Tracy&James | Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Last weekend was the Blenheim Game Fair where the BFCC ran the fly casting competitions over the three days in lovely sunny weather. The entry was the biggest we have experienced to date at an English Fair and we were kept very busy all day, every day. We did manage to socialise in the evenings, though as the weekend progressed the bedtimes got earlier as we were all so exhausted. There were some good aspects to the weekend location as the public certainly found us, in droves, however the space we had was extremely limited so there were several situations where people were actually hit with the backcast – thankfully it was only a bit of fluff! Access to the pontoons was also a little treacherous and muddy so we had to keep a close watch on everyone.
There were lots of issues with the organisation of the event that meant more people camped near us than originally planned. However it was lovely that the FFI casting instructors were right next to us, as this meant we had much better socials in the evenings, especially as Chris had brought his 'gadget' to play music as we drank red wine with cheese, olives and dried meats (purchased from the GF retailers), frequently followed by whisky. As usual James and Steve sampled the alcohol more than most, in particular on the first night, that led to a very late morning for James with several coffees before we could let him anywhere near the public.
With the layout provided, we had to improvise with Chris doing lots of gardening so we could run an accuracy event and actually see the targets. Also we arranged the distance court so that the entrants cast across the 'river' with judges in waders stood on an underwater causeway (used for horse cross-country events) and an area demarcated on the ground behind to stop people walking into long backcasts. Normally we would run the marking ropes parallel to the bank so that the markers can stay on dry land, but this wasn't possible due to tall reeds completely obscuring the view of the water.
There were a few instances of dunking, one was James when he tried to mark one of my distances just before dusk (as this was one of the only times I had the opportunity to set a distance result). He was so intent on trying to mark the cast, he couldn't see the edge of the 'causeway' that the judges stood on and slipped off to chest level. Obviously the casting session finished abruptly so James could dry off and change, and instead the drinking started. The 'river' was pretty mucky so the waders and his wet clothes absolutely reeked; thankfully Chris had brought his marquee and this became the drying area for the team's waders and wet clothes as Steve also fell in backwards the next day whilst trying to dodge a cast and not impede the distance. This led to a round of applause from the onlookers and casting instructors.
The comps involved casting #5 Trout Distance, S55 Salmon Overhead and Accuracy, all with the BFCC club outfits, however we were kindly lent a rod by Scott Mackenzie when we realised we had left one of the Trout rods at home. The Daily comp outfits were more 'user friendly', whereas the Championship ones, where you had to cast all three events, were more challenging. There were lots of tackle issues that kept James and the others constantly tying new leaders, replacing fluff and on one occasion trying to fix a rod handle. Much of the damage to leaders was due to the back casts having to contend with very high foliage and some tall posts that were supposed to be holding the pontoons secure.
In between casting and drinking, Nick and Chris managed to do some fishing in the river – the interest peaked on the first day when we all saw fish chasing our fluff as we stripped it back to recast. In fact James had a jack-pike jump to his fluff at one point. Following lots of discussions with other anglers and fly-tyers and after buying many flies, they both caught, I think one even got a fish that was bigger than the fly, only just though!
It was lovely to see some of our friends come along to support and compete, specifically Gilly, Marina and Ally. This meant I actually had other female casters experienced in comps enter the Championship – which is a rare event for me. Over the weekend my evening results from the Friday meant I won the overall Championship though Marina was a close second. The Junior Championship had some strong entrants and the boys gradually upped their results on different days that ultimately led to Jack Gow winning the overall champs for the second year – he's definitely a potential for the UK team in the future.
The men's Championship was also hard fought, although some of the strong casters in the daily's perhaps should also have entered the Champs. It was closely contested with James taking the win with Steve, Nick and Stewart following – showing that the UK team have good overall casters. The Final held on Sunday afternoon proved difficult due to the weather as we had very hot conditions with 'spiralling' light winds, resulting in casters experiencing head winds, side winds or no wind during their time slots. Nick won the final and became the BFCC Game Fair Overall Champion for 2024 winning the gorgeous 'salmon' trophy. He was presented it by James as the previous holder and also given a BFCC trophy to take home.
It was a great weekend, enjoyable but exhausting, and a great place to catch up with friends and make new ones. Huge thanks to all the team who supported as James and I couldn't have done any of it without them. Next BFCC event is only a few weeks away near Bakewell and this one always involves some fishing for us.
Cheers,
Tracy
PS – Nick and I did the annual GF hunt for horses – hence the photo