The seemingly unstoppable Yorkshire match giants Barnsley Blacks conquered the Gloucester Canal to chalk up their second National win on the spin.
Twelve months ago, this magazine asked the question ‘Can anyonestop Drennan Barnsley Blacks? after their Division One National win on the River Trent and the answer, it would appear, is ‘nobody!’ The South Yorkshire juggernaut won again on the Gloucester Canal to make it two Nationals in a row and four wins in the last five years. The victory follows triumphs in the Sensas Challenge, Winter League and Commercial National this year. This time round the pack of experienced and talented anglers returned a 137-point scorecard to take gold, but it was close.
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Fellow Yorkshiremen Browning Ossett took silver just three points adrift, with the bronze going to locals Daiwa Gordon League on 144 points. Faced with a canal that is never an easy beast to tame, Barnsley scored very consistently, with only three of their 10-man team returning big points. Tom Barlow won his section to take third overall, James Dent and Will Freeman finished sixth, captain Lee Kerry was seventh and Dave Brooks Jnr, Mick Vials and Frankie Gianoncelli all contributed 11 points.
Someone had to have the bad pegs, though, and that honour went to Eddie Bridon with 23 points by catching 49kg 500g of bream on the feeder. Matt Godfrey fisnished on 28 and Oliver Scotthorne, 33. Despite that, the team had done enough to win.
Read the full 'Big Win' story and reaction from the team in next week's magazine or on our member's site here.