Friday 23rd June witnessed a large shoal of talented Norfolk anglers descend on Barford Lakes for the final day of the Norfolk Summer School Games.
Over 4o pupils from secondary schools across Norfolk came together to waggle their way to the spoils of being crowned Norfolk School Games Angling Winners 2017; after being worthy qualifiers from their Level 2 School Sports Partnership events . The day started with blue skies and a gentle breeze to welcome our angling finalists for the eagerly anticipated peg draw.
The pegs for the 3 hour match that would span three lakes and some six sections were sucessfully drawn and the anglers set about building their base for the days proceedings. The match witnessed many different approaches to tempt the wide variety of species that reside in Barfords three impressively kept lakes and it wasn’t long before floats were diving, tips were twitching and the nets were filling with Roach, Bream and a certain Mr Carp or two.
The quality of the weather was bettered only by the quality of the angling and the support provided by Barford Lakes staff and volunteers. Once again the work specifically of Sarah Thompson to work closely with those in the tackle and bait industry ensured our anglers were rewarded with huge amounts of “goodies” and our thanks to those companies, Copdock Mill, Preseton Innovations, Guru, Van Den Eynde.
These superb prizes, medals and trophies were given out to the top five teams, our 6 section winners and our best overall angler, which was all in addition to the bait, tackle and futher prizes all anglers received just for qualifying for today’s event.
The title of best overall angler went to Thomas Gell with and impressive haul of 22lb 01oz competing for Breckland School Sport Partnership.
Section Winners:
The three lakes were split in half to allow for six section titles to compete for and those lucky winners were:
Top Lake: Sonny Page (Norwich SSP) & Evan Raitt (West Norfolk SSP)
Pleasure Lake: Callum Garret (West Norwich & Dereham SSP) & Jacob Clarke (West Norfolk SSP)
Match Lake: Bryce Ingham (West Norfolk SSP) & Ewan Clarke (North Norfolk SSP)
Team Event:
1st: West Norfolk SSP (B)
2nd: Breckland SSP (A)
3rd: West Norfolk SSP (A)
The full list of final standing can be seen by clicking here.
Special thanks must go to Sarah Thompson and here team of volunteers that were absolutely superb not only today but all year long in their support for the local Level 2 Qualification events, without these dedicated and passionate people the event simply would not be the success it is.
All of today’s photos can be viewed by clicking here.