PHOTOS:
The winning Welsh team
Individual Champion Derek Gregory

 
Courtown, County Wexford, was the venue for  a gathering of anglers from England, Ireland and Wales to compete in the Home Nations Shore Championships to be fished over the following three days before Wales edged through in both team and individual competitions..
 
The Welsh contingent of eight included the five-man A Team of Phil Lustig (Manager), Ken Gainfort (Captain), individual winner Derek Gregory, Steve Lewis and Shane Tucker, together John O’Connor, Daniel Tucker (Junior) and Tina Lustig.
 

Good start for Wales

 
The weather was reasonable, despite the rough ferry crossing, but the forecast was not so good, with a mixture of showers wind and rain promised, but when competition day dawned it was beautiful, with no rain and just a slight off-shore breeze and even the odd shower held off until the fishing at Killoughter was over.
 
Ireland just held sway by one point from Wales with England in third but Ken Gainfort led the individual standings having caught lots of fish. Day two dawned and the weather had deteriorated a little, with fishing to be at ‘Old Bawn’, but once again the rain held off till the end of the match.
 
However, catches were patchy with the Welsh A team putting in an improved performance, to finish in pole position, albeit by only one point from the Irish, with the English a few points adrift in third.
 

All down to final day

 
In the individual standings very little separated the top few anglers. So, it was all down to the fishing on the last day at Clones, where fishing was better than day two but nowhere near as good as day one.
 
However, the weather threw everything at the anglers , with  horrendous winds, sharp heavy squally showers and then a full blown sandstorm but, despite this, the Welsh held on to take the Gold Medal by just that one point, with Ireland in the Silver Medal position and the English in Bronze.
 

Well done Derek

 
Individual Gold pin winner was Welsh angler Derek Gregory with Irishman Steven Glynn taking the Silver Pin & another Welshman, Steve Lewis, the Bronze pin. Two other Welshmen finished in the top 10 as Ken Gainfort came fifth and John O’Connor came tenth; no mean feat indeed.
 
All had a great time and the legendary hospitality, for which the Irish are famous, was exemplary and we must thank all our Irish friends, the staff at the Tara Vie Hotel, the owners of the Harbour House Hotel in whose houses some anglers stayed, and fellow anglers for help, a warm welcome and great friendliness.