06/09/2026
🏴🥇🏴🥇🏴🥇🏴🥇🏴🥇England back on top of the world after Portuguese victory! 🏴🥇🏴🥇🏴🥇🏴🥇🏴🥇
It’s been a while since the Angling Trust England Men’s team have been world champions, but that’s all in the past after a pulsating victory in this weekend’s World Championships in Portugal!
Roaring to the top of the table and winning gold after lying in fifth place after day one, a magnificent 13-point second day score saw England overtake the likes of midway leaders the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Slovakia to win by eight points from the Czechs, ending with an unbeatable 35 points.
There was also individual joy too as captain William Raison picked up the bronze medal with a four-point score thanks to a section third and first - all in all, a tremendous two days that’s left the new-look management duo of Mark Downes and Lee Kerry beyond delighted!
“After two hours of today’s match we knew we’d got 10 or 11 points and that we’d win – that’s how dominant we were,” said Mark. “We had the river sorted and even though we didn’t manage to avoid one of the bad pegs in A section, we knew we were strong enough across the other sections to still do well enough. And we were!”
“We’ve also had the right teams in our split of sections to nick points off,” he continued. “They’ve been the ones who were above us after day one, so we could do even more damage by not only scoring well, but by taking points off those we needed to beat into the bargain. On a personal note, Coruche has been a lucky venue for me – the last three times I’ve been here, we’ve won gold!”
Day one produced a 22-point score with James Dent, William and Matt Godfrey all taking thirds in section, Sean Ashby a fourth and Cam Hughes nine points from a terrible peg in his section.
Frankie Gianoncelli came in for Cam on day two and he posted a section win on debut alongside William and Sean, James taking second and Matt eighth from the dreaded A section. That added up to 13 points, a score nobody else could even come close to matching – and the deal was sealed!
“We were in a strong position with an hour to go, but on this river, there’s always a chance that a team could come from nowhere and pip you, so I think a little bit of us was conscious of that,” Lee revealed. “It didn’t happen, all of our ducks were in a row, and we won by a fair margin – it’s been a brilliant week.”
“Tactically, we felt focusing on the pole was key, with the waggler being more of a last resort. Two pole lines went in at 13m and between 7 and 9m, with very different targets,” he explained. “On the shorter line, it was about catching anything that swum – bleak, small barbel, boga and carassio – on pinkies over groundbait of Sensas Lake, Fine Carp and Giallia. Longer was for bigger fish like barbel and carassio, feeding groundbait initially and then topping up with Terre de Riviere and chopped worm, using worm on the hook.”
“We never really settled on something that worked the same way every time though – constant little tweaks were needed throughout practice and on both match days,” Lee revealed. “On Saturday night, we felt there was no need to panic and that to pull back seven points on the leaders was easily achievable. By little tweaks, I mean something like feeding a bit of corn long for bigger fish or going long as soon as we saw anglers around us catch a better fish rather than stay on the short line a little longer.”
The final word though, goes to Mark, who has now overseen seven world titles as Manager…
“It’s been 13 years since England won the World Champs – we’ve been on the podium several times but never got to the top – not through lack of effort I might add! That just goes to show how hard it is to win this event.”
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England’s day one scores:
Cam Hughes 9pts – peg A14 2-520
Matt Godfrey 3pts – peg B19 3-440
William Raison 3pts – peg C10 4-500
Sean Ashby 4pts – peg D6 5-340
James Dent 3pts – peg E3 4-650
England’s day two scores:
Matt Godfrey 8pts – peg A10 2-070
Frankie Gianoncelli 1pt – peg B6 2-960
Sean Ashby 1pt – peg C20 5-750
William Raison 1pt – peg D3 7-840
James Dent 2pts – peg E18 4-520
