Brenton Sweeney and Paul Leese win Irish Continental Pairs on Lough Sillan

Barry Roche reports on the Irish Continental Pairs which was fished on Lough Sillan on the weekend of 23 September…

Saturday and Sunday September 23rd and 24th saw this years Irish Continental Pairs take place on Lough Sillan Shercock Co Cavan.

This new event attracted much interest thanks to the generous sponsorship from IFI with anglers travelling from Champion Feed in  Belgium as well as the many UK and Irish entrants.

In particular the visiting party of Belgian anglers and their partners made a weeks holiday of the event staying in the Virginia and Carrickmacross areas for the duration of their stay.

With a weeks heavy rain in the days preceeding the event angling conditions deteriorated somewhat with a deluge of cold water making fish reluctant to stay on the 13m pole line.

As this was a continental style event it was decided to run the event on points with the section winner receiving the lowest score and so on.

The scores came in on day one and it was evident that the Irish Feeder Team pairing of Brenton Sweeney and Paul Leese were going to be hard to beat.  They topped the field on day 1 with 5 points, followed by Irish Festival Regulars Derek Buckley and Mick Smith 7 points, Niall Mc Kitterick and Donncha Maguire 10points and Eamonn Bracken and Trevor Golton 12 points.   Top weights of the day went to Darren Halley with 8.060kg and Barry Roche with 7.060kg both off Sillan Deeps with Eamonn Bracken winning the Caravan Park with 4.820kg.

The second day saw a reversal of sections with no change in the leaderboard.  The caravan Park resulted in a closely fought battle with Brenton Sweeney and Donncha Maguire scoring identical weights 4.460 kg.  SIllan Deeps was won with a phenomenal performance on the pole by Irish International Tommy Dowd who scored 19.080kg, unfortunately his partner John Heys didn’t fare as well.

When all anglers returned to the Lakeside Manor Hotel in Virginia it was evident that the pairing of Brenton Sweeney and Paul Leese had maintained their dominance of the event and won the match.  Derek Buckley and Mick Smith second, Donncha Maguire and Niall Mc Kitterick third and Eamonn Bracken and Trevor Golton.

This was a great event which was well run and proved hugely popular given that the event was fully booked weeks before the event.   The travelling contingent from the UK and in particular Belgians  including Alain DeRouck, Robby DeCock, Guy Coemann, Mario De Decker and Johan Meulenberg and partners thoroughly enjoyed the event and look forward to returning in 2018.