Tim Paisley
from vision to reality..
and the vision wasn’t really materialising. In fact at times it must have seemed more like a nightmare than a dream! The event moved to Lac d’Amance. The nicest thing I can say about
Amance is that the infrastructure was almost as good as Madine, and the pre-event social scene was epic. In fact it was at Amance that I suffered a lost few hours. I think it was in 2003. We arrived early afternoon, and the bar was open. We had a drink. I was very tired from getting up early and travelling all that way so early evening I retired to the car for an hour’s nap (friends suggest it was to sober up, but I can’t recall that aspect). I woke refreshed and launched myself on the anticipated party scene with some enthusiasm. There wasn’t one. Everyone had gone to bed – because it was 1.00 a.m.! Well I say ‘everyone had gone to bed’ but that isn’t quite accurate because the mercurial Ray Dale-Smith accidentally fi nished up sleeping in a ditch he happened to stumble across in the very early hours. The other highlight from Amance was Simeon Bond and Martin Ford getting lost when they went to locate their peg. And I mean lost. (If you are getting the impression that these events are largely fi shed by grown-ups who never grew up then so be it. Collectively normally responsible people can act quite uncharacteristically, particularly when alcohol is thrown into the occasion.) Ross used to ring me fairly frequently
during the Amance years. The event was losing momentum. Amance was too peggy, and there weren’t enough productive swims. It was Blanksville for most competitors. In addition to which Ross wasn’t entirely sure that he was holding the event at the right time of year, which was why it was moved to spring one year. Moving to the spring meant it was still too peggy, but at least the fi sh were caught from different pegs. It’s worth recording that John Lilley and I came third in 2005 on the strength of a fi sh Lil caught, although for some reason there were no second and third place prizes, or even mentions, that year. Still, I got to see a WCC carp, and as it was the year Briggsy and I won our second World Cup I was pretty proud of the third place fi nish. Still am. During the 2005 Amance event Ross
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came up to me with the news that he had secured the Orient for the following year’s event. That was exciting, and I felt it would breathe much-needed interest into the event. Not only that, but boats were to be used in the event for the fi rst time. The buzz was terrifi c, as was the venue and the infrastructure... I’ve had to stop and think there because the Orient infrastructure wasn’t quite in place for the fi rst event. The main hall at Mesnil was being completed, and was still being completed as the event got under way. This caused the organisers no little anxiety
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in the run up to the event. That year Ross was badly let down
by the pegging and some other aspects of the organisation of the event and the impetus that had been gained by the move to Orient was diluted by the shortcomings. This was the year Lil and I were drawn on the beach by the harbour. We didn’t see any carp but some of the other sights we saw almost made that a minor detail! This was also the year of the Wheel of
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Misfortune, an extraordinary brainwave someone had (presumably someone who had had a lobotomy – apologies if it was you Ross!) to dispense with the tension and excitement of the draw and replace all that with a simple fl ick of the wrist. Unfortunately it was a limp-wristed fl ick, the wheel slowly stuttered through one revolution, and when it came to a
stop very few people were any the wiser about where they were fi shing, or where their swim was! I think Ross and his team now accept that the peg-by-peg draw is one of the highlights of a carp match and the reversion to a ‘proper’ draw at Madine – including the innovative ‘second chance’ aspect – over the last two years has added an enormous amount to the frisson of the event in the lead up to the match itself. The Orient was a great venue but the
‘Andy Chambers
joined the team and suddenly the vision
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was back on track and nearer to becoming reality’
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WCC 2006 event was not the organisers’ fi nest hour. Then Andy Chambers joined the team and suddenly the vision was back on track and nearer to becoming reality. Now I’m sorry if singling out Andy treads on anyone’s toes but the upturn in the quality of the running of the event coincided with his arrival, and the profes- sionalism has continued onwards and upwards with the move back to the original venue, Lac de Madine. Andy is a big-water specialist, and an ex-bank manager, which means he is familiar with the needs of anglers, and has the ability to organise. He is just one member of a well-organised team but for a number of years the main gripe about the WCC was the pegging. We now know that the organisers will have pegged the event to the best of their ability, which makes a huge difference to the attitude of the
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