England announces team for 2008 European championships
The Confederation of English Fly Fishers (CEFF) has just announced the selection of the 2008 England Team for the European Championships. Paul Page, Team Manager, will have Iain Barr, Stuart Crofts, Jeremy Lucas, John Tysack, Tony Curtis and Dave Parker. Iain, Stuart and Jeremy were with Paul in Norway this year, where the team won the silver medals and Iain won the individual silver. John, Tony and Dave have all been in the European Team in former years.
This is a very strong team when you consider the combined caps that these six anglers possess, probably more than any other former team, and also the fact that having fished together so much in the past, including on many international campaigns, all team members gel so well together. The experience and dedication of the Team Manager also provide enormous strength.
The 2008 European Fly Fishing Championships will be held in northern Spain in the Cantabria region, where the mountain rivers are mostly narrow and very clear, with small populations of wild trout. This venue will be very different to the last three European venues of Poland, Slovenia and Norway. This year's World Champions, the French, and European Champions, the Italians, will certainly be hotly contesting the honours in Cantabria. The Eastern Europeans, always impressive, might feel slightly disadvantaged because of the absence of grayling, though a Czech team did manage third place in Norway this year, purely on brown trout venues. Team England will quietly go about our business and will always be competitive.
Exclusive to Fish & Fly
Jeremy will also be reporting daily for Fish & Fly readers from the championships with blog reports of all the days action and placings as they happen!