parkes 16; John Reynolds 17; Mike Heritage 19; Tracy Thomas 33; David Fisher 41; Pat Stevens 46; Paul Ainsworth 48; Richard Jaques 56; Mike Lonsdale 57; Alan Bath 59; Dylan Roberts 60; Nigel Conlon 62; Jon Vautier 64; Phil Stott 65; Mark Surtees 67; John Forbes 73

Records – Tracy Thomas extended her women’s T120 best.

Badges – Paul Ainsworth collected 25, 30 and 35yd badges the latter being with a #7 weight outfit.

Richard Jaques achieved his 30yd badge with the #7

Phil Stott and Raj Boojawon gained their 25yd badges also with a #7

Nigel Conlon took a 50yd badge with his cast in the T120 competetion

Many congratulations to all!

I did try to count how many were on the field but for some reason I never did do it so I can only estimate that there were about twenty of us scattered over Willesborough Cricket Club’s field, all apparently having a good time. We were blessed with near perfect weather, nice and sunny in the morning and a bit of cloud building in the afternoon with a breeze which came and went but for a change stayed in pretty much one direction. I would like to thank John Reynolds and Trev Hayman for driving quite some distance to help out with the coaching and it was nice to see big Trev Bourne and Lee Martell again after a bit of an absence from our meetings. James, Tracy and David took control of the competition and it rolled along smoothly. The heavy stuff was cast first and I took those who didn’t want to cast tournament gear off to do a little tips and tricks workshop on distance casting which then merged seamlessly into general instruction. We had ‘one of those days’ when we saw improvement from everyone John, Trev and I gave instruction to Ken Pierce double hauling, David Shiell smoothing everything out, Dan Shillabeer  learning to self diagnose and fix his faults, not that he has many, Mick Copeman warming up for his assault on the V70 records and, the cherry on the top was 13 year old Tom Marchant who claims to have been fishing only four times but improving so much during the day he qualified for a 30yd badge. Roger Simeon, also 13, improved both the junior ST27 and the junior seven weight records and in doing so qualified for his 35yd badge. Both these young men are going to be serious competition for some of the more senior members soon.

In the competition Trevor Bourne hit a stonking 217′ to win the T120, God knows what he could achieve if he even bothered to practice. James Evans put one over the 200 as well with Steve Parkes and John Reynolds not too far behind.

In the T38 JR pulled one out of the hat and hit 180′, not bad for someone held together with string and sticky tape.

The ST 27 was won by James with a very creditable 147′.

The #7 was won, just, by me just managing to pip Mick Copeman on the post.

The #5 was won by Steve Parkes with a nice 115′ cast.

Again, not a day when everything flew off the rod tip but some very nice casts despite that.

During the presentations I was surprised to find Mick Copeman had improved the V70 #5 #7  and T38 records. Not surprised he hit records, surprised he was V70, well done Mick. There are more to come I am sure.

Roger’s records I have already mentioned, super well done on those.

Dan Shillabeer is what the BFCC is all about, mad keen on casting and actually practices so very well done on your 30yd badge Dan.

And, I have just noticed JR qualified for S60 records, welcome to the club mate. Nice cast though.

I would like to thank everyone for all joining in and helping out, those of us running the event really do appreciate it.

A big thank you to Bobby Ades and WCC for being fantastic hosts and providing some of the best tea, coffee and rolls on the circuit.