This brand new Championship will appeal to anglers who prefer to fish natural venues and enjoy this style of angling. The Championship is open to anyone 16 years and above with an entry fee of £40 per pair, with optional pools available on the day of £10 per angler. Pegs are limited and therefore will be capped at 100 pairs.
This Championship will carry a prize pot for the top three pairs of:
- 1st pair £1,250
- 2nd pair £750
- 3rd pair £500 (subject to entries and sponsorship)
As well as the Pairs Championship there will also be an open junior section run in conjunction with the main event on the same day open to anyone under 17 years of age. This event will be free to enter and all junior competitors must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
John Ellis, national fisheries and angling manager for the Canal & River Trust said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Angling Trust and Terry Nutt, and his team from Hodnet to launch this event. Canals are vastly underrated and offer some fantastic catches so we hope events such as this will inspire people to give their local canal a go. If all goes well this year then we hope to launch a full scale Canal Championships in 2015 with a series of regional qualifiers followed by a two day final.”
Ben Thompson, senior competitions manager at the Angling Trust adds: “Today's announcement of this new competition is great news and a sign of our ongoing commitment to anglers and match angling in England. It is important to us that we provide opportunities for anglers to participate in a variety of competitions and with individual and team matches well established, this pair's format will add to our offer to match anglers.”
Further details regarding entry details for this event will be announced soon. To support the pilot of the Championship this year those interested in taking part do not have to have individual membership of the Angling Trust.
