The old "All England Championship" match

[flightliner]

Was the premier match of match fishing until the format/way it was run changed sometime in the early seventies .
From then on it went divisional with a points system.
before the change it was previewed well in advance by the angling press and the results could cover several pages along with the centre pages to boot.
Many match anglers never accepted the changes and it lost its glamour and prestige to the point that these days the results barely warrant a look.

For years after the change I still used to look for the team that had accrued the highest total weight ignoring the "winning team" often thinking ---- oh look,would you believe it Rotherham have won it again!!!:wh

 

[nicepix]

Was the premier match of match fishing until the format/way it was run changed sometime in the early seventies .
From then on it went divisional with a points system.
before the change it was previewed well in advance by the angling press and the results could cover several pages along with the centre pages to boot.
Many match anglers never accepted the changes and it lost its glamour and prestige to the point that these days the results barely warrant a look.

For years after the change I still used to look for the team that had accrued the highest total weight ignoring the "winning team" often thinking ---- oh look,would you believe it Rotherham have won it again!!!:wh

Yes I remember it well. That belongs to the era of the football pools and when everything stopped for the Grand National. Little WMC clubs could rub shoulders for the day with the likes of Leicester , Birmingham, Coventry and Leeds.

I think it was a shame when they changed the format to a continental system. The out and out big (bream usually) baggers couldn't cope against the likes of Tommy Pickering aka 'The Bionic Bleaker' and it seemed to be a series of matches to win their respective sections rather than carrying the whole team with one great weight.

I had better luck than you though Flight; I was looking for how well the Blacks had fared

 

[barbelboi]

Here's a clip from the 1912 All England from Ely..................



East Anglian Film Archive: Warwick Bioscope Chronicle: The All-England Angling Championship, 1912

 

[FishingMagic]

What a lovely clip, thanks for sharing Jerry.

 

[nicepix]

Here's a clip from the 1912 All England from Ely..................



East Anglian Film Archive: Warwick Bioscope Chronicle: The All-England Angling Championship, 1912

Brilliant

I couldn't fish that day. I was watching Barnsley beat the Baggies in the Cup Final...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N9MfqoHz6I]1912 Barnsley v West Bromwich Albion F A Cup Final replay - YouTube[/ame]

 

[barbelboi]

That's nothing Clive, the Baggies always loose - even QPR beat 1st div Baggies at Wembley in the 60's when they were only in the 3rd division.............

 

[jack sprat]

The last weight single match was 1971 on the Severn when Leicester AS won with around 115 teams of 12. It's now teams of 10 and only about 55 teams. Last one I fished was 89 teams of 12 on the Witham in 90. It still had a terrific atmosphere then; got a feeling there were about 6 divisions by that time but it collapsed later. I always reckoned that was the match highlight of all the matches I ever fished. I didn't win, far from it, but a fraction under 10lbs on the Witham in that kind of company was good enough for me. Bob Nudd and Tom Pickering in my section amongst some other big names.

 

[flightliner]

Jack,
I,m sure you'll be right with the venue you mention.I was thinking of the year but I thought the venue was the Witham and the winner was a chap from Derby who had been drawn at Landgrick or therabouts.
Stange how the years play tricks like that.
I was only speaking of the match the other day and names like Dave Parkes, Mick peverly and the likes from the Rotherham squad cropped up. Top men on fenland in the day.

 

[Neil Maidment]

All that coach transport to and from the pegs! National days were incredibly long and drawn out, all so I could sit on a duff peg for 5 hours!

One of my uncles did well on The Broads in the mid 60's (1965?), picked up a NFA medal in the section and indivual although the team didn't fare that well. He reckons he was in with a chance for a while but found the bream a little too late.

 

[nicepix]

All that coach transport to and from the pegs! National days were incredibly long and drawn out, all so I could sit on a duff peg for 5 hours!

One of my uncles did well on The Broads in the mid 60's (1965?), picked up a NFA medal in the section and indivual although the team didn't fare that well. He reckons he was in with a chance for a while but found the bream a little too late.

That is what I was alluding to in the thread about youngsters not getting into the sport these days. The sheer organisation and excitement of those big occasions was magical and in my view absent from today's angling. It is easy to see how kids got hooked on fishing when they took a coach to the fishing venue with their Dad and all his mates.

 

[flightliner]

Jerry. Lovely bit of angling history there. Great to see. Not too sure but it looked like the fish were not returned.Couldn't see any movement from them at the weigh in.
How times have changed

 

[Neil Maidment]

Yes, I fished my first national in the early 70's, as a very seasoned teenager (or so I thought), but had been a runner on several previous events. The sheer size of the day always meant it was on the big rivers "up north" and the excitement was intense for this kid from the south coast.

 

[binka]

Great clip Jerry... I felt a bit daft for checking my mute button and volume settings mg:

 

[barbelboi]

Great clip Jerry... I felt a bit daft for checking my mute button and volume settings mg:

You'll want colour next..........................

 

[binka]

Yeah but there's normally a piano playing as an overlay... or is that only in What The Butler Saw?

 

[flightliner]

The sad thing about it all is that even now after all the years since its demise many an angler can still reel off winning teams,individuals,venues and even swims that featured in a particular event/year but name any such in modern times and its a big ?.

 

[silvers]

rose tinted spectacles I suspect to a certain extent.

team fishing was at it's most vibrant (6 national divisions and massive national winter league) in about 1991. It's been going down hill ever since.

I also suspect that match anglers can name winners from matches they were involved in - as well as a few "historic" matches.
So that last weight national on the Severn happened to be a fantastic fishing match with big weights, where two top teams (leicester and Birmingham) went head to head .... and was won by a world champion (Robin Harris). Brilliant account of it in Clive Smith's "championship match fishing - ten of the best".

I also tend to remember individual national winners whom I know. For example - Stuart Cheetham who won that 1990 Witham national mentioned earlier.

I certainly agree with comment earlier that the atmosphere for a big National was simply brilliant.

 

[Mark Wintle]

The first Angler's Mail I ever saw in 1968 was the one showing David Groom winning the Broads National. I did have just about every AT/AM national (Div 1) results paper from way back then but my parents chucked the 68 to 70 ones long ago but got almost all the rest and as many world champs results ones as I can since about 1972. I tried to keep the ones I fished as well in the lower divisions. It was always Neil's bogey match though from memory.

 

[silvers]

Groomy was a hell of an angler too ... fished a few matches with him for "Leighton Rovers" in the late 80s.

 

[Neil Maidment]

It was always Neil's bogey match though from memory.

Too kind Mark! I fished a few but never drew well (even when I was the captain making the draw!) A couple of reasonable section results and once top weight on the coach was the best I ever achieved.

Although I was later involved with the Barclays AA teams, we could never attract all the top class anglers that worked for the group. We had some fun and learnt a lot from "hiring" anglers of the calibre of Howard Humphries to guide and advise us but it was the likes of Mark that got it really going. Their subsequent run up the divsions was nothing short of first class.

The catalyst for me was on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal around Aintree. I drew the stern end of a barge and saw a bloody great shoal of small tench under the rudder. Suffice to say I spent most of the match watching the shoal swim from stern to bow and back again. I managed one as did the guy pegged on the bow end. When the match finished, we offered to shoot each other to put an end to the misery mg:

Mark: it must have been the 1968 match that Mick had one of his many good days (I had 1965 in mind).