|
Next best after Fisho and Parkdean Masters? The winning angler on this year's event could clear £11,500 - if they are also on the golden peg to be drawn before the match. Thanks to Dulley Ceilings and Partitions, negotiations are taking place with a firm that will agree to pay out £10,000 in the event the overall winner is on the swim nominated by an independent draw. Along with the expected £1,500 pools pay-out, this could mean one of the largest rewards for a straight one day match that costs only £25 to enter. Band to play at Lower Thames Champs? Stoney and Friends band have been invited to play after this year's event and raise monies for Macmillan Cancer Support - subject to agreement from the landlady of the Thames Court Hotel and off course all five members of the band all being available. This is your chance to hear "Fisherman's Blues" and "Bang on the Ear" live as well as contribute to charity. Entries now pouring in Nearly 30 tickets have been snapped up to date for this year's event which sees plenty of fish being caught at Molesey and Waltonin particular. Chertsey Meadow will only be used as a spill over from Laleham with more pegs expected to be used on Walton Desborough Cut. To enter, send a cheque for £25 per ticket with your details and SAE to Dave Harper. 27 Queen's Court, Kempton Walk, Croydon, CR0 7XG ============================================================================ Lower Thames Championships 2009 - see film at www.skysports.com/tightlines Laleham 31 Andy Ford 0 5 8 51 Stewart Twine DNW 101 Matt Hoeness DNW 111 Ian Hornby 0 2 0 121 Paul Jones DNW Its a case of lost and found for Ian Young
2008 Result
Greatest Thames Match Catches - unless you know different!
Below is a diary of the event from Dave Harper, giving the organiser's perspective Lower Thames Championships Diary 26/5/08 Match Fishing Magazine promotes the match on the web 27/5/08 A site visit reveals and angler fishing at Shepperton 28/5/08 total-fishing.com promotes event on their website 30/5/08 Site survey at Laleham found two groups fishing and a boat spotted trolling! 3/6/08 Angling Times and Angler's Mail promote event; Keith Arthur writes a nice piece in AT 4/6/08 Steve Martin and Gareth Purnell (Total Coarse Fishing) pledge to take part in match July: Several entries and one or two names coming in such as Terry Harrison, past winner Charlie Taylor, Ian Manning and Russ Berryman. 22/7/08 Paid entries are around the 30 mark, not bad with two months left - keep them coming chaps or I will finish running the match all by myself! 16/8/08 We stand at 36 paid entries with more to come from Davies Angling and others. Good money pay out at moment! 26/8/08 Angling Times gave us a nice plug today, entries going up. Terry Fell has confirmed entry. Nice to see one of angling's leaders out with us. 2/9/08 Since last week, paid entries have risen to 62 with plenty more in the pipeline. Keith Arthur has kindly given the event another plug in his column today. Total-fishing.com has plenty of discussion going on in at least two threads. 20/9/08 Entries have been closed and risen to around 140, a terrific outcome. 23/9/08 Meeting with most of the stewards, equipment issued and written instructions provided.
25/9/08 Order Gareth Purnell's bait as he cannot find a decent shop in North London. At least we have KC Angling! 26/9/08 Collect the signage and Gareth's bait - he also asked for worms as well as casters. Visited HQ to check all is well, watched angler land a 12 lb pike close by. Let's hope they are not troo much of a problem tomorrow. 27/9/08 The Big Day - 134 finally fished and it was a pleasure to run (see report above). Never had so many people approach me afterwards to congratulate us on the running of the event. Thanks must go in particular to Keith Arthur for helping to promote the event, Steve Sanders of KC Angling and Stuart Angel of Davies Angling for their advice. 3/10/08 Sky Sports 3 had a film of the event on Tightlines, it was well produced, must cut my eyebrows before doing another interview though! 7/10/08 Had wash up meeting with most of the helpers, it has been agreed to put in more resources for 2009 and hold the draw a bit later and the event a week earlier at least, probably September 19 2009. 15/10/08 That's about it for now - until 2009 when we do it all again. Our thanks to Dulley Ceilings & Partitions for their terrific support, to the landlady and staff of Thames Court, Shepperton, the stewards and volunteers but mostly the competitors. |
With £1,200 in your back pocket as a result of winning the Lower Thames Championships, sponsored by Drywall Ceilings and Partitions on September 19, Ian Young had every reason to be pleased. But then he discovered that he had lost his wedding ring and had to explain this to his wife. But all ended well when he hired a metal detector and found it at his peg two days after the match! The venue was extremely clear and unseasonably warm weather prevailed for the 123 peg contest that saw the likes of Keith Arthur drawn next to former NFA chief Terry Fell. But once again it was Molesey that provided the best with Electrical Wholesaler Project Manager Ian Young of London Colney (pictured left) taking top honours with 67-0-0.
Drawn at the peg just below where Mick Hanks made his historice 170-11-0 bream haul in 2008 (the actual peg was occupied by pleasure anglers), Ian started with a whip and maggot and landed around 45 small roach and perch before switching to the groundbait feeder and half a worm to land a dozen bream to 6 lb in the final 90 minutes. Steve Gardener (pictured left) had DCP Managing Director advise him to try the feeder and this helped the England and Daiwa Dorking ace land roach to over a pound and put 8-1-8 on the scales to win his section and £100. Second placed Stuart Sadd (Davies Angling) was drawn by Pharoah's Island and he used pole and maggot or caster over groundbait to tempt roach, dace and perch but then a 7-9-0 pike snaffled a single bronze maggot, giving him 19-8-0 and £1,000.
Third place went to Derek Gladwin (Preston Innovations Delcac) (pictured left) who fished similar tactics to Stuart and landed this fine 17-7-0 silver fish bag from above Cherry Orchard. Fourth spot was Colin Lovelock (Feltham and Davies Angling) on 12-0-0 whilst the Laleham Zone Winner was Mark Lindsey on 9-9-0, MArk Harrington taking Chertsey and Walton with 11-7-0 and Terry Peters Molesey with 9-8-0. Sky TV Cameras were present to film Keith Arthur's day and the film is expected to be screened on Sky Sports 3 at 7 pm on Friday, September 25 with repeats throughout the night. Our profound thanks to DCP for their support, to Keith arthur for giving us publicity as well as 
Here is Ian Young being presented with his prize cheque and trophy for winning the 2009 event by DCP's Financial Director Carole. Chris Dulley and Carole Beacroft (yes our very own Brian's other half) were also present. Thanks are due to the following: Field Stewards: David Adby, Bill Harris, Jason Courtney, Ray Hambling, Paul Oliver, Andy Tickner, Mark Merrett , Steve Allen and Steve Longhurst along with HQ stewards, Robin Mahachi, Dawn and Neil Elliott, Richard Hoy, extra helpers Ken and Tom Barnard plus Davies Angling (Stuart Angel) for the loan of scales. The 2010 match is to be held on Saturday September 18. 
Entries closed on Tuesday, September 14 for the 2009 event to be held on Saturday, September 19 on the River Thames between Laleham and Molesey. Currently there are over 120 entries. Tickets cost £25 each with cheques payable to Warlingham & District AS. Entries with a SAE to be sent to Dave Harper, 27 Queen's Court, Kempton Walk, Croydon, CR0 7XG. Stop Press: Keith Arthur confirmed live on air that Sky Sports' Tightlines cameras will be covering the event again this year - thanks to Keith, Andy Ford and whoever else helped this to happen.
ANGLERS from as far away as Lincoln travelled to the first Lower Thames Championships in 22 years to find the river running clear and with high barometric pressure nobody was under any illusion that this would be an easy competition. Close to 140 anglers turned up to fish between Laleham and Molesey.
With 25 minutes left, disaster struck 51-year-old Mick. The Lowestoft electrician had a ladies’ rowing eight come to a stop right on top of the shoal. Strenuous efforts by stewards and onlookers to get the offending boat to move wasted valuable minutes, thereafter Mick was biteless. But his just reward was a cheque for £1,000 and a lead crystal trophy back to Suffolk.
New Malden angler Jimmy Archer (left)was third from below the winner with two bream and bits for 8-14-8. The KC Angling star collected £600 for his efforts. But it was hard for many and that included England star Steve Gardener (Milo) collecting £100 section money with a mere 0-6-0 from Laleham.
Chris Dulley presents Mick Hanks with £1,000 cheque and lead crystal trophy
There is a god, even on this match! Steve Gardenber collects £100 for winning his section at Laleham with just 0-6-0.
24/9/08 Andy Ford has rung to confirm that a Sky TV crew will be attending the event 
