Photographs courtesy of Steve Thornton

UNITY IN ANGLING

NEWS 2008

On Sunday30th November 2008 the Annual General Meeting of the Confederation of English Fly Fishers was held at Rutland.  At that meeting the Confederation, which included the England Ladies, Youth and Disabled Flyfishing Federations, voted  unanimously to become part of the Angling Trust representing Competitive Fly Fishing.

They will be joining the new governing body for angling which has been created to represent all coarse, sea and game anglers.

The benefits for the Confederation include the prospect of funding of the International Teams, better promotion and participation, and being part of a professional body having   full time staff working for angling.

Part of the remit is a training and development strategy to encourage participation in angling and a training pathway to excellence. This is being done through the Angling
Development Board.

The objective is to open the doors to everyone to enter angling and be part of a structured development programme through clubs, schools and other organisations; then to offer a pathway to develop angling skills. From that there will be a recognition of talent to develop further, whether as a competitor, coach or instructor.

It’s an investment in the future to boost numbers into angling.

This has been adopted by the Confederation.  Jeremy Lucas is heading a committee
made up of representatives from, Disabled, Youth and Ladies and G.A.I.A to progress
an initiative towards the creation of an academy and work towards Clubmark
accreditation.

At this time the Confederation is finalising details with Mark Lloyd of the Trust to take
the position as the Committee for Fly Fishing Competition.

The Chairman Baz Reece has been involved at every stage of this process and within a year has seen a rather gloomy future very much brightened. However, there is no room for complacency.  There is still much work to be done in the transition period and also in the future.

Welcome from the Chairman - Baz Reece 

Last year was an interesting competition year in which we had mixed results. The cream of the crop was the magnificent team silver medal in Norway with Iain barr taking the individual silver. The world team in Finland finished in a creditable 7^th place. I know that both teams worked extremely hard and were a credit to their country.

At home international level England won the Spring International at Rutland, were second at Menteith in the autumn and 3rd on the river Liffey in Ireland.

Then on to our national finals. John Tyzack once again showed his supremacy on the rivers by taking first place. The Loch Style National Winner was Joel Beeney who was in his first final at the first attempt. Joel had months earlier helped the England youth to a Bronze Medal in the Youth World Championships so turning of age he proved a match for all the old hands by taking the trophy.

The CEFF/Airflo bank competition was held at Elinor with a new format having two separate finals for individual and teams. Mark Randle was top of the individuals and Kingfishers were the cream of the teams.

2008 will see the last of the funding from the Sports Council. I can add to this statement, that it is also at a reduced amount, so may cause us some problems when it comes to balancing the books. At the AGM it was felt that we could not increase the entrance fees as this would be counter productive to participation. Of course entry fees are an important part of revenue, but we do not want to price ourselves out of the anglers reach. 

Gaining sponsorship is very difficult in this day and age. To some, the image of fly fishing is of middle age and middleclass. Image is very important and part of our strategy is to show that we are not exclusive and are one of very few sports that are open to all to compete. We have seen ladies; disabled and men all compete as equals. This is something we need to promote.

Last year the angling development board was set up by the government after realising that angling is still a major participant sport. Its aim is to promote training for excellence. It has no promise of funding as we had before but it could be available for training. At the AGM the Ladies, Youth and Disabled agreed to work together to set up a training plan that would benefit all. The G.A.I.A (Game Anglers Instructors Association) are also willing to work in this partnership. 

I believe that all organisations should work closely together to better the image of competitive fly fishing. Promoting training and inclusivity from youth to senior we can better our results at international level. 

So now to 2008. The world team will be off to New Zealand. The team has great depth of skills and knowledge of the venues, ably managed by Ian Greenwood. The Europeans are in Spain and we hope that Paul Page will continue the medal run. Graham Watson and Stuart Wardle are in charge of the home international aspirations. Alan tongue and Richard Wood are developing the CEFF/Airflo bank competition into a truly National Competition, with International aspirations. 

It is a tough time for the Confederation, but I am confident that the hard work put in by the executive will keep us in good stead. Thanks for all the work put in by the committee, federations and also to all the anglers who compete. 

Let us look forward to an exciting year and I wish all who compete, the best of luck. 

Baz Reece

Chairman

PS: would your club like to join a CEFF Federation, then please click here for the Federation Contact page.

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