Angling - Hook, Line and Sinker, with Gareth Purnell

Sep 17 2008 by Mark Woodward, Birmingham Mail

Led by Darren Cox in the absence of Mark Downes, who was managing the England team to the gold medal in Italy, Starlets put on a stunning display to finish 40 points ahead of the field of 62 other teams of 10 in the biggest team match of the year.

And to put the icing on the cake for the area, Shakespeare Redditch also picked up a trophy for finishing third overall. Daiwa Gordon League were ninth, Trabucco Midlands VDE 26th and Fox Match Tipton 35th.

Starlets will now have a crack at becoming only the second English team to win the World Club Championships on Slovakia’s River Vah, a venue Downes might just fancy as he has plenty of experience there.

In one recent event at the Gnosall end, Four Ashes AC rod Mel Wood bagged an impressive 21lb of bream, skimmers and roach on caster and pole. There are no day tickets for this bit but it’s only £10 for the whole year.

In last week’s encounter the top five all weighed in over 44lb with the winner coming off peg 14 on the Hawthorn. Phil Davies tackled up with a pellet feeder and fooled 11 barbel for his 51-7-0 total.

The Maver Classic will again be staged at the Larford Lakes Complex on the Bank Holiday weekend of Sunday and Monday May 3-4 2009. In total there are 62 qualifiers this year, running from Saturday October 11 to Saturday May 2 2009, with one angler from every 10 going through to the prestigious final in May 2009.