WEYMOUTH Angling Society member Ryan Casey, 17, has been called up to the England Youth squad and will represent his country for the first time at a shore match in July.

Casey’s success in both shore and boat fishing competitions in the last 14 years was recognised when Neil Bryant of the Angling Trust asked him to submit an application to fish for England.

As Sport England does not finance fishing, Casey will have to find funding for his debut and he is meeting that challenge head on with a walk of Chesil Beach from Chesil Cove to West Bay and back in one day.

It is an arduous task which rightly deserves the sponsorship that the teenager is looking for, and you can sponsor him by contacting Weymouth AS on 785032.

Any money raised above the amount he needs will be put back into the Weymouth AS junior section to promote and support junior angling in the area.

Casey would like to thank Andy Selby of Weymouth Angling Centre who recognised his promising match career by sponsoring him for the last four years with supplies of tackle and bait.

CHESIL CHAMPIONSHIPS

WITH winds easing and only a few scattered showers around, 62 anglers were tempted out to fish this year’s Chesil Champion-ships.

The fishing proved to be good for half the anglers with West Bexington producing plenty of dogfish and a few smoothounds too.

An 8lb small-eyed ray was caught from Cogden but after six hours of fishing it was Gus Parkman who claimed victory, closely followed by Paul House in second and Terry Hartnell in third.

The winner this year scooped the top prize of £225 plus £150 pool money and a rod, second won £150 plus £90 pool and third took home £100 plus £60 pool.

Three ladies battled it out for their £50 prize with Lynn Mudford winning with two dogfish and, from the four juniors competing, Connor Hallett took the top junior prize of a tackle voucher plus fishing reels.

There was £62 up for grabs for each of the heaviest round fish and flatfish pools and results were as follows; heaviest round fish, M Ayles (3,735g small-eyed ray); heaviest flatfish, L Downton (115g dab).

Thanks go to the generous sponsorship this year from Chris Chappell of Seaton Angling Centre and Nathan Cox of rodringsandthings.co.uk.

The prize table was very impressive with nearly £1,000 in cash paid out, including pools.

Fishing prizes were also awarded down to 10th place with additional prizes for best lady and junior, and the presentation ended with a good selection of prizes from the raffle table.

Thanks also go to Style Tiles for putting up the ladies’ prize and the club would also like to extend its sincere gratitude to all at Freshwater Beach Holiday Park for the use of their excellent facilities.

Prize winners; 1 G Parkman (8,750g), 2 P House (8,240g), 3 T Hartnell (6,690g), 4 S Critchell (6,170g), 5 R Preston (6,130g), 6 R Cleal (5,960g), 7 P J Wheeler (5,850g), 8 B Stockley (5,730g), 9 M Ayles (5,660g), 10 B Bradstock (4,875g), 11 A Cross (4,225g), 12 J Brown (4,160g), 13 S Fowles (3,820g), 14 D Smith (3,385g), 15 M Sparrow (3,295g)

Heaviest round pool: M Ayles (3,735g small-eyed ray)

Heaviest flat pool: L Downton (115g dab)

Best lady: Lynn Mudford

Best junior: Connor Hallett