Suffolk County take top honours at England Junior Pole Champs

Fifty of the country’s best young pole anglers gathered at Westwood Lakes near Boston for this year’s All England Junior Pole Championships in an event dominated by sides and anglers from the Eastern counties, with Suffolk County winning the team event by a slender two-point margin from Hunstanton Tackle, while Nisa Waveney finished third.

Individually, local rod Luke Morley, Boston Youth, took the honours in the Under-21 section, making knowledge of his home water count with a 55-5-0 haul of carp, tench and small barbel from the Hawk Lake – he fished pole and alternated pellet and chopped worm and caster.

On the Under-18 front, Hunstanton brothers Toby and Timmy Pepper took first and second – Toby winning narrowly with 54-2-0 against the 54-0-0 of Timmy on the Skylark Lake.

The team event was fought on the banks of the Skylark and Kestrel Lakes where Hunstanton seemed to be in control thanks to section wins from the Pepper brothers, plus a second from Tom Carlton and a fourth – with Suffolk youngster Tommy Cotterill the last to weigh in, the scores on the doors were simple. If he had roughly 30lb Suffolk would nick it, and he duly obliged with 29-8-0 to see the title heading back to Suffolk County for the first time since their win at Willow Park way back in the 1990s!

Under-21 result

1 L Morley, Boston Youth, 55-5-0
2 R Murphy, Suffolk County, 51-2-0
3 A Miller, Suffolk County, 45-6-0

Under-18 result

1 Toby Pepper, Hunstanton Tackle, 54-2-0
2 Timmy Pepper, Hunstanton Tackle, 54-0-0
3 J Balodis, Suffolk County, 51-14-0

Team result
1 Suffolk County, 6pts
2 Hunstanton Tackle, 8
3 Nisa Waveney, 14