With bankside temperatures exceeding 42 degrees and evening temperatures of up to 35 degrees conditions were almost unbearable.

The River Guadiana in Merida however was in absolutely cracking form and the 15 competing nations enjoyed some of the best fishing ever in the Ladies Championship. In 2012 the European Championship produced some excellent weights of carp with fish of 2 to 3 kilos making up most of some 30 kilo catches. This time around however these bigger fish refused to feed in numbers and consequently did not play a major part in catches. Instead small 30 to 40 gram Carrassio's made up nearly all the weights making the competition a small fish race. Even bleak which were there in huge numbers became only secondary to the chunky Carrassio's with anglers catching up to nearly 500 of them each day.

England's plan of feeding a medium to heavy groundbait for a 3 metre whip and 6 metre pole line seemed to be a perfect plan with hardly a practice day going by without all the girls recording at least 9/10 kilos each. By feeding a small ball after nearly every fish this slightly heavier groundbait kept the bleak on the surface targeting the Carrissio lying underneath.  Also in fishing a small piece of worm on the hook bleak were almost eliminated. It was a plan used by nearly every team and those that did it better finished at the top of the table. The few teams expecting a late burst of carp fell by the wayside as with only a few exceptions the larger carrassio's and carp were conspicuous by their absence.    

England Ladies Manager Dave Brooks said “After day one we were lying in 5th place but only 8 points behind leaders Spain so it was not a disaster, but with other top teams all in contention we knew it would be difficult to win gold but with a good draw a podium position was still attainable.”

Day one
1st Spain 20 points
2nd Poland 22 points
3rd Czech Rep 24 points
4th Italy 26 points
5th England 28 points
6th  France 29 points

“On day two I saw no reason to change tactics but to try and be more efficient feeding both the whip at 3 metres and short line areas at 6 metres. It paid off to a certain extent in that we finished with two points less than on the Saturday. Unfortunately Italy, Spain and in particularly Poland who put together a remarkable session went further ahead but we did move up a place to 4th.  In all I was very pleased with our ladies having to fish whips for a species that we don't have in England complicated by ridiculously high temperatures making the result of finishing fourth almost bearable. The whole of our management team performed fantastically well and I can't thank them enough”.

The England Ladies team consisted of;
Julie Abbott, Helen Dagnall, Sam Sim, Abbi Kendall, Kayleigh Smith and Wendy Locker.
Manager: Dave Brooks
Assistant: Joe Roberts
Delegate: Dick Clegg, OBE
Squad members: Jeannette Halliday, Jason Kirk, Rob Wright and Adam Dowd.

Final 5 team classifications; 
1st Poland 33 points
2nd  Spain 35 points
3rd Italy 39 points
4th England 52 points
5th France 70 points

Final 3 individual classifications;
1st Silvina Turrini Italy 3 points (superior weight)
2nd Ornella Tosta Villino Spain3 points
3rd Larisch Bozena Poland 3 points  

Team England Ladies positions;
6th Helen Dagnall 5 points
14th Sam Sim 9 points
21st Abbi Kendall 11 points
23rd Julie Abbott 11 points

Wendy Locker fished the first day with Kayleigh Smith taking over on day two.

Dick Clegg stated “ I would like to thank everyone who helped to raise funds and in particular Sensas for their continued support in supplying all the groundbait and also MAP who kitted out the squad with clothing and luggage making us look a very professional outfit.  Thanks also to Sarah Taylor and her mum and dad for being in attendance and supporting and helping with bankside problems.”

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News