Of the eight pairs who went forward from the previous trial at Drayton Reservoir, none had previously fished Wyre, which was exactly why the England management duo of Ian Huntington and Pete Holehouse picked it!
Ian said:
“We wanted the trial to be as fair as possible, hence setting it at a venue that none of the anglers had fished. I can honestly say the results were less important in the prevailing conditions and that’s why we relaxed the FIPSed rules on this occasion. Pete and I really wanted to spend some time with the lads and get to know them a lot better.
There were solid performances throughout the field and we learned a lot more from this trial about the individual pairs than we did at the first trial at Drayton. Some of the noted performances consisted of more than just catching the most fish; to catch a few fish from an unfancied swim in the prevailing conditions was also impressive.”
The pairs who went forward to the trial were Barry and Ben O’Connor, Jake and Dan Wildbore, Mark Bartlett and Kev Hewitt, Tom and Andy Maker, Tim Fromant and Cliff Kemp, Billy Flowers and Jamie Londors, Kia Sanger and Jack Stamp and Rob Sutton and Harry Charrington.
After the match Ian announced that all eight pairs would be going through to the final trial. Since five pairs were unable to make the Drayton trial, effectively counting themselves out of the process, Ian and Pete were under no pressure to eliminate any more pairs at this stage of the process.
Ian explained the selection policy as follows:
“We decided from the start of the process that it would be no good simply taking the best individual anglers – we need a team who are going to work well together. We’d rather take people with the angling skills who will also share information and fight for each other in a team situation.
With this in mind, the final trial will be designed to replicate a FIPSed rules team competition, with the eight pairs split into two teams of four. After this trial we have a good idea who to pair within those two teams for the final.
All the pairs are very capable when put in front of fish, but those who prove they can work together to help scratch fish out and potentially contribute valuable points to a team effort will undoubtedly be assets in the final team.”
