54th PSUK National Freshwater Fishing Championships 18th September 2014
After being exposed to TV all over the world stage after hosting The Grand Depart or The Tour De Yorkshire as we called it, North Yorkshire Police were proud to host the 54th National Freshwater Fishing Championship on Thursday 18th September 2014, an event in our calendar which carries far more significance and importance.
The event was sold out with all 24 team places having been filled as far back as April and a further 13 anglers competing in a reserve section. The weather for the week before and the week of the event was glorious and showed truly why North Yorkshire is known as “Gods own county.”
The venues for this year’s National were Woodlands Lakes near Thirsk and The Oaks Lakes at Sessay.
The lakes to be used at Woodlands were Partridge, Skylark, Curlew and Wagtail (being 1 section) and Kestrel.
These lakes are all rectangular construction with wooden boards around the perimeter. There are no features on any of the lakes however there is a small amount of margin cover both left and right at each peg. The corner pegs do however provide the boards to fish up to from the perpendicular. The lakes have been constructed identically. The margin swims being 1.5 – 2ft deep out to approx 4.5 ft where they shelve to about 3.5 – 4ft this shelf remains level to about 7 metres where again the bottom slopes to approx 5ft from 11 metres and beyond. Fish can be caught on all these lines as well as on the feeder/bomb line. Fish can be caught also at various depths.
The lake to be used at Sessay for the team event was Cedar Lake. This lake is a typical snake type lake that is constructed from 12.5 – 14 metres wide. There are 3 distinct areas, the margins approx 1.5ft deep, the track up to 6 ft deep and the far shelf 1 – 2 feet deep. There is near and far side vegetation. Again fish can be caught on all lines with the far bank swim being favoured.
Sycamore Lake at Sessay was used for the reserve match. This lake was constructed in 2010 and is rectangular in shape. There are 30 pegs on this lake and fish can be caught on all methods. Sycamore Lake is the newest addition to the Oaks Lakes complex. This lake is of an open water design 40 metres wide and fished from both sides. The features of the lake are under the water (sunken island).
By Sunday 14th September I was amazed by how many teams were already staying in Yorkshire and getting some serious practice in on the different lakes. The numbers grew during the following few days and by Tuesday over half the teams were in Yorkshire.
Wednesday 17th September saw the registration of the teams at the Match HQ a beautiful country hotel near to the market town of Easingwold. Weather was glorious again and after registration most competitors enjoyed relaxing on the lawns with a pint or two.
Following the National PSUK Freshwater Fishing Committee meeting and section draws, the Sections for the Championship were revealed so competitors knew which lake they would be fishing, this was greeted by either much pleasure or exasperation depending on where you had wanted to be.
Soon after all guests were treated to a talk on the venues by two local experts namely Rob Minikin and Chris Hall both outstanding anglers at both venues. They shared all their knowledge with the guests and gave all of us much “food for thought.”
Thankfully the bar closed at midnight and all competitors were able to get a relatively early night.
Championship day Thursday dawned to beautiful weather and what promised to be a memorable days fishing. Breakfast was served from 6.30am and the restaurant was full immediately with eager competitors.
The “Captains” draw took place at 8am and at last all competitors knew what pegs they would be fishing and cars were soon streaming away from the hotel to the locations.
Stewards comprised of members from our own angling section and were ready to greet the anglers at the venues and direct them to where they needed to be. They were on hand all day to check the rules were being adhered to and that everyone was in the right peg and to assist with any problems. They did a sterling job and it would be remiss not to thank Pete Todd, Eric Hope, Dave Edwards, Roger Whitwam, Mick Adams, Phil Swift, Marc Allison and Bob Bobby – my heartfelt thanks to you all.
11am came and the “all in” sounded and five hours of battle commenced. As was expected with so many anglers on the lakes fishing was going to be hard but with skill and perseverance fish were being caught regularly over all the lakes. Before we know it the “all out” sounded and the match was over. The stewards and staff from the two venues then began the enormous task of weighing every single anglers catch.
Back at Match HQ the results slowly started to feed in and the spreadsheet was populated. Eventually all results were in ready for the presentation dinner.
At 8pm everyone gathered for the presentation dinner. Guest of honour was Dave Jones the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police who was accompanied by our Vice Chairman Jeff Rogers and our secretary Dick Tranter.
Following dinner the Chief Constable gave a very amusing speech mainly directed at a member of the Warwickshire team none other than their Chief Constable Andy Parker. Poor Andy had only managed to catch 3lb of fish which was very poor a fact that had not been missed by Mr Jones!! Formalities over it was time for the presentation.
The individual title turned out to have been an incredibly close affair with first and second only divided by 5oz.
3rd Individual was ken Atkins from Sussex with 101lb.
2nd individual was Graeme Lowery from Cleveland with 114lb 2oz.
Individual National Champion 2014 was Ian Stripp from Leicestershire with 114lb 7oz.
Ian Stripp from Leicestershire, 2014 Individual Champion with Chief Constable Jones.
The winner of the reserves section was Adrian Clark from Avon & Somerset with 90lb 15oz.
Adrian Clark from Avon & Somerset, 2014 Reserve Champion with Chief Constable Jones.
At last we came to the reason we were all there, to find out who had become National Champions 2014.
Third were Humberside with a creditable 45 points.
Second were Metropolitan Police “B” with a superb 29 points.
However we had runaway National Champions this year in the shape of Metropolitan Police “A” with a magnificent points total of just 23 points and worthy winners.
National Champions 2014 the victorious Metropolitan “A” team - very worthy champions.
This brought us to the end of the championships and to the end of 19 months planning and preparation on my behalf as Event Organiser of what was my third National Championship that I have arranged. It also brought me to a fitting end of my police service as this was my last day of service before I retired at midnight that night after 30 years service. Before the presentation concluded my Chief Constable Dave Jones presented me with my certificate of service to North Yorkshire Police. I could not think of a more fitting way to bow out than in front of all my peers I have competed with over the last 30 years, their standing ovation was extremely emotional, my very best wishes to you all.
Ian Butler. Event Organiser.
30 years over and out. Ian Butler receiving his certificate of service from Chief Constable Dave Jones.