Firstly we must thank our most generous sponsors. ULTRAMARINE, THE TACKLE WAREHOUSE, TRONIXPRO, ANYFISH ANYWHERE, WEYMOUTH ANGLING CENTRE, CHRISTCHURCH ANGLING CENTRE and DAVE'S TACKLE who provided the ISAC Team England with all the rods, hooks, clothing, cool bags, line and end tackle we needed to give ISAC the best chance of competing at this the highest club level in our sport. With your help and support we promise to do our very best. I must also thank everybody for their text and email messages. Keep them coming, our lads need all the support and encouragement they can get and it is so nice to hear what you have been saying. Thank you.

SPL Individual Champion DARREN NEWLANDS and I drove my Mazda Bongo to the Algarve with the teams kit and clothing, tracing the route used by past England anglers via Madrid. The 2,300km drive took us 22hr 30m at a steady national speed limit from Calais! We arrived about 9am on Tuesday morning and sort out the Villa, Hotel, venues and local tackle shop before meeting STEVE DEATHE, IAN DANCEY, ALLY HARVEY and JOHN BROWN at Faro airport around 7pm. After a pleasant flight and no trouble with volcanic ash, the lads decided they wanted to check out the beaches themselves and after that we got settled in the Villa and discussed a plan of action for the following day. We had a rough idea of what to expect thanks to some tutoring by DARREN PHILLIPS, IAN GOLDS and CALLUM GRAHAM whom you already know won a silver medal here just a month ago with the England Youth team, on the Sunday after our Lee-on-Solent match. We later enjoyed a pleasant steak and tuna special dinner at a restaurant in town returning to the Villa where the lads spent the rest of the evening making up traces and discussing rigs for our first real practice session in the morning.

The beach really was a 3 minute walk from the Villa so we decided to start here first. The venue is sand stretching either way from the Spanish border to Faro and at our location shallow with a couple of sand bars at 40m and 120m. The water was warm and nicely coloured. We set up similar to Germany with the team along a 200m section using the the rods so kindly donated to us. These worked exceptionally well with all members of the team catching fish during a 4 hour morning session. For the record John caught the first two. We left the beach at midday because it was really hot and I am worried about the team getting sun burnt. I don't want my lads disabled come the match days next week. I must admit the great thing about staying in a Villa away from the match Hotel is the fact that you can jump in the pool to cool down afterwards (ha ha). Steve gutted some good fish for a bar-b later and John, Ally, Darren and I went into town to seek out some bait, food, drink and after sun. We found a tackle shop and bought all the worms before two Italian teams walked in and then found a second shop and bought theirs also with the Italians walking in again after us, sorry lads:-) The team have just gone off for another 2 hour practice from 5-7pm at the same venue using rigs adapted from our first attempt this morning. The locals say this shallow beach is not as good as others along the venue particularly to the right where the sand drops down much sharper. I had a look while the team were doing the business this morning and found our German friends from Kuhlungsborn who had been practicing for 4 days (they need it). As soon as they saw me they put all their spare traces away, the buggers! Had a nice chat with one of their English speaking stewards from 2009, now in his team who said the beach was very much the same all along the venue. The locals said something similar with this section the poorest because it is much shallower. Nice to know then, that all our lads did well. I was left behind this afternoon to update this page for you all and will do my very best to catch up with the Round 3 tables as well. All the lads caught fish again this afternoon with the weather much cooler. Another pleasant meal out and back to the Villa for an early night.

We traveled to Manta Rota today the hotel location and match venue on day two and four. The weather was really hot again so lots of sun tan lotion was administered. We fished to the left of the main car park in a line of 5 at this massive sandy foreshore. Our worms had survived the trip well so we used those for a longer single period of fishing rather than two sessions in this heat. Darren landed the first fish of the day. This venue is highly recommended by Ian Gold's as one of the World's best match locations and we quickly realized what he had been raving about. All our lads caught fish using different rigs in order to seek the one that would give an advantage during the match days. We were later joined on the beach by the Brazilians and those German World Champions from 2009. Didn't see either of them catch much fish. A dip in the pool afterwards finished off another great practice day for everybody. Steve cooked off some of our catch which both he and Ian enjoyed whilst John, Ally, Darren and I helped ourselves to some local pizza. We later watched the Liverpool match at the local cafe and enjoyed a few beers to round off another positive session.

Our session today took us to Vila Real de Santo Antonio where the beach was much shallower, similar to our first practice sessions outside the villa. Everybody caught again on rigs we had discussed the previous evening so confidence is high. This time we were joined by the German second team, Dutch and Portuguese with the latter two leaving much earlier than us. We landed some different species here, than at the other venues so our rig making efforts tonight are to make sure we can locate them all at whatever venue and time of the match. All our worms from the UK have been used up and served us well. Thanks Ally, Steve and John for your digging efforts prior to us leaving. We topped up with some local Coreano worms imported from Korea. These were excellent. We had a small casting session on the beach outside the Villa to see how much distance we could get out of the Ultramarine and Fox rods with everybody casting within a foot of each other past the 100m mark. The lads seemed happy with that. Tonight we are rig making again and then packing everything away ready for the move to the hotel tomorrow. We have to hand back the Villa at 11.30 and I believe the lads are going to have another session at Manta Rota before we book-in for the competition at 1400. Thanks again for your text and emails of support.

After all the months of worry and preparation the day as come to book in. We made two trips from the villa to the hotel and was booked into two small flats on the same level, one with 4 bedrooms and one with 2. www.mantasol.pt for those of you who may be interested in taking a look. They will be more than adequate. The lads went off for a walk along Manta Rota beach to see what any locals were using and if any other teams were still out practicing whilst I attended the welcoming reception of teams at 2pm. We were all handed a nice bunch of freebies with t-shirts. 17 teams have booked in for the Championship the same as 2009. 2 from Germany (Meclenburg Vorpommern + LAV Sachsen-Anhaltev.V), 2 from Belgium (De Sportvisser Orca Team + Peen-Zeehengelsport Team), 2 from Brazil (Clube Barracuda de Desportos + Pampo Clube de Pesca) , 2 from Spain S.P.D.M. Cubelles + C. Nautico Santa Lucia), 2 from France ( Le Turbot Montois + Guidel Surfcasting), 2 from Holland (De Zeenaaid + Heense Molense Sportvissers), 2 from Italy (Team Lamezia Surfcasting + Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli), 2 from Portugal (C.A.P. Setubal and Casa Benfica no Porto) and the Individuals Sea Angling Club representing the Angling Trust and England. If any of you have got time could you check out their website's for us and see if they are also reporting on the Championship. They may have written some notes about their practice sessions that could be useful for us! Tonight we meet all the other squads for dinner at 8pm and look forward to seeing some old friends from last year. Let's hope the food is as good as in Kuhlungsborn. The weather is still baking hot.

Dinner last night was in a marquee just off the beach with a typical Mediterranean supper served up for all. A tackle shop set up close to the tent provided us with a few used up items during practice. John had a thought overnight of a new rig that we had all been impressed with and the team agreed to try it out later today. I feel confident that our lads are in the right frame of mind, talking fishing, rigs, ideas and options 24/7. It's impressive to watch and listen to them as they discuss targeting every species of fish on the beach. They look good in all our sponsors clothing also, this year we don't look out of place. The first Team Managers meeting at 9am this morning was a bit chaotic as FIPS tried out a new system of drawing names to pegs. Teams that registered for entry into the Championship draw a number on a pre-printed list of pegs on a first entered first come basis. A team members name was then drawn. A zone letter was then selected. The named angler was then placed into that zone from your team entry. On the official practice day I draw Steve out first placing him into zone B. The team Captain is competitor number 64 taking peg 7. Ian is competitor number 65, John 66, Ally 67 and Darren 68. The numbers follow on from what zone the named angler was placed in. Complicated by all 5 daily draws were completed in 1 hour 45 minutes, a new record the FIPS officials claimed. Looking at the system again I think it takes away the local advantage and the possibility of drawing more than one end peg in zone. I'm happy that I draw 4 end pegs over the 5 days. The lads left me to get on with it after breakfast and went off down the beach to try out another new rig! I'm told the wind will move around to the north over the next few days which will make the fishing very difficult. After the meeting I telephoned John to see how they were getting on and all had caught fish again. That's every practice session on every day that everybody has caught fish. No excuses then come match day. At 4pm we left for the Opening ceremony in Vila Real de Santo Antonio by coach and walked through their town. I believe we got the loudest applause from the local crowd on the stage when our national anthem was played because we are the smallest team here. Two teams from all the other countries are fishing but the UK can only get one! A very nice dinner in the marquee rounded off another positive day. The real action starts from tomorrow, that's what we've all be waiting for. The locals say the weather is coming from the north and that makes the fishing even harder! Nothing easy in this sport.

The official practice match was fished 2 hours either side of low water at Altura Beach with the promise of the hottest day of the year and a strong wind coming from the North. Apparently poor conditions at this venue. Come the weigh-in you couldn't really argue the point but it was a good test for the home organisation which I felt they past with flying colour's. Our lads didn't fair so well as in previous sessions but I think they were still testing rigs for the rest of the week, and I didn't want them to give too much away before the real competition starts tomorrow anyway. Ian weighed in first, followed by Ally and John which was ok. The one fish that we haven't caught since we've been here, whose name I'm not allowed to mention, turned up in reasonable numbers! The weigh-in seemed to go well with the organiser's again impressing. A slight technical hitch with the new computer system meant that the overall results wouldn't be known until later this evening. I'll attach them below for your reference. 9.30pm and the results are in and yet again it proves how important it is to get at least 4 anglers weighing in each day. I believe the team can do that and we will all do our very best to accomplish that goal tomorrow.

Practice Day 1030 - 1430bst at Altura Beach

A17 - Darren

B7 - Steve

C3 - Ian

D5 - John

E4 - Ally

1

Peen-Zeehengelsport Team

Belgium

3002

47

2

Heense Molense Sportvissers

Holland

2378

63

3

LAV Sachsen-Anhatev V

Germany

3176

73

4

De Zeenaald

Holland

2478

84

5

Guidel Surfcasting

France

1845

93

6

Meclenburg Vorpommern

Germany

1802

97

7

Casa do Benfica no Porto

Portugal

1339

141

8

C.A.P. Setubal

Portugal

1238

158

9

Le Turbot Montois

France

1188

174

10

De Sportvisser Orca Team

Belgium

998

175

11

Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli

Italy

1229

186

13

C. Bautico Santa Lucia

Spain

740

193

14

Pampo Clube de Pesca

Brasil

1067

196

15

S.P.D.M. Cubelles

Spain

838

204

16

Club Barracuda de Desportos

Brasil

634

219

17

Team Lamezia Surfcasting

Italy

626

231

1030 -1430 - ALTURA BEACH - Monday 3rd May 2010

Ian, John, Ally and Darren with a zone 2nd, scored points for ISAC today with our main target achieved of getting at least four anglers to the scales at this the hardest of the two venues on the toughest first day. The wind was again from the north and blew throughout the day which was a bugger with really light line traces but the lads did good in these testing conditions. We were doing nothing different to the other competitors, same rigs and traces but believe our line was heavier than our opponents and that out here will get you more fish. A total of 179 were landed by 66 entrants made up by 32 Garfish, 98 Mullet, 47 Mackerel and 2 Bass. Tomorrow we are going to scale down end traces even further to 0.14 Fluorocarbon, the smallest line we have ever used. Hopefully it may change our luck and we'll stay in the race. Beating the locals on there home beach will not be easy as the fishing is expected to improve come the end of the week. Thanks again for your text and emails of support.

Match Day 1 - 1000 - 1400bst at Vila Real de Santo Antonio Beach

A1 - Ian

B14 - John

C5 - Ally

D2 - Darren

E10 - Steve

1

Casa do Benfica no Porto

Portugal

4293

69

2

C.A.P. Setubal

Portugal

5069

78

3

S.P.D.M. Cubelles

Spain

4811

78

4

De Zeenaald

Holland

3027

101

5

C. Nautico Santa Lucia

Spain

4051

106

6

Heense Molense Sportvissers

Holland

3183

116

7

Peen-Zeehengelsport Team

Belgium

2767

126

8

De Sportvisser Orca Team

Belgium

2352

139

9

Le Turbot Montois

France

2315

144

10

Meclenburg Vorpommern

Germany

2311

150

11

Guidel Surfcasting

France

2074

160

12

Team Lamezia Surfcasting

Italy

1707

164

14

Pampo Clube de Pesca

Brasil

1992

176

15

Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli

Italy

1266

235

16

LAV Sachsen-Anhatev. V

Germany

888

238

17

Clube Barracuda de Desportos

Brasil

755

238

1000 -1400 - VILA REAL DE SANTO ANTONIO BEACH - Tuesday 4th May 2010

The Portuguese Federation started the match a half hour earlier than expected today thanks to a typing error on the French and English translation of the match planner. Of course by the time we had bait in the water our local colleagues were landing Garfish!!! There was a lot of unhappy Team Managers around I can tell you. On top of that a 1km gap was put between zone C & D which required a motor bike ride to get too. Suffice to say I only managed one trip to see Steve and Ian in their zones. Thankfully they both had fish which was welcome news by the time I reached them at 12pm. John, Ally and Darren had all landed fish within the first hour so all five brought fish back to the scales, a great result using the lighter rig bodies. John had 2 Mullet his best at 345g, 2 Gars and 2 mackerel to finish 11th in zone, Ally caught 3 Mackerel, 1 Weever and 7 Gars to finish 6th in zone our best result of the day and Darren landed 3 Gars and 2 Mullet for 12th in zone. At the other end of the beach Steve caught 3 Gars for 15th and Ian 3 Gars and 2 Mackerel for 9th. We have improved each day finishing a creditable 10th in the match today to move up one place overall into 12th. 81 of the competitors caught fish at Manta Rota despite the wind still coming from the north with Golden Grey Mullet yet again proving to be the fish to catch. The overall positions are at the bottom of the page.

Match Day 2 - 1030 - 1430bst at Manta Rota Beach

A17 - John

B7 - Ally

C3 - Darren

D5 - Steve

E4 - Ian

1

C.A.P. Setubal

Portugal

10,423

46

2

Peen-Zeehengelsport Team

Belgium

10,300

48

3

Casa do Benfica no Porto

Portugal

9,639

49

4

Team Lamezia Surfcasting

Italy

8,241

61

5

Pampo Clube de Pesca

Brasil

7,3982

87

6

Guidel Surfcasting

France

6,864

107

7

Heense Molense Sportvissers

Holland

6.349

109

8

C. Nautico Santa Lucia

Spain

5,293

131

9

S.P.D.M. Cubelles

Spain

3,898

170

11

De Zeenaald

Holland

3,873

179

12

Le Turbot Montois

France

3,101

180

13

LAV Sachsen-Anhatev V

Germany

3,496

197

14

Meclenburg Vorpommern

Germany

3,363

205

15

De Sportvisser Orca Team

Belgium

3,490

220

16

Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli

Italy

2.282

267

17

Clube Barracuda de Desportos

Brasil

1,265

299

1030 -1430 - MANTA ROTA BEACH - Wednesday 5th May 2010

We fished our hearts out today to stay in the race for a slim chance of getting a medal and got a great result finishing 3rd overall which moved us up into 9th place just 15 points behind the Belgium's. John was our top angler finishing 2nd in zone with 6 Mackerel and 3 Garfish. Ally finished 4th in his zone with 6 Garfish, Steve was 5th in his with 3 Mackerel and 2 Garfish with Darren scoring the last team points after finishing 6th in zone with 4 Mackerel and 1 Garfish. Ian also did well landing 3 Garfish and 1 Mackerel. The weather was a cool 21 degrees with the wind turning SW force 3. The locals are way out in front with CAP defeating our record low points score last year of 22 with just 16. Funny how a 500m gap between zone C&D placed their top angler on the same hot mark as Day 1! Home advantage I suppose! That's great fishing anyway but they are on their home beach, we were in Germany. Our aim tomorrow is to secure a top 10 finish and beat the German team that took gold from us in 2009. They are currently 15th :) Many thanks again for your text and emails of support.

Match Day 3 - 1000 - 1400bst at Vila Real de Santo Antonio Beach

A10 - John

B8 - Ally

C1 - Darren

D9 - Steve

E14 - Ian

1

C.A.P. Setubal

Portugal

8,623

16

2

Penn-Zeehengelsport Team

Belgium

6,295

62

4

Casa do Benfica no Porto

Portugal

4,090

82

5

C. Nautico Santa Lucia

Spain

4,313

86

6

Team Lamezia Surfcasting

Italy

4,475

97

7

Pampo Clube de Pesca

Brazil

3,792

124

8

Guidel Surfcasting

France

3,590

140

9

Meclenburg Vorpommern

Germany

3,036

159

10

Le Turbot Montois

France

2,710

159

11

Heense Molense Sportvissers

Holland

3,247

178

12

De Zeenaald

Holland

2,871

180

13

LAV Sachsen-Anhatev V

Germany

2,181

217

14

S.P.D.M. Cubelles

Spain

1,792

231

15

Clube Barracuda de Desportos

Brazil

1,692

242

16

De Sportvisser Orca Team

Belgium

2,133

243

17

Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli

Italy

1,184

278

1000 -1400 - VILA REAL DE SANTO ANTONIO BEACH - Thursday 6th May 2010

We had sussed how to catch the Garfish and Mackerel that were expected to dominate the final day and felt that we could gain that top 10 finish we all longed for from our first trip to the Algarve. We were joined at the event by CHRIS CLARK the Angling Trust's FIPSM representative who added some experienced tips for the lads. Once the match had started all ISAC Team members had caught fish within the first half hour and set about thereafter to bag up as best as possible during the four hour event. The wind had changed to the SW which brought on some of the conditions that we had enjoyed during our practice sessions the week before by adding a bit of colour to the water. This also saw some Bream at the scales. The team did exceptionally well again with Darren and Steve finishing 5th in zone, Ally 6th, John 8th and Ian 13th. We finished 5th on the day and 7th overall which everybody agreed was an outstanding achievement for a group of lads that had only fished in the Algarve for 8 days. We had improved our overall position each day and were the top Northern European Club behind the podium places. The Gala Dinner at a top local restaurant was superb, as was the organisation of the Portuguese Federation who clearly hosted the Championship on a no frills budget. The local Manta Rota club stewarded the whole event which in my opinion was better than Germany in 2009. They were excellent. In summery, I am certain a British Team can win this World Shore Championship but home advantage is the key to ultimate success.

Match Day 4 - 1000 - 1400bst at Manta Rota Beach

A5 - Darren

B13 - Steve

C6 - Ian

D12 - John

E5 - Ally

1

C.A.P. Setubal

Portugal

15,127

26

2

Casa do Benfica no Porto

Portugal

14,029

30

3

Penn-Zeehengelsport Team

Belgium

11.754

50

4

Pampo Clube de Pesca

Brasil

10,248

66

6

Team Lamezia Surfcasting

Italy

8,643

115

7

C. Nautico Santa Lucia

Spain

7,622

128

8

Guidel Surfcasting

France

6,801

141

9

S.P.D.M. Cubelles

Spain

6,087

174

10

Heense Molense Sportvissers

Holland

6,141

184

11

Meclenburg Vorpommern

Germany

4,661

195

12

Le Turbot Montois

France

6,033

197

13

De Zeenaald

Holland

4,281

207

14

LAV Sachsen-Anhatev V

Germany

5,161

210

15

Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli

Italy

4,389

217

16

De Sportvisser Orca Team

Belgium

4,234

234

17

Club Barracuda de Desportos

Brasil

1,492

327

1000 -1400 - MANTA ROTA BEACH - Friday 7th May 2010

1

C.A.P. Setubal

Portugal

2

1

1

1

5

2

Casa do Benfica no Porto

Portugal

1

3

4

2

10

3

Peen-Zeehengelsport Team

Belgium

7

2

2

3

14

4

C. Nautico Santa Lucia

Spain

5

8

5

7

25

5

Team Lamezia Surfcasting

Italy

12

4

6

6

28

6

Pampo Clube de Pesca

Brasil

14

5

7

4

30

8

Guidel Surfcasting

France

11

6

8

8

33

9

Heense Molense Sportvissers

Holland

6

7

11

10

34

10

S.P.D.M. Cubelles

Spain

3

9

14

9

35

11

De Zeenaald

Holland

4

11

12

13

40

12

Le Turbot Montois

France

9

12

10

12

43

13

Meclenburg Vorpommern

Germany

10

14

9

11

44

14

De Sportvisser Orca Team

Belgium

8

15

16

16

55

15

LAV Sachsen-Anhalt V

Germany

16

13

13

14

56

16

Hobby Pesca Fishing Club Napoli

Italy

15

16

17

15

63

17

Clube Barracuda de Desportos

Brasil

17

17

15

17

66

FINAL TABLE