Firstly may I say well done to all on the recruitment drive for our section. Our numbers are up to around thirty serving members. This is mainly down to the Royal Marines command this year becoming firmly established within the club. I attended the AGM mid March and the turn out was poor to say the least, only eight members in all attending. With our section I can understand the lack of numbers as we at present have only a handful of sea anglers in the Portsmouth command organisation, and that is why I intend to target Pompey during the next term to get a few more anglers interested in joining the RNRMAA. I will start off from where I left off last year and begin with the Inter services shore match.

Inter Services Shore Match Nov 2005 - Dover

This was the first time we have managed to get a full shore team out for the Inter Service shore match for five years. The 15 that fished and were a credit to the team. Although third (better than last), we were narrowly beaten by the RAF and a strong Army team won the overall match quite convincingly. A lot of lessons were learned by all of the team and hopefully with a bit of practice we might improve to give them a scare a bit this year. As usual we were the best dressed team at the presentation

AGM 16th March

As I said I went to the AGM last week at Temeraire in Portsmouth. This was hosted by Captain Ian Greenlees RN, who is the RNRMAA chairman, and also present was Lt Chris Anderson. Chris is the game secretary and it is his wife Lin who is designing the new club web site. The game pages are up and running and if you are interested you can view them. I have given Lin some information to develop our site and hopefully we can have it up and running soon. This will be in its infant's stages and all information and match reports will be available, if you have anything you wish to add please wait until it is up and you have read it before making any comments.

I also discussed the situation with fishing in Pompey dockyard. The final decision has been made on this and all RN who fish in the dockyard who produce their RN ID card when challenged by the police will be allowed to carry on. PORFLOT standing orders and the Police information packs will reflect this change. Fishing is now allowed in all Naval Bases by RN personnel as long as safety requirements are met. All members of the RNRMAA are covered in the NFSA club insurance scheme

Norman Berry did not miss this year's AGM; there was no way it was going to happen this year. For those that do not know Norman, he has been a serving member of the association for many years and has been a life member for probably the same. He is the editor of Sea Angling Newspaper which you can find free in many tackle shops across the UK. He is also a good man if you want to buy any fishing equipment or clothing as he has his hand in many a pie. Try him first to compare prices in the high street. You never know?

Steve Clements was proposed by myself and unanimously voted in as a life member of the club. The committee were made aware by me of the sterling work Steve has done to resurrect sea angling within the RN. The standard of our angling reflects his work in encouraging us to improve and the Inter service boat trophy on my desk is proof of that. Hopefully these kind words will get me a free pint of Guinness when I get to his new lair in Weymouth, the aptly named Sailors Return. For those that have not yet had the pleasure Steve and his partner Helen can not do enough for the sea angling fraternity on a whole and it is a comfortable place to rest your head. Especially after folk night on the beer during the YYS week

If you read Boat Fishing Monthly, you will see about five pages in, 2 anglers of the Royal Navy have been selected to represent their country in the home and world team.

Steve Clements has been promoted from the home team to the world team. Steve has recently retired from the RN and is now a life member of RNRMAA.

Cliff Newbold (HMS Illustrious) has been selected for the home team. Cliff has been in the home team before

Duty Travel

A bit of vital information I pulled out from the meeting. All members are reminded that it is MOD policy that the working day or duty should not exceed 11 hours including travel. Whilst this is sometimes very difficult to accommodate, it adds to the importance of planning your fishing trips early thereby allowing the event organiser/secretary/ to book the squad into the nearest service accommodation either the night before or after, or in extremes both so as to ensure duty of care is taken. RTA's continue to be the biggest cause of service deaths withstanding residual ops i.e. Iraq! It also allows for that all important team bonding as well as a good night sleep before a match. A bit like what we did in Dover, sleep - fish - travel, and so much bonding went on in the bar.

I forgot to add this in your letters for the RN Championships and Inter services. The representative travel authority for the financial year period 1 Apr - 31 Sep will be, DNPTS 600/30 dated 17th Jan 06. Quote this when applying for those travel funds from your Pay office / UPO. I will of course quote this on the manning signal for matches.

I have a full range of the new crested fishing wear:

• Heavy duty smocks with stitched crest on front and RN on back (named as reqd)
• Ball caps with stitched crest on front (named on back as reqd)
• Polo Shirts with stitched crest on front
• Prices given on amount ordered get them in for the boat championships.

Well folks I think that is that for this term, I hope you all have a nice Easter. Personally I am off to Antigua with herself and the kids; I need to have a break now before the programme kicks in and taking them away for Easter makes for an easy year. My new address will be the mighty Ocean BFPO 350 where I hope to join Team Ocean fishing club if Brian Roach and the lads will have me?

Regards

Tom Worthy