Junior Celtic Cup Wales V Scotland 18th & 19th August 2007

This was perhaps one of the best youth competition that we have seen at this level. The event was held on Magiscroft Fishery in Scotland and took place on Saturday the 18th (Practice) and Sunday 19th August (Competition).

The competition was fished under International Rules and this certainly made the competition that more interesting.

The Scottish Team had the advantage over the Welsh Team with it being their home waters but this and the torrential rain didn’t stop us putting up a fight and a performance that you could be proud of since none of our anglers had seen the venue before.

The Competitors where as follows;

Wales

Matthew Powell, Lee Roberts, Tyrone Lee, Sion Pritchard, Ryan Hughes, Jake Hanley, Neil Jones, Tomos Lea, Dalton Moore.

This event was the last event for Tomos Lea or Tomo as he prefers to be called as he has now reached the maximum age limit. Tomo,s performance while with the Welsh Team is one to be proud off and is an angler of great talent and is an angler that has the ability and confidence seen in more mature anglers and I am sure we will see more of him in the future.

Scotland

Mark Lyons, James Woodrow, William Stewart, Kevin Murphy, Harry Brown, Jamie McKay, James Dornom, David Anderson, Tony Lamb.
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Although the weather was against us the spirits of both teams was extremely high and both teams settled down to what was a very difficult practice session. It appeared after the 1st day that the Scottish Team set an average target weight per person for the match day of around 3lb per man. Both teams fished at length up in the water with shallow rigs ranging in depths from about 12" and 5' deep loose feeding caster over the top and either fishing caster, worm or maggot on the hook.

The Scottish team favoured fishing up in the water with a depth set around 2' or even shallower where as the Welsh Team found that the better quality fish where much deeper at around 4' - 6'.

In regard to the closer in line The Welsh Team opted for a line at around 6metres using 0.8g and 1.5gr floats depending on the depth they had in front of them and the depths varied from 8' upto 14' deep. The Welsh Team cupped in hard balls of groundbait with chop worm and caster and fishing either worm or maggot on the hook.

It was soon clear that at the weigh in after the practice session no team had done any better than the other. The fishing was certainly affected by the heavy rainfall.

The weather had improved significantly for the day of the competition and certainly the lake looked more active and appealing than the practice session.

With the draw for sections out of the way and after the setting up period you could see the enthusiasm and determination in these young anglers faces with each and everyone one of them wanting to do their best.

The signal was sounded to commence and it soon became clear that the fishing had improved significantly overnight with fish being hooked almost from the off. Mathew Powell (Wales) hooking and landing a carp of around 5lb within the 1st hour gave him a good start to the match. Tomo (Wales also got of to a good start and was going head to head with David Anderson (Scotland).

Dalton Moore (Wales) also got off to a good start battling it out with Tony Lamb (Scotland) and Jake Hanley (Wales) also getting off to a convincing start that would see him dominate his section throughout the match. Lee Roberts (Wales) and James Woodrow (Scotland) where also going head to head

After the first hour every one had Scotland winning five sections and Wales winning four sections but this was to change around in the second hour with Wales taking the lead with 5 sections to four sections for Scotland. The third hour we were seeing things hotten up even more but Wales still maintaining the lead.

The fourth and final hour a message came down the bank that Wales was only winning four out of nine sections so the task fell on Ryan Hughes to produce extra fish during the last 40minutes to get him in front. The Scottish Team watching closely between Ryan Hughes (Wales) and Harry Brown (Scotland) suddenly Ryan hooks into a small carp then Harry hooks one still level pegging then Ryan manages to catch a further two carp taking him in front.

The final whistle is sounded and already Scotland convinced Wales had won as a result of Ryans three fish giving him a section win.

We had down wins in the following sections A, B, E, F and H and this would have been sufficient for an overall win and Scotland had us down as the same.

But as they say its not over until the weigh in has been done.

Results

FINAL POINTS

Top Five Individual Results

Well done to both Teams and to Magiscroft Fishery and all those that made this a truly exciting and memorable event. The hospitality and support was extremely appreciated.