Saturday 23rd August

Whizzo Youth Classic 2003
Match Fishing is safe!
This was the opening line from Match co-organisor Chris Durrant at the Whizzo Youth Classic's presentation held at Risby Park near Hull on Saturday 23rd August.
The 'Classic' is a team of six event, fished over 2 four hour matches. Teams are allowed one bank runner/coach to keep them up to date with the teams progress, provide refreshments or extra bait. The only other people allowed on the bank are the stewards and the press. Previously held at Moorlands Farm, this is the first year on Risby Park's Folly Lake which has 12 metres between pegs, an elevated spectator viewing area, café and toilets. This years teams consisted of Team Wales, Team Yorkshire, Scunthorpe GHOF, Sadjas Whizzo Gold, Sadjas Whizzo Black.

Morning:
Ten minutes into the match saw all six anglers in section A landing fish. Yorkshires Andy Geldart on A3 immediately got into the rhythm and never looked back, his long pole short line performance was nothing short of 'slick'. The youngest angler competeing was 10 year old Sadjas Whizzo Black's Connor Barlow (pictured below playing another carp). Connor handled the long pole with remarkable ease and went on to put 11lb 10oz on the scales in the morning and an amazing 20lb in the afternoon event, almost doubling the weight of some of his section competitors, who were double his age!

Above: Connor Barlow plays another carp, and seems more than happy with his afternoon's 20lb (below).

At the end of four busy hours the weigh in revealed that Team Yorkshire had kept to task and won four out of the six sections and taken second in the remaining two for an almost unbeatable 28 points out of 30. Runners up after the morning event were Sadjas Whizzo Gold with 23 points with a steep drop to Scunthorpe 14pts, Team Wales 14pts and Sadjas Whizzo Black on 11pts.

Individual morning results:
Andy Geldart, Team Yorkshire, 55lb
Alan Rutherford, Sadjas Gold, 46lb 8oz
Mathew Osborne, Team Yorkshire, 35lb 2oz.

After a two hour break for Rump steak and salad the team captains went back into the draw bag to seal their teams fate. Andy 'Dipper' Geldart drew one peg away from his morning glory, putting his team in a confident mood for another section win and repeat performance. Next up was Sadjas Whizzo Gold's captain Matt Snape, these lads had their work cut out for them but had every chance of winning if they could keep their section points high and hope for a couple of low results from Team Yorkshire.

Afternoon:
Drawn on the next peg to Yorkshire the next four hours was a nail biting fish for fish battle on every section. Section A was taken apart by Andy Geldart (below right), who went into turbo drive to put an excellent 79lb 8oz on the scales and a maximum 5 points for the team. Like a true captain Sadjas Gold's Matt Snape didn't go down without a fight and managed 40lb 6oz and third place behind Scunthorpe's Alex Shephardson on 41lb. Section E was certainly in the bag for Sadjas Gold's Alan Rutherford who repeated the performance of the morning's event with 47lb 4oz, more than doubling the weight of Team Yorkshire's Shaun Kearsley who posted 22lb 8oz for second slot.
Section F was to prove a battle between Sadjas Gold's Craig Ebbrell (below left) and Team Wales Lee Bevan.
As each section was weighed the team coaches eagerly jotted weights and points while junior bank runner Thomas Durrant ferried the weigh slips back to the café so his mum could input the figures into her laptop!
It was a nail biting finish with only section F left to weigh, this would decide the final points - the air fell silent!

First to the scales was James Maguire, Sadjas Whizzo Black, with 32lb 8oz. Next was Matthew Osborne, Team Yorkshire, on 22lb 8oz. Both of these where superb weights from swims that had failed to break the 10lb mark in the mornings event. Next was Craig Ebbrell, Sadjas Whizzo Gold, banked 53lb 4oz, bankside estimates put Sadjas in the lead by 1 or 2 points, but no-one quite knew whether Scunthorpe's Richard Tuxford had on peg F4 or whether Team Wales Lee Bevan had beaten Criag from F5. The when the scales tipped at 27lb 8oz for Richard and 45lb for Lee it showed that Sadjas Whizzo Gold (below left) had pulled back the mornings deficit and leaped forward by 4 points to snatch the winners trophy with a brilliant 50 points from Team Yorkshire (below right) on 46 points. Wales put up a great fight for third place with 30 points on a venue that they had only viewed via the web, http://www.risby-park.co.uk while Sadjas Whizzo Black, the team that sported the youngest competitor, Connor Barlow, scored a respectable 29 points, just ahead of Scunthorpe on 25.

Individual Afternoon results;
Andrew Geldart, Team Yorkshire, 79lb 8oz
Craig Ebbrell, Sadjas Whizzo Gold, 53lb 4oz
Alan Rutherford, Sadjas Whizzo Gold, 47lb 4oz.

At the end of the day everyone went home a champion. Their abilities on the bank were matched only by their sportsmanship off it, to see the Yorkshire team individually congratulate the Sadjas Whizzo Gold team at the end of a long day made it all worthwhile for me as a sponsor.
Kevin Webster, Whizzo Groundbaits

Acknowledgements and thanks to:
Anchor Tackle for their generous donation of Quickshot for all competitors.
Anthony Clappison and family, for a superb venue and great grub. We'll be back.
Chris Durrant and family, for all their efforts and enthusiasm, including Chris's hourly update on the PA system.
All the stewards, team coaches and scalesmen.

And finally a special thanks to the all the teams and their supporters who proved that match fishing can be a great spectator sport.

Anyone wanting to enter a team for next years event can contact me on 01482 586566 working hours or email: whizzokev@aol.com