Write a comment
Forty years ago today the World Freshwater Angling Championships took place on Newry Canal . The two day event took place on 4 and 5 September 1982 on the 1.5km stretch of the historic Newry Ship Canal from Victoria Lock back towards Newry, where the Carlingford Lough Greenway currently is.
The event was a significant coup at the time for our area. It took till 2015 before there would be another international event on the canal, the Home International. Sadly there is no plaque to mark the World Championships anywhere along the canal.
At the time Newry and Mourne District Council hosted the competitors and visitors at a welcome reception in Newry Town Hall although at the time accomodation was catered for in Newcastle.
Newry man Oliver McGauley who was the Irish Team Manager in 1982 said at the time that the canal was the ideal venue. "There has been regular competition fishing on the canal for the last 10 years and in the early years competitions were decided by large weights of bream; indeed in the Ulster Open Championship of 1971, the winning weight, by Harold Pattison was approximately 56 kilos and this remains a canal record."
He added "However in these early years, as is usual on bream waters, catches were not evenly distributed and some anglers would catch very little. Recently, however, the fish in the canal seem to have spread out - so much so in fact that in summer competitions on the canal in recent years only grams separate the catches weighed by anglers. It is this eveness that led the organisers, the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland, to choose the Newry Canal as the venue for the XXIX World Freshwater Angling Championships. It is certain that the luch of the draw will play no part in deciding the winners of this event."
The Netherlands team cam out winners in Newry with France runners up and England place third.
Individually Kevin Ashurst from England came out on top with M Thill from USA came second and F Bartolas from Belgium third.*
* Source wikipedia
