Rarely did I ever manage to come close to beating a Mohmar squad member off the next peg. If I had ever drawn next to Ian Moulton I would have been well advised to sit behind him and pick up a few top tips.
Quality cutmen
The following anglers represented the Mohmar team at various times:
Harry Moulton, Ian Moulton, Andy Billington, Simon Preece, Russ Mee, Steve Morris, Geoff Warrilow, Paul Gibson, Jeff Moors, Andy Moors, Jim Keeling, Alan Arundel, Alan Brammer, Peter Price, Ted Stanley, Andy Fairclough, Andy Locker, Russ Dowding, Tony Barker, Sam Wildsmith, Andy Wildsmith, John Barlow, Paul Spenser, Dave Pickering, Chris Tudor, Alan Cornwell Derek Robertson, Neil Davies, Simon Keeling, Fred Latham and Steve Amison.
Is there is anyone that we have missed? Please do let us know.
Record national performance
The 1992 Division 4 National was held on the Witham. Bloodworm was banned, but joker wasn't. Armed with ample joker for feed and as hookbait, the Milo Mohmar team stormed to victory by 114 points, miles clear of Team Ossett who themselves recently achieved national glory by winning the Division Two National in 2017 to add to their 1991 Division 5 success.
Mohmar scored around 91% of the maximum possible point score that day. That is the equivalent of every angler featuring in the top ten in his 80-peg section, a remarkable achievement and a record for the division at the time. Mohmar went on to reach the top division in 1995 after successive promotions through the divisions. Sadly, by 1998 anglers had move on and the team was wound up.
Following in father's footsteps
Ian, often known as Fozzie due to his curly hair and possible resemblance to a character on an American children's TV show can barely recall his father's role in Wyche Anglers 1976 national success when they finished runners up to the mighty BAA. Not that long later, aged just 14, young Ian shot to national fame when he took the highest weight in the final of the 1984 Silstar Pole Championship. The official record books show that ABC's Richard Borley, later to be part of the 1985 national winning team was the official champion.
What happened was that England team manager Roy Jeffery had approached the event organiser, John Lynch, with a view to allowing some promising youngsters an opportunity to fish against the best pole anglers under match conditions. Ian was one of those promising youngsters. His tactics that day were based on a bloodworm and caster with seven metres of line between the top of his 10-metre pole and hook. As Ian had not qualified through the heats, he was never declared champion nor did he pick up any winnings for his trouble. But in the minds of most anglers, he was the true winner of that match.
Young England career
Roy Jeffery had certainly spotted a winner. The following year Ian was a shoe-in for the England team in the inaugural world junior championships held in Belgium. Back then the event was, like the Olympics, held every four years. A young Stuart Conroy was also in the team and admitted ‘the Belgians were years ahead of us in their knowledge of bloodworm and joker fishing. England trailed in sixth but both Ian and Stuart gleaned a vast amount of knowledge from the experience that was to reap future dividends.
