Rod ID help please.

[lureed]

Have recently purchased a rod (photos attached) but can find no info about it - wondered if anyone could throw some light on it. Its an 11ft "Avon"-style rod, with a detachable butt section making it a 3-section rod. There's a choice of two top sections, the lighter one giving an 11ft rod, the heavier a 10ft. The only info on the rod is the inscription (which appears to be hand-written) "Countrysports 11ft Specimen" and "1 1/4lb" It has an odd plastic band on the handle just above the reel fitting which I've not seen on any other rod and can't think what its there for!

 

[David Rogers 3]

There is (or was - their website appears to be no longer viable) a shop in Bedford called AB Countrysports - possibly a rod made up by them?

 

[sam vimes]

Looks to have a similar configuration to the older Daiwa Avon Specialist rods (Powermesh, Powermesh-X, V-Specialist etc). Is the are the joints spigoted? If they are, I'd wonder if it might be a custom based on a Daiwa blank.
Even if it's not, I'd have it down as a tackle shop custom rod. There was a time that many tackle shops put out their own rods based on blanks from various manufacturers.

 

[lureed]

David, yes I did see mention of AB Countrysports and they seemed to have had some sort of "own brand" rod range, but could find nothing that confirmed any link to my rod.

Sam, yes the joints are spigoted. I think you are probably right: a tackle shop custom job.

Thank you both for your thoughts.