European Championship – Team Ireland

 Team Ireland Manager gives us a run down on the recent performance at the European Championship.

On two challenging and changeable venues, impacted by very non-Irish, followed by typical Irish weather, and at a time of year when the fish are otherwise engaged, our 8th place finish was respectable, but ultimately disappointing on a home championships.

We began practice sessions a number of months ago, once the venues were confirmed, but were hampered by conditions, so really only learned depths and the general lie of the land so to speak – very little could be gleaned in terms of tactics, as we knew the venues would change come the championship week.

However, having selected a team based on those sessions, confidence was high that we could achieve a good result.

Practice week went well and we had a favourable rotation, meaning we spent the first two days on Gowna, and the next three on Eonish, by which team we’d see how it was behaving based on feed going in. We caught reasonably well in all sections, even the difficult A section, so we knew, with a favourable draw, there was no reason why we shouldn’t be thinking of getting on the podium.

Day 1 went well enough, with us coming in 6th – Italy put in a fantastic performance to give themselves an almost unassailable lead, with England not too far behind – third place was still within range for a host of teams though, including ourselves, so we remained very positive going into day 2.

Unfortunately we struggled in three of the five sections, meaning the dream was dashed, but still finished a respectable 8th position against 15 of the best teams in the world.

On a personal note I drew the dreaded A section on day 1 – the positive being I was on the very end peg, A1, which may give some advantage, but, as we learned through the week, it’s the shallowest part of the whole length and the ideal draw was at the opposite end in deeper water – and so it proved with me catching 9 small fish for 8th place in the section.

Day 2 was really enjoyable – I was on C section, again on Eonish, and this turned out to be probably the fairest section in the match. I caught steadily throughout to end up with just under 4kgs and 3rd place, beaten narrowly by a certain Will Raison and, with the aid of a lovely tench, the now European Champion, Johannes Bohm (well done!) Congratulations to Italy, England, and Germany for filling the podium both from a team and individual perspective.

Thanks to the NCFFI for their support and organisation of the event, along with Cavan County Council and Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Huge thanks also to our sponsors – Tubertini UK Ltd, Van Den Eyne Ireland and Irish Bat & Tackle Ltd. – we used a number of mixes depending on the venue/section that were based around the old favourites; Turbo, Supercup, Special, Supercrack Roach, Damp Leam and Heavy Damp Leam (TDF). Added to this was the best brown crumb kindly provided by Nigel Holdsworth at Gowna Groundbait.

Finally, a massive thank you to a very dedicated team who worked tirelessly and selflessly to try and bring home a medal: Dean Murray, Jamie Murray, Phil Hartin and Julian Kendrick, alongside our supporting team of Vincent Walsh, Phil Walton, Dara Finnegan and Grant Peters.

Onto the World Championships now in Portugal – unfortunately I can’t fish this year due to work commitments, but the team will travel in good spirits knowing they can compete with the very best.