THE seemingly unstoppable Drennan Barnsley Blacks side scooped this year’s Angling Trust Division One National on the River Trent – the third big title they’ve won this year!
Strong pre-match favourites, Barnsley made short work of the pressure and expectation, fielding a powerful and experienced river side that returned 84 points, 15 clear of silver medallists Sensas Starlets on 99, with third going to Cadence Bait-Tech Superteam on 125.
The win now sits alongside Winter League and Commercial National gold medals in 2022, and is Barnsley’s fifth National win in the last eight years –earning them a crack at next year’s World Club Championships in Poland.
“Everyone says ‘what’s our secret?’ but the truth is that we work incredibly hard as a squad. Even if you’re not picked to fish, everyone joins in with practice and shares information,” said captain Lee Kerry.
“We have young lads like Matt Godfrey and James Dent getting the best out of old heads Alan Scotthorne and Ian Bowman, who want to prove that they’ve still got it and can show the youngsters how it’s done! It’s a really good dynamic in terms of attitude, technical ability and openness. We don’t hide the fact that we want to be the best team in the UK and, to be that, we need to have the best anglers on a given venue. Every Barnsley angler knows that and buys into it.”
This year’s visit to the Trent was all about small fish, the hot weather helping put algae into the water and give it some colour. Lee got his team to aim at 10lb of small fish per man on most pegs, taking big fish only as and when they came and not deliberately fishing for them.
“In practice, we’d worked out that it would either be feeder or pole work – a waggler further out was a waste of time,” Lee explained. “Anglers needed to keep fish going into the net and take bonus fish when they turned up, rather than waste chasing them when they weren’t there.”
Barnsley’s draw was good, only Ian Bowman on the Newark Dyke having a shocker, and Lee credits him with finishing halfway in his section off such a bad peg. Every other draw was reasonable, giving each angler a fair crack at hitting that 10lb per man target.
As the scores filtered in, it all seemed good. Matt Godfrey and Mick Vials took third in their sections and James Dent a fourth. Only Ian and Tom Noton ended up outside the top 10 in their sections. Surely, that had to be worth the win?
“Totting up the results went on for ages, but the longer it took, the more of the impression I got that we’d won, just from the vibe I got from the lads and other teams,” Lee recalled.
“Starlets also felt they’d done well, but we were certain we had a five or 10-point edge over them from the way they were talking, and that wasn’t far off the truth!
“Winning it was memorable, because it’s my first National as a captain and our third big win of the year, with a shot at the World Club Champs. More importantly, it’s something for the anglers to cherish – it’s the biggest team match of the year and not easy to win!” Lee added.
Team result: 1 Drennan Barnsley Blacks, 84pts;2 Sensas Starlets, 99; 3 Cadence Superteam Bait-Tech, 125; 4 Drennan Leicester Van Den Eynde, 141; 5 Drennan Oxford, 157; 6 Browning Hot Rods, 162 (53-500);7 Scunthorpe Tackle, 162 (52-785); 8 Daiwa Tackle & Bates, 176; 9 Daiwa Dorking, 185; 10 Team Army UKLF, 192.
Late haul of bream seals the individual crown
Colmic A4 man Liam Page-Smith was crowned National champ with a 36-650 net of bream from peg 45 in A section at Radcliffe Viaducts – winning by just 50g!
Delcac legend Ian Germaney replied with 36-600 off peg 13 at Fiskerton in J section, just a single dace shy of taking the title.
“After weighing in around 80lb, I didn’t dare allow myself to dream, and I was a nervous wreck waiting for the results to be read out,” said Liam. “Only when second was announced could I relax! I didn’t have a clue about the area’s form, but I seemed to be the only one to set a pole up, which gave me an inkling! After catching a few pounds of dace on the pole, the bloke to my right caught two bream on the feeder quickly, so it was obvious what I had to do.”
Chucking an open-end feeder with groundbait, chopped worm and caster into 8ft of water just off the far bank, Liam was soon into bream number one on a worm hookbait. Dozens more followed to leave him with 25 fish averaging 3lb apiece, those dace and a bonus 2lb eel, all of which were to prove vital at the weigh-in!
Individual result: 1 L Page-Smith, Colmic A4,36-650; 2 I Germaney, Preston Innovations Delcac,36-600; 3 J Stone, Barnstone AC, 27-550;4 D Moonesamy, Team Army UKLF, 25-860;5 A Starkey, Drennan Leicester Van Den Eynde, 24-350; 6 M Halksworth Scunthorpe Tackle, 21-000.
