Oh perfidious weather. Nice to be out in, not so good for casting. At least we were finished before the rain came. It was great to welcome Mike Marshall to  the only event he could come to this year. He seamlessly dropped back into the instructing which allowed me, for the first time this year, to concentrate more  on the competition with only the odd spell of instructing thrown in.

There was hardly a breeze and what there was couldn’t make up its mind which way it wanted to blow, plus, the air was heavy, so not the best conditions. It did make for some pretty close competition however. James 168′ in the T120 would normally be pretty average, well under par compared to his normal distances, the same for his 150′ in the T38, but in the conditions were winning casts. Tracy nearly blew us all away and came second only 7′ behind James but ahead of me, so we are going to make her an honorary man from now on.

After a bit of a break we came out to find a very slightly stronger breeze and after some discussion moved the tapes around to what we thought would be a more favourable direction, if slightly up hill, but sods law said that the moment we started casting again the breeze decided to swing this way and that and was no help to anyone. I dismissed my 104′ in the #5 as not in contention and was hugely surprised to find it the winning cast, Kei Okamoto, Alex Titov and John Reynolds not quite being able stick one a bit further. Again it was close in the #7 with James pipping Alex by 8”, 107.08” to 107′ with John only a couple of feet behind. John had a relatively easy win in the 27g, his 123′ outpaced James and I by some margin.

To end the competition we gave a first outing to our new accuracy event run to the same rules as the World Championships, four targets, three rounds with variable points depending on where you hit. A total of 60 points up for grabs. Once more it was close with John Reynolds on 42 and Mark and I tying for second with 40 each.

Overall winner on the day was Mr consistent, James Evans, a worthy champion.

Special thanks to Steve from Shenfield CC for providing is with a continuous supply of coffee, tea and sandwiches. Much appreciated by everyone.

So there you have it, nothing outstanding but some close completion which made for a nice relaxed meeting. Coupled with Mike Marshall and Mark Surtees doing their usual sterling work giving instruction and everyone chipping in to help out it was a very nice end to the 2014 season.

MikeH

The first two rounds (the T38 and T120 events) saw the casters competing in still, very dense air.  Over lunch a slight breeze picked up which prompted a change in the casting lane direction.  Unfortunately as soon as casting re-started the wind swung almost through 180 degrees leaving casters coping with, at best, a head wind but in some cases a head wind blowing in to their right shoulder.  This obviously seriously effected the distances recorded for the #5, #7 and ST27g events.

All distances are in feet and inches:

#5F – Mike Heritage 104.08; Kei Okamoto 99.03; Alex Titov 98.09; John Reynolds 98.00; Mick Copeman 96.10; James Evans 92.06; Gilliaum Vermeulen 90.08; Brian Szukala 89.09; David Fisher 86.07; Alan Bath 81.10; Tracy Thomas 80.08; Dan Shillabeer 80.03; John Dunmall 71.07; Nicholas Surtees 43.06

#7F – James Evans 107.08; Alex Titov 107.00; John Reynolds 105.02; Mike Heritage 104.00; Mick Copeman 100.00; Kei Okamoto 95.02; Brian Szukala 92.03;  Tracy Thomas 92.00; Alan Bath 89.07; David Fisher 87.07; Dan Shillabeer 85.07; Gilliaum Vermeulen 85.00; John Dunmall 70.08; Peter Lovett 43.02

B100 (#5F + #7F) – Gilliaum Vermeulen 175.08; Dan Shillabeer 165.10; John Dunmall 142.03

B110 (#5F + 7F) – Mick Copeman 196.10; Brian Szukala 182.00; David Fisher 174.02; Tracy Thomas 172.08; Alan Bath 171.05

Sea Trout 27g – John Reynolds 123.01; James Evans 110.10; Mike Heritage 110.02; Kei Okamoto 107.04; Gilliaum Vermeulen 105.02; Tracy Thomas 100.08; David Fisher 94.04; Mick Copeman 92.00; Brian Szukala 89.05; Dan Shillabeer 86.10; John Dunmall 85.07

T38 – James Evans 150.03; John Reynolds 146.03; Mike Heritage 142.03; Mick Copeman 126.07; Kei Okamoto 125.09; Alex Titov 117.09; Tracy Thomas 111.08; Brian Szukala 107.03; David Fisher 101.05

T120 – James Evans 168.05; Tracy Thomas 161.00; Mike Heritage 160.01; Alex Titov 152.05; Brian Szukala 148.06; John Reynolds 143.10; Kei Okamoto 140.10; David Fisher 120.04

Accuracy (points) – John Reynolds 42; Mike Heritage 40; Mark Surtees 40; James Evans 34; Brian Szukala 33; Kei Okamoto 32; Alex Titov 30; Gilliaum Vermeulen 20; Tracy Thomas 19; John Dunmall 18; Dan Shillabeer 8

Overall Position (points) – James Evans 15; Mike Heritage 16; John Reynolds 17; Kei Okamoto 30; Alex Titov 34; Brian Szukala 42; Mike Copeman 43; Tracy Thomas 43; Gilliaum Vermeulen 51; David Fisher 55; Dan Shillabeer 63; John Dunmall 66