What is it about these competitions? Leading up to the comp, the weather is absolutely glorious - we're enjoying an Indian summer and July and September are the hottest months on record but when a Service angling event occurs, up comes the wind and rain! This match was to prove no exception.......

As the hosts to this years' competition, the RNRMAA opted to head for Weymouth in an attempt to regain the Bob Jackson Memorial Shield, which had been banged-up in a Police Nick for the last 12 months. Competed for by teams of 16, the Services formed theirs with RN providing 6 (Ian Gibbs, Jamie Howard, Jimmy James, Jim Lamb, Steve Redding and Dave Webber) and 5 from both the Army and RAF. With Jamie and Jimmy making their debuts at this level, the team was blessed with strong experience and youthful potential. With some top anglers representing the Police, it was anybodies guess who would win.

Normally in Combined Services events anglers form mixed teams on each boat. However, for this event it was decided to keep the majority of single Services teams together which might not do much for inter-Service bonding but with improved communication and advantages in both personal and team motivation, hopefully would be sufficient to outweigh a joint team image. Therefore the RN fished onboard Flamer, the Army on Pegasus and the RAF on Bonwey with a strong, mixed team on Top Cat.

Thursday was a Practice Day but with the weather worsening by the hour, boats could not head for their preferred fishing grounds and instead time was spent over the mussel beds where the main target was black bream. Ian proved to be the bream master and the team quickly learned his rig and tactics to use for the following day. This sharing of information continued throughout the day as the increasing wind forced the boats landwards ands the remainder of the day was spent scratching around in the lee of the Bill and outer harbour. Ian was declared the boat winner but all the crew benefited from the days' experience and was excellent preparation for the match.

Match day dawned with 40 knot offshore winds and heavy showers; clearly it was not going to be a comfortable day. As the boats headed out into ever increasing seas it was plain that we were not able to get around the Bill, so all boats drifted in its lee. At least the anglers could stand up but the horizontal rain scouring faces in those winds did not make it the most pleasant of experiences. On Flamer, the police set a cracking pace bagging up on ballan wrasse and they soon switched rigs to take mini species, mackerel, pollack and garfish. After 3 hours, they were comfortably in the top four positions and all had at least one additional species than the Navy lads. It was at this low ebb when serious thought was given to shortening the match in the horrendous conditions but in the knowledge that we were getting stuffed, it was decided that a move to closer inshore might prove to be the catalyst for a change of fortunes. And so it proved to be with the Navy team responding well to changing tactics, the number of species began to mount and confidence increased. The last move of the day put Flamer over the wreck of the Hood where fishing was hectic to say the least. The lads fished their hearts out and with an acute awareness of the tactical situation soon began to regain lost ground by adding more wrasse, red and black peam, mackerel, garfish, scad and pollack to their score sheets.

Lines-up came too quickly but had the team recovered sufficiently from being dead and buried? Results showed that the lads had administered some first aid but the poor start contributed to a narrow 38 point defeat from a total of 1822 scored.

With Ian and Jim forming half of the Top Cat team, it was they who redressed the balance with Ian again winning the boat and ably supported by his team mates in securing 3rd, 4th and 5th places. The CS was grateful to the RAF who won their boat but the Army failed to secure victory on theirs. With 2 wins each it was touch and go who would be declared victorious. When the individual scores were placed in order, it was apparent that the Police had gained the first 4 places but the Services demonstrated strength in depth by taking 9 out of the next 10 places which became the decisive factor in gaining the overall advantage by 203 points from a total of 6,954.

The RAF were deservedly the unofficial Service team winners, with the RN second. The lads gave their all, in difficult conditions and can be justifiably proud of their achievements. Particular praise needs to go to Jamie and Jimmy who gained valuable experience and no doubt, will feature in the RN match scene for many years to come.

I gather that the competition will be held earlier in 2007 when Rhyl will be the venue.

Dave Webber