Tracy&James | Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Before I get into reviewing last weekend's casting competitions at the Ragley Game Fair I have to send out a big 'thank you' to the volunteers who gave up their weekend to ensure the event was a success. So to Steve, Lasse, Stewart, Howard, Dave, Chris, Nick and Helen, who was there as our photographer, it would have been impossible without you, so many, many thanks.
The weekend was not without its challenges, for example when we arrived on the Thursday we found the casting area to be heavily weeded, caused no doubt by the low water levels and strong sunlight that we've had for what seems like a couple of months now. I started trying to clear this by throwing a rake on a string, but after maybe an hour I realised I wasn't making much of an inroad to it. At this point Steve bit the bullet and decided to clear it whilst wet wading – he worked solidly for a couple of hours to clear the whole length of the casting courts. The public turning up to cast over the next few days would be totally unaware that without Steve's efforts they'd have been picking up and landing their casts in dense weed, instead of the clear water they probably imagined was there year round.
Chris also went above and beyond, not just helping out with the competitions and providing casting tuition as part of the FFI team, but also catering for the BFCC group on a couple of evenings.
Dave, Howard and Stewart barely left the casting area all weekend, always being on hand for timing duties, marking and generally offering tips and encouragement to those competing.
Lasse was also amazing having flown in especially for the event. Having someone with his experience of casting competitions there to help out was fantastic. He also impressed with his overall casting – I personally love watching him cast, even when he beat me in our left-handed S55 shoot-out on the last evening (albeit by 0.5m).
Tracy and I now have a bit of a rest from casting competitions, hopefully I can use this to help clear my residual tennis elbow before things start up again in September. We'll be keeping a close eye on the results coming out from Italy in August though – good luck to all who are casting there.
Hope you're having a great week,
James,