EMAL/Chair/01 [click here for pdf version]

27 May 06

It has been a good season for the EMAL with individual and team successes along with a continued improvement in the standard of angling in the league. Over 50 anglers attended the Summer League with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 29 attending each league match, a steady increase from last year. More anglers attended the river matches then the previous season, which can partly be attributed to the training day held on the River Trent. With a long cold winter the early Winter League matches were hard with an average of 17 anglers attending, but as the weather warmed up, numbers increased up to 25 and the fishing improved.

The first major event of the year was the Command Champs held at Tunnel Barn Farm. A section win from Gary Vongyer and a section 2nd from Pete Dawson helped Waddington B to 3rd place, with Cottesmore A and Waddington A in 9th and 10th places respectively in the STC Champs. Individually Gary finished in 1st place with 52lb 6oz and Pete came 3rd with 46lb 13oz. In the PTC Champs, section wins from John Summerson and Baggy Allen, who finished 2nd and 3rd individually with over 50lbs of carp, helped Digby to second place just 1 point behind Wyton.

The RAF Inter-unit Champs were held in Oct on the Grand Union Canal at Aylesbury. This match was a struggle for most with few fish being caught. John Belcher came very close to winning the event falling 1oz short for 2nd place with 16lb 11oz of carp(Just the one). Ben Jackson finished 11th with 5lb 14oz and Phil Foster was 14th with 4lb 15oz. Coningsby A were 8th followed by Waddington A in 9th and our Old Lags in 10th. This year’s Inter-unit Champs is on the Kennet & Avon canal, enjoy.

The Interleague was next on the agenda and with 2 league matches on the venue at Burton Joyce beforehand we were hoping for a good result. The fish were not evenly spread and with the strong wind and clear water the match was hard for most. Despite the conditions, the EMAL team showed their class and routed the opposition with 4 section wins and 4 seconds winning by 5 points. Gordon Bell from the EAWL is to be congratulated for a superb performance on the day catching 17lb 11oz of roach on the waggler. Al Dyer finished 2nd with 13lb 13oz beating Craig Shaw off the next peg by some 9lb, that should keep him quite for a bit. Phil Foster was 5th followed by Andy Dixon in 6th. I would like to thank the members of the league for putting in the effort to win the Inter-league for the 2nd year running and prove to the other leagues that we are the best team, local knowledge or not.

The Summer League team event was once again won by Waddington A, who won 6 out of the 10 matches. With several postings out this year, could this be the last year of Waddington’s domination? The individual event was won for the third year in a row by Gary Vongyer with 9 points followed by newcomer to the league Al Dyer on 14 points. Phil Foster finished 3rd with 16 points. The Summer League Clubman was won by AL Dyer just before he became ineligible due to selection to the RAFCAA team.

The Winter League was closely fought with the winner being decided on the last match when a win from the Old Lags put them in 1st place with Coningsby A finishing 1 point behind on 11 points. Congratulations to Bill Woodcock for winning the league on weight from Al Dyer who both finished on 6 points. Bill also won the Winter League Clubman, becoming the first angler to complete this double, not an easy feat to accomplish in this league. Phil Foster, as in the Summer league finished in 3rd place. Shaun Stockley on his only outing of the winter won the Individual Final with 17lb 80z.

Congratulations to Paul Coombes, Pete Dawson, Sean Corbett, Gary Vongyer, Al Dyer and John Summerson on being selected to the RAF squad especially Al and John who have made it for the first time. The league has once again entered in the Angling Times Supercup and will be fishing the 2nd round shortly after winning a hard fought 1st round match against stiff opposition. Well done to all the anglers who fished and practiced for this event, hopefully we will emulate our previous success when we reached the final.

The outlook for the League is good, we are sound financially and attendances are on the increase. A warm welcome to Cranwell and Scampton/Kirton Lindsey, who will be entering teams in the league after years of absence. The training session we had on the River Trent last season was a success with some 14 anglers attending and we will plan on running some more this year. The League has its own website at www.raf-emal.org.uk, maintained by our secretary Jacko, which contains results, tactics etc for our league matches. In addition the RAFCAA have their own website at www.raf-coarseangling.info .

Finally I would like to thank the committee members for all their work over the past season and wish all the members of the League continued success in the forthcoming season.

{Original Signed}

Gary Vongyer
MACR
Chairman