For Agincourt read Aveyron
Tim Paisley

The French threw down the gauntlet: "Would we like to send a team of 25 pairs to Villefranche de Panat in the Aveyron region of France to compete against 25 French pairs?" I rang Kev Knight for help, like you would, and after considerable deliberation we accepted the challenge. Kev's sphere of influence through his Essex , Home Counties and Mainline-Fox connections are phenomenal. Until you have worked with Kev you cannot understand what a human dynamo this guy is. Between us, eventually, we had a team of 25 pairs of anglers willing to pay their way, travel the thick end of 1,000 miles, and put their reputations on the line to compete for their country against the French. Main sponsors were Fox, Mainline and Angling Publications, with alcohol supplied by Young's Brewery, courtesy of team member Tony Botterill. At great expense Mainline-Fox clothed the teams and runners - and supplied most of the bait - while Angling Publications supplied 1 ton of mixed seed and hemp and sundry other incidentals. But most of the funding came from the carp anglers themselves, and/or their sponsors, and God bless them for that. In an age when some spoilt carpers want paying to walk through their own front door it is refreshing to see the lengths and expense these guys went undertook to represent their country

On 29th and 30th September 2005 the English Armada set forth for the watery battlefields of Aveyron County. Base camp for the week was a pleasing gîte village on the west bank of Lac Panat de Villefranche. The weekend leading up to the 7.00 a.m. Monday morning draw was spent in assessing the two venues used for the event, Villefranche itself, and Le Jardinière on the River Tarn complex, half an hour from base camp, team meetings, and socialising. The road to Jardinière was a tortuous series of hairpins down a ridiculously steep mountainside - very picturesque but a journey which caused vertigo and nose bleeds in some members of the party (like the writer, and paratrooper Chillcott.).

The assessment of the venues was a real team effort. The draw was watercraft - turn about for the two countries. Fifty pairs competing meant that all the pairs had to have a clear idea of where they wanted to be, right down to fiftieth place. (Thirteen spare pegs meant you could move after the first day.) Lots were drawn for which country went first through the draw. French first. English team orders had already been agreed. Pegs 41-47 on the river had to go first, whoever came out of the hat. The biting northerly winds and heavy rainsqualls of the weekend meant that the lake was unlikely to fish well. The pegging of Le Jardinière stopped half a mile short of the barrage (for security reasons), which made the end peg, 41, a very desirable piece of real estate.

Although we didn't know it at the time the match was decided on the first number drawn. French had first choice: they opted for one of the Dam Wall pegs on the lake! French river experts, the experienced Team Cognac from Cornwall in the shape of Gary Thomas and Mark England were first out of the Brits. They actually fancied 46, but followed orders and went into 4. The combination of the desirable peg and their experience and expertise were to prove decisive. Those of us who saw them in action know that they were probably the only pair on either team who could have produced what they did from the swim. The rest of the draw was a mixture of the exciting and the disappointing. Match draws are a nerve-racking experience!

No to put too fine a point on it the lousy weather of the weekend and the first two days of the event killed the fishing. Largely thanks to the efforts of Team Cognac England gradually drew clear, although the fishing was so slow that the margin always remained close. In advance we had been warned to have enough sacks to cope with up to ten fish per night! Only Gary and Mark caught more than ten fish in the week! The weather and the enforced pre-event move from nearby Panat (also part of the Tarn system) meant that the results were not what the organisers or the anglers were looking for at all. The match itself was slow but exiting, but as an Aveyron County tourism exercise the event was a let down.

Like Amance in September the match became a test of endurance and mental strength as much as angling ability. Most pairs were fishing for a fish to make a contribution to their country's cause. The majority were disappointed. The five-day match wore on towards its Saturday morning finish, and looked to be heading toward a foregone conclusion until the talented Bohn brothers on the French team made the fateful Friday morning decision to move in to Peg 23 on the Lake, a little fancied bay that no one had really looked at twice. The hot weather of the second half of the week had turned the bay into a refuge for the carp, and the French started catching as soon as they made their move. Seven fish between midday and midnight Friday had hearts fluttering in the English camp, but six fish from Team Cognac over Friday night, with back up from four other pairs (first fish of the session for all four) saw the English team home by 43 kilos. The outcome felt much closer than that through the early hours of Saturday morning!

There was a quiet air of euphoria around base camp on Saturday afternoon, as battle-weary anglers relaxed and prepared themselves for the evening dinner and presentation. It had been a magnificent team effort, spearheaded by our match winners in Peg 41. There was some disappointment for those of us who hadn't contributed to the score, but the fact was that all the pegs didn't have the potential to produce during that difficult week. For the record just sixteen pairs out of the 50 competing got on the scoreboard. For many there was an ongoing frustration of over-active carp in front of them, with no apparent signs of feeding activity. The England win was a team effort through and through - nine English pairs caught compared to seven French - and no praise is high enough for those anglers who put themselves about, dug deep, and made sure that we were able to take up the French challenge and beat them at their own game, on their own patch. Heroes all.

The Saturday evening presentation ceremony was special. The French were disappointed, but were up for the challenge of a return match in England next year, or in two years' time. That idea is currently under discussion. At the dinner the speeches were made, the 'individual' pairs prizes awarded (Team Cognac by a street!), the defeated French team presented with their medals, then it was the turn of the English team to take centre stage for the presentation of the magnificent cup and medals. We bellowed our hearts out to God Save the Queen, took a million pictures, downed a few drinks, reminisced about the week past, and prepared ourselves for the early-hours start and long haul back through France and England next morning.

There was the odd international incident, but for the most part the French were magnificent hosts. The region is beautiful, and the week in question was hardly representative of the carp fishing the area boasts. The Lot is a few miles up the road; Panat is rumoured to be producing whackers, and the emerging Paraloupe is close at hand. Those venues represent just a drop in the ocean of the blue on the map of the stunning, mountainous Aveyron County.

At the presentation ceremony we learnt that the French are keen to come to England for a return match. Kev and I are talking about it. For the moment we are basking in the satisfaction of a difficult job well done - a job that couldn't have been done at all without Kev's remarkable input, the backing of the sponsors, and the patriotic fervour of 50 English carp anglers. Heroes all.

(Look out for more extensive coverage of he event in the November issues of Carpworld and International Carper .)

Team event
England 171.92 kg
France 128.35 kg

Pairs event
Thomas/England 104.79 kg
Bohn/Bohn 54.77 kg
Potdevin/Sirot Grandjean 21.41 kg
Lebreton/Giulio 17.06 kg
Kirrage/Hinson 14.75 kg
Gentile Marschall 14.14 kg