Roland's boys look very happy to be in winning form again.

Tactically, the competition looked a mixture of three distinct approaches. We had the 'go for it' approach, the 'mixed' approach and 'bleak is best' approach! To quantify this we need to look more carefully as which teams opted for each and what return they gave.

Technically, teams relied on three disciplines, whip, long pole and slider, although the odd bolognese did make a brief appearance on Saturday, but on Sunday no one used slider OR the bolo. Groundbaits varied according to which sponsor you had, while leam was always in evidence for the bleak. Bloodworm, joker, maggot and worms where everyone’s choice, while chopped worms in top-ups seemed to favour catfish and carrassio.

Day one sets the scene
It was clear that the winners had only one thing on their minds, Victory. It would be ‘all or nothing’ for Roland’s boys. Clearly, the final result showed that they had picked the right course over the two days, whether by design or fortune! A combined fish count of 910 was well short of the following six teams, including England. In fact they were one of only four teams finishing in the top ten that took this ‘all or nothing’ approach. Germany, Slovakia and Holland were the others who all had low fish numbers. To understand this more, we need to look at how every section worked for each of these teams, each day.

In section A it was Belgium (2^nd), Germany (3^rd) and Holland (6^th) who finished in the top six places, Slovakia could only manage 16^th place. B section saw Slovakia improve and gain a 2^nd place, while Germany (4^th), Belgium (8^th) and Holland (15^th) finished behind. C section saw all these teams occupy positions from 5^th to 16^th. D section proved the worse with teams going from 6^th down to 15^th in section. Section E followed a similar pattern with the teams filling places from 7^th to 17^th.

The day had not proved conclusive as Germany and Belgium were the only teams to gather any credibility from the ‘all or nothing’ approach as the finished the day in 4^th (36pts) and 6^th (38pts) places respectively. Slovakia and the Dutch lay 10 and 22pts respectively, behind Belgium. The problem now for these teams was that they had finished well off the pace that Hungary had set, and would effectively be incapable of improving, even if they switched tactics. But day two would change much for the teams above them!

A mixed response?
I mentioned that the 25 teams participating seemed to have split into three camps. We’ve already looked at the ‘all or nothing’ approach but what of the two other approaches? Italy, like England, seemed to have adopted a mixed approach, setting out to build a bleak base before putting the long pole to use. However, while Italy had varied returns, England fell foul of two poor draws which effectively placed them in a difficult position going into day 2. Italy faired a bit better, but also suffered from a couple of poor draws. But for these issues, both teams would have been much closer to the leaders. I’m including Hungary in this category simply because of two exceptional results produced in sections B and C. An 8^th place in section A was courtesy of 679 fish, 453 fish produced another 8^th place in D section, while E section saw 345 take a more solid 4^th place. But it was back to B and C where Hungary’s day really got better.

Double world champion Tamas Walter was going nowhere at halfway with the bleak plan and started playing with the slider before going out on the long pole. This had dramatic results which saw Tamas landing some quality fish, much to England’s Will Raison disbelief, some three pegs away, who switched to the long pole for the final hour but could not connected with any form of quality fish, no matter how hard he tried. Tamas ran away with the section, posting 99 fish for 7.019kgs while Will could only wonder how his well-laid plan had failed so miserably!
Tamas looks over to his team mate and says: I said you would do well from those pegs Szilard!England's new boy Lee Kerry show what is to come from England in the coming years. Lee weighed in just 160 grams short of snatching C section from his Hungarian counterpart, Szilárd Szilvási.C section saw Hungary and England closely matched in the early pegs. Both had found few bleak and looked to the long pole early for fish. Peg 1 had the Hungarian Szilárd Szilvási catching well, but just a couple of pegs away England’s new boy, Lee Kerry, was keeping pace with him catching carrassio, persh, catfish and small skimmers. These two eventually sealed first and second respectively, but it had proved a close match with just 159 grams separating them. With two section winners on the day, Hungary was now in the driving seat for day two.

Bleak or Bust!
Our final approach was the all out ‘bleak or bust’ method, much prized by many in the eastern part of Europe. As expected Poland led the charge along with Serbia and the Czech Republic, and while the two latter teams had some successes, it was only the 2012 World Champions Poland who mounted any sort of challenge to Hungary’s 22 points, finishing just 5 points behind them, seemingly with an outstanding chance of making their trademark method work for a championship win. However, the ‘weather-gods’ where about to screw-up their approach come day two!
England's second new debutant, Callum Dicks with his 2.829kgs weight from D section.
A new day cometh!
If Saturday showed the inconsistent nature of the previous weeks weather patterns, then Sunday would only serve to cement that outcome. Strong winds were forecast and for once the weather pundits got it right! With a strengthening breeze setting off the day’s final contest, it looked like the bleak approach would prove somewhat difficult, if almost impossible, for those teams with an immovable passion for them. Other teams, such as England, decided to amend their tactics, rather than concentrate too heavily on setting an initial bleak weight, by switching to the bonus fish line after just an hour. This worked in general for them, but the introduction of another new boy was not quite what they were hoping for. Callum Dicks has been on the fringes of the senior squad for sometime, having served a useful international apprenticeship in the Under 18/23 team. Unfortunately for Callum, he drew the end peg in D section. Not as good as you would think as this put him right in the base of a massive 'bulge' at the wrong end. Bearing in mind the peg produced just 1.527kgs for 21st place the day before, Callum's day 2 return of 2.829kgs and a 12th place finish, was a measure of his compentency at this level.

As the 4 hour contest progressed, it was clear that many had shunned bleak and gone all out for better quality fish. There was, after all, little left for those teams behind the solid day one leaders Hungary. As expected, Serbia and to some extent Poland and the Czech Republic, continued to pin their hopes on the tiny silverfish! It didn’t seem to me to be the wise choice in the prevailing wind. Serbia, apart from finishing 2^nd off the end peg in E section, all went for bleak and managed to record between 4^th and 13^th places in the remaining sections which, bearing in mind their day one score of 49, was simply not good enough to get anywhere near the podium and they fell behind England again to finish in 5^th place with 32 points. This was somewhat better than the terrible day one result of 49 points and a 9^th place. They ultimately finished down the order in 7^th position, not what they expected I suspect. I am still puzzled why the home team didn’t make better use of their home advantage. I had, after all, tipped my good friends for a medal!!!

Poland, after lying second on day one, just 5 points behind leaders Hungary, had a golden opportunity to snatch the European title and add it to their 2012 World title, which would have been a remarkable achievement. But analysis of their final day’s contest reveals some possible errors of tactical judgment. With the exception of two bad draws in D and E sections, similar to England’s day one problem, they looked to have stayed with the bleak too long in sections A, B and certainly C, where I noticed their angler spend too much time with them. It was, after all, an end peg, which had produced the day one section winner! These poor returns saw a possible medal winning team slip away from achieving something exceptional.

Although their draw didn’t look particular good, the Czech Republic, much like Serbia, looked to have left it a little too late to play any realistic part in a podium chase. Even so, some lessons from day one didn’t seem to have been learnt. England HAD realised their day one miscalculation and adapted to Sunday’s match with the knowledge that staying on the bleak for too long was diminishing any chance of taking better fish on the long pole line. The principal being; if you persist with constant feeding for bleak, you cannot devote regularly timed top-up feeds on your long pole line, therefore fish are inclined to wander off to where there is a more regular supply of food!

Of the other teams with podium aspirations, France, along with Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Germany seemed to have got the right mix of tactics. Having seen how the venue fished on day one, France looked to have as good a chance as any to make the medals. But the decision to stay with small fish in two sections undoubtedly cost them the chance of repeating the bronze medal position that they gained in the 2012 World Champs in the Czech Republic. The fact they were only 1pt from bronze, 1.5pts from silver and 2pts from gold must have put the ‘gall’ into our gallic cousins! (English humour).

Hungary had this championship to lose… and they did. Whether it was simply a bad draw on day 2 or that fatal floor in tactics, is not clear. No doubt they will explain that more fully when we meet up in Poland. They did however have the satisfaction of producing the European individual champion, Szilárd Szilvási, who recorded the perfect 2pt score. Germany also were looking strong, but two poor draws in sections B and E killed their chances stone dead and they eventually finished in 8^th place behind host nation Serbia.

Italy's Ferruccio Gabba produced an outstanding performnce in D section and in the face of a strong breeze, managed to haul out an impressive 605 fish, most of which were bleak, to take the section and help promote his team into the silver medal position.Italy fished a ‘blinder to almost snatch the crown, but lost it by a narrow margin, just 1.5pts. I was with Italian maestro Jacopo Falsini when he heard the news and to say he was ‘gutted’, would be an understatement. Led by one of their star players, Ferruccio Gabba, they produced an almost immaculate display to pull back 15.5pts on overnight leaders Hungary. His application and performance was exceptional, given his position in D section. From an unfancied peg 10, Ferrucio braved the strong breeze blowing into his face, to record over 600 fish for 4.176kgs and a superb section win. His tactics could best be described as those used by England on day 1, how ironic!

If Italy had fished a blinder, then words become difficult to describe Belgium’s systematic win. Not only did they overhaul day one’s winners, but they managed to keep at bay one of the world’s greatest teams. Their single-minded tactical approach reaped their just rewards, but it was close, as Italy, Hungary and France will testify. Added to this stunning win, they also gave us the individual silver medalist, Eric de Venti, who is one of the rocks that team boss Roland Marcq has built his team around. They have now become the most successful team in European Championship history, of which Roland was keen to display on camera after the medal presentations. Why this country has not been more dominant in the world events during this century, remains to be seen. Perhaps we will see more of them if this result is anything to go by.

Apologises for lack of photos. There has not been much time or effort available to spend on gathering and preparing them. Rather than delay this article any longer, I've chosen to place a limited number within.
European Champion, Szilárd Szilvási, is flanked by two of Europe's finest anglers, Eric de Venti of Belgium (Silver) and Alan Dewimille of France (Bronze).
Finally, as a guest of the Serbian Federation and its President, I must thank them for all their help during the championships and once more convey my disappointment at their poor result. I am certain we shall see them rise from these Championship ashes at sometime in the not too distant future.
Having suffered the disappointment of the past two days, four of the Serbian team still manage to keep smiling..