Italy’s domination over the past three international events seems to have taken over at present from England, but for how long? Looking at it in the cold light of day, it’s difficult to see little changing. However, the Czech Republic may shed more light on whether Italy have found a magic formula or not, because in the 2008 Euros here they finished off the pace in 9th position, just behind Lithuania! Even so, this year’s event looks to be shaping up into an absorbing contest, in more ways than one.

With temperatures reaching well over 40°C on the final day, Italy powered ahead of the field, inflicting a crushing win over England by a massive 26 point margin. A misjudgement of tactics on the last day was freely admitted by joint manager Mark Downes when he commented, “We were tactically naive on the final day when the first two hours proved totally different to expectations. The carp fed early and it was apparent that we were falling off the pace by our lack of early feeding.”

With Serbia breathing down their necks, England avoided an embarrassing disaster by some aggressive and late feeding top-ups. Serbia, to their credit, where piling on the pressure with at least three of their anglers matching, if not beating their opposite England numbers. The only good prospect was that Germany, who had excelled themselves the previous day, where falling away badly in two of the sections and would be fortunate to stay ahead of Belgium, who were making a late charge. Unfortunately for Belgium, their day one performance left them with too much to do on the last day and all they could manage was an overall 5th place, 3pts behind the Serbs.

A good plan?
Will Raison showed the merits of bleaking, with this superb catch of 13kgs during Thursday's practice session.Day one had started and finished within England’s plan. Not much groundbait was fed on the pole line, just a little soil with some cupped in chopped worm, corn or stickymag. The main assault was on the slider line, some 35-40m out. Here a mixture of Sensas Carp and Terre de Riviere was used, again with some chopped worm or a few dead maggot added. The shorter 6-8m lines for bleak was continually fed with a dry light Sensas Surface mix. These fish had proved a valuable source of weight during practice when up to 13kgs had been produced by some of the team. The favoured hookbait seemed to be pinkie, or the odd maggot, on a size 20 or 18 hook.

Many other teams optimised the bleak in building an initial weight, prior to using the slider then pole. Serbia in particular used them to great effect on day one and, had the result been based on fish count, they would have annihilated the field! It seemed bleak would become to foundation for building any sort of weight, while acting as a temporary diversion before the main tactics of pole of slider could come into play.

The slider line saw worms and sweetcorn used for both carrassio, catfish and the odd carp. But it was the pole line which was expected to take the main weight builders, carp.
This would be an expensive trip for some. One of the Danish contingent found a Guadiana carp too much for his Browning pole and could only watch as his top 4, plus a bit of top 5, went cruising off towards Portugal, despite some desparate assistance from one of his team mates, who tried in vain to hook the moving section (and carp)!
Top Belgian, Hans Slegers, also felt the crushing power of the Guadiana carp when his top five also crumbled under the pressure during day 2 in section E. He still managed to finish 5th in section with over 15kgs.Split, snap and bye bye
These carp bear no comparison to those in the UK commercial arena. They were river carp, pristine in appearance and of solid build, many of which had never been caught before, therefore didn’t know the meaning of defeat. Even fish of a kilo put everything into avoiding the landing net. Numerous poles met a ‘splitting’ fate, during practise sessions, under the powerful surge of larger fish, in fact, several pole sections were seen travelling towards Portugal, including a few from Des Shipp’s collection!

Timed-out!
Even with main lines approaching 0.25mm and hooklengths between 0.18mm and 0.22mm, some of these fish simply snapped off when given too much pressure. I witnessed Sean Ashby frantically pulling in his white Hydro, after hitting a fish with less than one minute left on the clock. As he was counted down by his bank runner, Sean brought in as much elastic as possible to keep pressure on the fish, only to see the rig part company with just a few seconds remaining. It’s a CIPS ruling that all fish MUST be in the net and clear of the water by the sound of the all-out… no exceptions! Sean’s Italian neighbour, Carraro, had experienced the same loss just minutes before.
Sean hooks a carp with just a minute left on the clock. Unfortunately time was against him and it broke off under pressure with just seconds remaining.
It can happen to the best
Sean’s frustration had been compounded earlier in the day by the application of a yellow card for a groundbait violation. He had, according to the senior bait check official, over the prescribed amount of 20 litres and it’s a statutory card offence. Several others were issued on the day. It was a source of bewilderment to England’s management team as Sean had exactly the same as the other team members. It was that, no doubt, that ultimately effected his ability, during the early part of the match, to fully concentrate, and saw him eventually finish in 15th place in A sector. Even so he managed some late fish to reduce his deficit as the match progressed. All the top four teams had at least one angler with a bad score, so Sean was not alone.

With day one confirming the dominance of the favourites, Italy and England, the surprise was that Serbia and Germany finished ahead of such teams as Belgium, Holland and Hungary. It was to some credit that these two teams managed this feat, and it would give them even more confidence to tackle their higher-rated opponents on day two. With just 4 points separating the top four teams, day two’s approach would prove crucial.

DAY TWO
As is customary, England’s worse points scorer from day one, Sean Ashby, stood down and made way for Steve Hemingray on day two, which also saw an important tactical change for England.

A different approach
Having visited sector A before the all-in, it was apparent that Steve Gardener was doing something quite different. He was feeding his slider line first and then cupping in feed at 13 metres, completely avoiding any balling in during the 10 minute pre-baiting period. I mentioned this to Mark Downes, who was also present there, and he explained further. “We felt that after the previous day’s balling in, the fish took time to recover and return. We had seen the Italian Carraro, next to Sean in A sector, cup in and weigh over 21 kilos on the first day. He had also done this on Fridays final practice session when next to Steve Gardener, with equally impressive results. So we decided to apply a little of our ‘commercial’ approach in building up the swim, as the bigger fish had tended not to arrive until later on. We also felt that balling in would move the bleak out onto 13m and hamper our shorter line.” Mark ended by saying “we might be doing the right thing, or completely the opposite”, comments which would no doubt come back and haunt him later!

Above: Will Raison puts on a slider 'Masterclass' in front of the gallery. Below: Catching 30,724 kilos was as spectacular to the eye, as it was for this final catchshot!Sliding supreme!
As day two progressed, the word came through from several of the runners that things were not looking good. Good fish where being caught early by other teams and gradually dropping the England boys down their respective sectors. The only ray of hope came from Will Raison who, incredibly, had drawn just one away from his day one peg! Will started on the slider and was began taking carrassio and a couple of 1.5kg carp on worm at 35 metres in the first two hours, while his Italian opponent, Stefano Premoli, was looking more like a garden gnome holding 13 metres of pole!

Unbelievably, Will had had another Italian angler drawn next to him the previous day! But unlike then, Will was powering ahead at what must have seemed, from the Italians perspective, a fish too far! Will eventually won the sector and days match with an incredible 30.724 kilos, nearly 10kgs ahead of his Italian adversary. It gave him an overall points tally of 6 and a 6th individual place.

England’s other team members finished as follows, Des Shipp 13pts, Steve Gardener 26, Alan Scotthorne 28, Steve Hemingray 107th and Sean Ashby 112th (only fished once).

Mark had previously commented about the England tactics as being geared more towards a ‘commercial’ approach. However, but for swift action in reversing the feeding top-up strategy, England may have ‘fallen’ off the podium. It’s to some credit that even with limited bankside resources, in comparison to the Italian’s, England maintained their day one position during day two, given some strong pressure from Serbia. Apart from Italy’s runaway day two score, it proved a close battle for an honourable finish to the championships for many.
Above: Spain's Mario Mateos Doncel needs help to bring his final days haul of 21,473kgs to the scales. Below: The smile of a champion. 'Super Mario' posts the perfect score to take the European Individual title.
Spain in particular put 2010 firmly behind them and although they could not get near the podium team-wise, finishing the weekend in 6th, they had the distinct pleasure of seeing their own, ‘Super Mario’ take a well deserved individual gold medal. Their performance was in stark contrast to the 2010 debacle, when they finished nearer the bottom of the pile, in 23rd place, for which they were no doubt given a mauling in the Spanish press!

Of the other teams worth mentioning, Germany and Serbia were stand-out competitors, if not surprising ones, given the high-class field. It goes to show that with the right approach and some good fortune, many of the teams competing are capable of ascending the podium. Disappointments for Holland, Belgium and Hungary were apparent, although we saw Holland and Hungary a few weeks later, gaining some consolation in Ghent. France proved something of a surprise package, for the right reasons this time. Perhaps we are now witnessing a sort of Gallic resurgence?

It’s becoming clear, that as the years pass, all teams progress towards improving their position in the rankings. Those at the top must constantly look over their shoulders and try to maintain position. Italy looked to be doing this quite successfully at the moment, while England seem to be losing ground against them. It would be a fatal mistake to assume that the two Mark’s are losing their grip. Since their reign began, under guidance from Dick Clegg, England have earned fear and respect from ALL their opponents, wherever and whenever they show up on the bank. It may be that some ‘tweaking’ needs to be done to redress this current Azzurri surge (see our coming extensive feature on where the future lies). Nevertheless, any podium position is still a great reward for what is always an intense and pressurised championship. England’s team silver is best summed up by Mark Downes’ simple and final comment, “there’s 22 other teams that would have loved to have been in our position”.

Who would disagree with that!