As I turn onto the road that runs along the sea front to meet up with organisers Paul Jefferson and Rob Neale I have a horrible feeling that I have had a wasted journey. As I struggle to push the car door open against the force of the wind I can see Paul and Rob staring out to sea, looking far from happy, but I’ll let Paul explain…
The last weekend in November, and once again it was time for the annual Daiwa British Open Junior Championship on the Saturday, followed by the Daiwa Open on the Sunday. Anyone who has fished the Yorkshire coast will know how much you are dependent on the weather gods being kind, but this year we must have upset them. The winds had been at gale force all week and on arrival on the Saturday morning we were faced with mountainous seas that were just not safe for Juniors, so having assessed the situation, we were left with the hard task of returning to the headquarters to break the bad news to the assembled group of 150 anglers, parents, relatives and helpers. This was only the second time we have had to cancel this match and fortunately all there accepted that we had no option. It is our intention to attempt to fit a re-run in during March 2014 if this is at all possible.
So on to the Sunday…
Once again on arrival at Withernsea we went and checked on the sea conditions and in truth the weather had not changed too much, but at least the forecast was for the winds to lighten during the day. Once again the book-in was opened at 7-30 a.m. at the Northfield Country Club and it was soon obvious that the tough conditions were putting some anglers off with entries well down on last year. Having said that, just over 500 anglers turned out, not too bad really. On days like that, being organisers is a much better place to be.
As forecast, the weather improved during the day enabling our hardy bunch to return 59 Cod, 2 Bass and a massive amount of Whiting to the scales. The winning fish being a Cod of 3.66kg winning £2000.
FULL RESULTS AND PRIZES
1ST S. Tucker - 3.66kg cod - £2000
2nd A. Jarvis - 3.24kg cod - £1000
3rd J. Moilwraith - 3.185kg cod - £600
4th A. Broughton - 3.07kg cod - £300
5th G. Smith - 2.925kg cod - £200
6th S. Lawson - 2.755kg cod - £100
Juniors on the Sunday
1st Max McGarry - 0.475kg flounder - £50 plus Rod and reel
2nd Jayden Anderson - 0.405kg flounder - Rod
3rd Jayden Anderson - 0.375kg flounder - Reel
Biggest Whiting: Gary Storey - 0.905kg - £50
Biggest flat fish: Dave Hart - 0.508kg - £50
Thanks Jeff, I know how much you agonised over the decision to postpone the junior event, but having stood with you, being “sand blasted” by a north easterly gale, I think you made the right decision. Let’s hope the match can be re-arranged as it was obvious in the club house how much the juniors were looking forward to it.
Well done to anyone who took part in the Sunday event, conditions were tough, so if you ended up amongst the prize winners you really had to earn it.
Brian Skoyles
