British weather produced glorious clear skies, warm sun and no b****y breeze. Perfect weather for shorts and T-Shirts! Plus with some of the known areas requiring waders to get through the mud and reeds in places, it was going to be hot day’s work for us.

Once again from the whistle it was immediately clear that both teams had clearly set out their plan of attack for the  Straight off 6 British anglers went left on the river with 4 of the Irish in tow, whilst the remainder went the other way. Roughly half of these slowly and methodically working their way up the river in search of fish, whilst the others headed off as fast as they could for the far end of the venue where both sides knew there were a great many features to be found; and hopefully a good few fish as well.

Those who turned right at the bridge faced a very long walk to encounter those fish that were caught on the day, with a nightmare scenario of steep banks and dense backside growth offering very few vantage points to fish from. Those who’d gone the other way found better conditioned banks and less undergrowth ahead of them, although the bank immediately next to the water proved to be very soft underfoot. A variety of reed beds in mid river offered plenty of ambush points for the pike to lie next to, and some very ‘pikey’ looking beds of reeds next to the near bank produced throughout the day a fair few pike to those lucky anglers. Both Joe Coleman & John Woods of Ireland who were working the area both had early success, whilst the 2 British anglers with them had seen follows but had taken no fish.

I was Stewarding for Irish team member John Chambers, who had started off well with the odd fish around the 3 to 4 pound mark, whilst Alan Hickson of Britain had also a couple of jacks early on leaving just British angler Mark Lloyd still awaiting his first fish of the day. Mark’s luck was soon to change however after I had spotted fish movement whilst Stewarding J.C. A bait was flicked into the areas suggested by myself, and very soon three fish had graced his net and more importantly his weigh card. Even better was to follow in the shape of a lovely 10.02 which was the best pike caught during the two days of competition. This was much to JC's annoyance, as felt he should have had these fish and had allowed Mark to get ahead of him to get his bait in the particular swim first where the 10.02 had come from.

News soon starting to filter through on both the radio and mobile from both ends of the river of pike being caught and from what areas. David Young of the Irish had been guided to an area of the river by two of the Irish Stewards and he was starting to bag up, News of this was quickly sent by Skip to Stuart Parker and Derek Lowe, and they were soon covering the stretch he was fishing. With the match nearing its end, more and more news was still filtering though to myself and Skip of roughly equal bags of fish being caught by the Irish and British. This was of course good news for the competitors, but un-nerving for the management of both sides as we all struggled to work out who was leading.

As the final whistle sounded, Big Pat was already hard at work with the barbecue again ready to greet the returning teams along with yet another bottle of single malt and another gallon of cool cider on hand to moisten the palette. As the cards were being handed in Skip’s confidence was growing by the minute as he became more and more convinced that the British had not only matched the Irish on the day but had pulled away from them even further.

Back at the Hotel, Skip and I again locked ourselves away in the room to work through the cards to find out who had won the Trophies. Going over everything three times to make absolutely sure we were greeted with the absolute fact that not only had we regained the International title, but had won by a larger margin than we had thought possible. After two days of intense effort from both squads the British had won by a magnificent margin of 50lb 02ozs.

Once the calculations were finished, there was very little time left to prepare for the Superb Presentation Meal that had been booked, so after a quick shower and brush up we headed for the bar. Maybe it was my fist in the air as I rushed to the accommodation to get showered which gave it away, but by the time we entered the bar most of those present had already guessed or knew the result.

After what can only be described as a very substantial meal the presentations began. Both Skip and John Chambers spoke about how close and intense the match had been and both thanked the stewards, teams and squad’s management teams for all the hard work that they had put in to ensure that the International had gone ahead without any hick-ups; and then to the prize giving. First up were the Irish, and in turn each team member were presented with