| This event was hastily arranged by one of the England managers Mark Downes. With only having a few weeks to organise it Mark had to get things moving very quickly. The venues of Earlswood Lakes and Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire were chosen and arrangements made with the fishery owners. Then disaster, the foot and mouth crisis took hold resulting in Castle Ashby being a victim and British Waterways deciding that they were to set an example to the angling world and close all their waters to anglers.
Mark was left in a quandary. Where would be a fair venue to host the event over two days without the foot and mouth palaver upsetting the applecart once more. He decided it would have to be an urban retreat and after much deliberation Salford Park right in the heart of Birmingham was chosen. This water is situated right underneath Spaghetti Junction and so provided easy access for all travelling to the event. There were also plenty of car parking spaces to cater for any spectators that may wish to venture to the water to see the array of stars on show. Birmingham City Council was contacted and the ball was rolling at a fast pace again.
Salford Park and Spaghetti Junction.
The Sunday prior to the event was to be a practice day and fifty-two anglers travelled to fish this water, which is normally the prey of the specimen boys, due to the large amount of big, big head of carp it holds. Mark had decided that the two-day event was to be based on continental rules. This meant, maximum pole length of 14.5 metres. Ten litres of ground bait / leam, three quarter kilo of bloodworm and joker and the match was to be four hours in duration. A five minute pre-baiting period and a five minute finale, which basically meant that a whistle was blown five minutes before the end indicating that you had that five minutes to land any fish. A fish had to be out of the water at the deadline whistle or it was discounted along with the biggest fish in your keepnet! Oh and no pole pots were allowed. Feeding by hand was the order of the day! The rules were relaxed slightly for the practice match, a pole pot was allowed.
I decided to give the practice session the benefit of my experience. The water had not seen any quantity of blood and joker for a number of years and expectations were very high. On the day I drew next to our own Paul Downes and got a good hiding for my troubles. The venue fished hard with round about 4lb of fish winning the day. Paul had a few fish for just over 2 lb and my self 11 oz. Paul won our section comfortably.
The first match day was looming and a number of anglers travelled to Birmingham throughout the week to practise. Indeed the fish were beginning to respond to the amount of feed going in. One angler produced over 48lb of bream in a mid week practise. YES 48lb! Other reported weights were being reported well into double figures and things were looking good.
Match day arrived and sixty-four anglers turned up for the draw. Top English teams such as Starlets, Keenets Northwest, Essex County and such like were in attendance and in doing so brought with them the names of Alan Scotthorne, Tom Pickering, Mark Pollard, Stu Conroy, new Kamasan matchman of the year Andy May and the list goes on and on. Three French internationals also graced the bank, Jean Desque, Eric Lupin and Gilles Caudin. The other member of their team being Phil Sempeski. This was going to be a good encounter with finesse and exceptional angling ability on display.
Eleven fifty-five am and the five-minute pre baiting period began. Birmingham had not seen anything like it since, since well the bombardment of the second world war, I'm sure the water level rose by two foot! Jean Desque had given it 15 Good sized balls of ground bait, as had the other French lads. The rule here being that the ground bait could be as big as a miniature football, within this period, but only the size of what could be squeezed together with one hand without the help of the sides of the bucket, as one unlucky angler was to find out later, could be thrown during the match. More to be revealed as we go.
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