Dick Clegg, OBE, International Events Manager and Joe Roberts, England Ladies Team Manager will travel with the team. Retaining their places from last year are Sammie Perkins (Nottingham), Helen Dagnall (Warrington), Wendy Locker (Chester), and Emma Pickering (Doncaster). Returning to the squad is Julie Abbott (Nottinghamshire), and making her first appearance at international level is Samantha Sim (West Sussex).
Julie Abbott and Samantha Sim are replacing two stalwarts of the England set up, Sandra Scotthorne who decided to step down, who was the most successful of all lady anglers, well done Sandra, and Claire Dagnall who is unfortunately recovering from an illness, get well soon Claire. All the team send both of you their best wishes.
Originally the Vaal river was chosen for the event, but now the team will fly out to Johannesburg at the end of October and then travel some 350 kilometres to Bloemhof Dam. Bloemhof Dam was the venue for the 2008 Carp World Championships which produced record weights for the 3 day event, weights that will probably never be beaten again.
This huge water is absolutely full of carp that average more than 3 kilos each with some fish far in excess of this, and if we are to believe the forecasts then individual anglers could expect to catch at least 70 kilos in 3 hours with record weights for this event also a possibility.
Logistically getting the equipment needed to a venue as far a field as South Africa should have caused a huge problem but the host federation has reached an agreement with the Van Den Eynde company to sponsor all the teams with 300 kilos of ground bait each. This bait will be made available on arrival for the 12 teams that have already booked in. Other companies in the UK have chipped in for the HV Power Electrical Systems squad with Preston Innovations providing tackle seats, and nets, and these too being delivered FOC to the site. Drennan International are giving the team a range of Kamasan hooks and bungee elastics.
On Tom Pickering’s decision to step down as Manager of the England Ladies team, Dick Clegg said. “I would like to thank Tom Pickering for all the hard work he has done in the past 8 years. He has helped to continue the development of an international squad that has the respect of all the countries within FIPSed and he will be difficult to replace. However, I know this new team has the capability to continue winning silverware, and Joe Roberts and myself will work just as hard as Tom to bring some back to England”.
Joe Roberts, England Ladies Team Manager said “it will be difficult to fish against the host nation South Africa on their home soil, as they fish up to 80kg. No one else has been able to do this with these sort of weights, but having said that England are good at catching big fish, so hopefully they have a good chance”.
