Do you remember the Embassy Pairs - Talk Angling fishing chat and tackle advice

Oneabung · 14th September 2006, 10:12 AM

Any of you guys used to fish the embassy pairs?

I used to really enjoy the Embassy, won my section a couple of times, but never lucky enough to qualify as my partners blew out ... came 7th one year when the top five pairs went to the final, that was quite exciting until we got read out 2 points short! Bugger!

Anyone else used to like fishing the embassy pairs?

The Runner · 14th September 2006, 02:45 PM

"Don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" as the song says.

I used to generally only fish the odd qualifier as National Practice as they would always be the week before the National. Until the final year of the comp, only got close to qualifying once when I lost a double figure carp on the Bassi after a 20 minute run around on a 4 elastic, which would have got us to the final.

In 2002, usual pairs partner was unavailable so joined up with a teammate in the same position on the GUC at Northampton. We won the qualifier dropping only 6 points out of 300 with a collective 12 lb or so of gudgeon and scrap roach which was a display of pretty inappropriate skills for the Ebro...

Anyway, we managed 4th in the final in Spain. Its a good job Dave and I split the winnings 50/50 as if it had been performance related I'd have been lucky to get a tenner out of the £1500.First day saw me on the receiving end of the mother of all batterings off the next peg by Carpmagic- around 190lb to 70....and 6 points from 20, made worse when found that Dave had won his section.
Redeemed myself a bit on a very hard second day with 18 points and we sneaked in fourth.
Wish had fished it a lot more over the years now.Good though the AT pairs probably is, two days at Larford isn't the same as a week in Spain or Denmark....

royst · 14th September 2006, 09:46 PM

I remember it well, Markc and I fished a round on the Trent. The draw was in a pub in Gunthorpe, a bit of a treck for us Brummies

. Mark drew conveniently outside the pub and I drew miles away I think I was at a place called Shelford, it was back in the car and a very long walk

I dont think we did very well as it fished hard,

but it was nice to rub shoulders with a few of the bigger names in the sport at the time. Its going back a few years now, I think Jan Porter was one of the section winners.

EJAYAR · 14th September 2006, 10:36 PM

I fished a few with my mate Peter, fished the Nene one year, Trent at Gunthorpe another time, and canal at Melksham (or was that a fisho?), plus a few others. That was before the tobacco sponsorship was killed off, thought someone else might come in and sponsor it but it died a death instead.

I always got a free entry courtesy of Petes 20 a day habit, remember counting those blue 5 point tokens out of the ciggies, sure I must have reciprocated with a breakfast somewhere though??

aye, happy days!

carpmagic · 15th September 2006, 06:43 PM

Your rite the Embassy was a superb competition. The Runner i remember being next to you in Spain, i caught nowt the day before the match in the practice session and thought i must be doing something wrong. Match day 1 suggested i mite not have been that wrong after all. Day 2 saw me on the snag pit from hell! Although on the brighter side my feeder bag wasn't half light on the way back!!

MarkC · 15th September 2006, 10:23 PM

Yes Roysty & I did fish an Embassy qualifier on the Trent, I remember it well apart from what year it was

I remember it took ages to draw, the queue seemed to go on forever, ( Jan Porter was just in front of us in the queue Royst, don't rember him winning his section though).
When you got your peg number you had to refer to a load of blackboards with directions on for the sections, people were racing off in their cars, all trying to follow the 1 person in their section who knew or claimed to know the way

I was so relieved when I asked someone where my peg was and he pointed straight to it from the pub car park, only about 100 yards away

It must be a few years ago, cos it was when I was fit & still playing football & didn't need a trolley

It was a great competition, giving every angler, regardless of stature a chance of qualifying for the final, which in its self was a great prize! Embassy really did sponsor it then, with the finalists being flown to the venue & accommadation sorted. I can't think of any competitions these days that are sponsored to that degree, can you?