SAMF QUALIFYING HEAT – RESULT SHEET AND MONIES RETURN FORM

This Result Sheet and Monies Return Form should be returned to the secretary together with a cheque payable to SAMF covering the qualifying heat entry monies within 14 days of the Heat.

Please Click Here To print and fill out the form

Click Here to print the official Length to points chart.

SAMF UK MASTERS QUALIFYING EVENT RULES

1. All heats should be notified to the secretary within a minimum of 1 month either using the form below, or by e-mail.
2. All heats must be open events, however, dispensation may be sought for league series matches.
3. All heats, including roving matches, must be at least zoned; pegged events are the preferred format.
4. Entry fee to all heats is £4.00 per angler.
5. 1 in 5 competitors in the heats qualify. In the event of a tie on points/weight then countback on fish numbers decide. If both anglers still tie both qualify.
6. All qualifiers MUST CATCH FISH. If nobody catches a fish the entry money is still proper to the Masters prize fund.
7. Heat organisers must be a Personal Member of the Federation.
8. Heats organised in conjunction with established opens or other qualifying matches will offer optional entry.
9. Rule and size limits can either be SAMF* or Organising club.
10. A minimum of 5 qualifying entrants constitutes a heat. However if only 3 or 4 anglers wish to make a heat this can be done as long as a minimum of £20.00 is forwarded. Numbers are based on total heat entrants, not numbers of entrants in a section. The number of qualifying anglers is decided to the nearest 5 i.e. 17 entrants = 3 qualifiers, 18 entrants = 4 qualifiers etc. Where possible, qualifiers should be selected from section or zone results.
11. The Results Sheet and should be returned to the secretary, together with a cheque made payable to SAMF within 14 days of the Heat.
12. All finalists will have to be a Personal Member of the Federation to fish the final.

*SAMF Match Rules for information/duplication purposes and match cards will be available if required, however postage costs for match cards must be re-imbursed.

To Print out a form please Click Here

SAMF COMPETITION MATCH RULES – JUNE 2008

1. All SAMF matches should be pegged and conform to the weight/measure system. All fish to be measured down to the nearest CM (minimum size 18cms).
2. To benefit from the public liability insurance all persons fishing a SAMF match should be paid up members. The organisers shall not be held responsible for any loss, accident or damage occasioned to any competitor, official or member of the public.
3. Anglers must have their bag searched by an adjacent angler before the start of the competition. The match card must be signed in the correct place by the checking angler and their peg number recorded.
4. Fishing will be from a peg allocated by means of a draw. Anglers must fish from no other peg number or position. The redrawing of pegs is not allowed. Anglers may cast from any point equidistant from theirs and the adjacent peg, but must then return to their peg. Any angler that leaves the venue taking their fishing tackle with them will have deemed to have finished the competition and will not be allowed to take any further part in that days competition.
5. The organisers will signal the start, and finish, of the competition. Anglers are permitted to wet their lines without bait up to 20 minutes prior to the commencement of the match.
6. An angler is permitted to have spare rods set up with reels lines and baited traces attached, but can only have one line in the water at one time.
7. Spare baited traces are allowed and no more than three hooks may be attached to any trace. Treble hooks count as three hooks. Anglers must attend their own spare traces, assistance in any form such as unhooking fish or baiting up is not allowed.
8.  Restrictions on bait, tackle or methods, if applicable, will be notified to participants by the organisers. Feathers and lures are not allowed.
9. Anglers wishing to use ‘power casting’ styles should use a minimum of 50lb breaking strain shock leader. Furthermore it is recommended that the breaking strain of the shock leader should be a minimum of 10lb per oz of weight used. In the interests of safety competitors will be advised if any type of casting is banned. Anglers are permitted to cast immediately after landing a fish, however the retrieval of this cast is not permitted until the anglers fish is recorded by the steward or the adjacent angler on their official match card.
10. Assistance may be given to land a fish but no one other than the competitor may handle the rod. In pier competitions assistance to land a fish with a drop net is permitted, as is hand lining the fish up the pier or promenade wall, providing it can be lifted clear of the surface and not pulled through the water towards the angler.
11. The deliberate foul hooking of fish is not permitted, however foul hooked fish are allowed. In the event of a fish being hooked by two or more competitors then the one whose hook is in the mouth is deemed to have caught the fish otherwise they are not eligible for weighing in. Neither are fish caught on lost traces allowed. 
12. As soon as a fish is caught it must be put in a bucket of fresh seawater (contaminated or bloody water must be changed) and taken in the bucket of water to the adjacent angler to be measured, witnessed and recorded on the match card. All fish are measured from the tip of their snout with mouth closed to the end of the tail fin. All rays are measured across the wings.
13. Care should be taken in the unhooking of fish. A wet rag should be used to handle fish and anglers should use a disgorger or similar tool to assist deep hooked fish. Care in handling fish should be a consideration at all times.
14. It is each angler’s responsibility to ensure all undersized fish are returned to the water immediately. Any physical attempt to extend their length will lead to disqualification. Fish that are kept for the table must be of minimum ministry size for the area and should have their tails cut, witnessed by the neighbouring angler.
15. Anglers should, where possible, go to their right to have their fish recorded. In the unlikely event that the angler on the right is your pairs partner or team member, then you must go to your left to have the fish recorded.
16.  Anglers must comply with any request from a neighbouring angler to check and record their fish details accurately on their match card. Common sense dictates this should be done at a convenient moment e.g. not when the angler is reeling in or casting out! !
17. Details on the match card should be recorded in ink. Pencil is not acceptable.
18. Anglers must be in possession of their match card at all times during the competition and it is their responsibility to ensure that the details are recorded accurately. The exchanging of cards with a neighbouring angler is not allowed.
19. At the end of the competition anglers must have their match card underlined immediately underneath the last recorded fish, total weight/length/ points recorded and signed as a witness by the adjacent angler. Competitors have one hour, or a period specified by the organisers, for bringing their own completed match card back to the HQ.
20. Competitors are responsible for keeping their match cards in a good, legible, state and that the details are accurate. Damaged or unreadable cards may be disqualified.
21. Any complaints must be submitted to the organisers, in writing, within one hour of the end of the competition. A protest fee of £10 must accompany the complaint, which is returnable if the objection is upheld. The decision of the organisers will be final in the event of any dispute not covered by these rules.
22. Weavers, mackerel, sea trout, salmon and all shads are banned.
23. Competitors must produce their match card on request by a match official or steward at any time during the competition.
24. Any angler reported leaving litter or throwing litter into the sea during or after the competition will be disqualified.
25. All anglers are stewards. It is in everyone’s interest to see that correct procedures are adhered to, to ensure fair play.
26. As well as the aforementioned rules, the rules of fair play will apply. Anglers must conduct themselves in a manner within the spirit of the sport.

The organisers reserve the right to refuse entry to any angler, and any failure to comply with these rules could render you liable to disqualification from the competition on that particular day. Furthermore any angler found cheating will be immediately expelled from the Federation.

The AGM was opened at 12.10 pm by the chairman, John Amery who welcomed everyone to the meeting. He commented that it was a good turn out of members.

APOLOGIES

Apologies had been received from Darren Phillips & Nick Haward.

MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING AND MATTERS ARISING

The minutes from the previous meeting were circulated prior to the meeting and were proposed as a true record by Hugh Rathbone and seconded by Eddie Painter. The only matter arising was brought to the attention of members by Andy was about the website, which had been put on hold until the outcome of the negotiations with AT. We had now commissioned Dene Conway to progress the website.

CHAIRMANS REPORT

John announced that his previous intention to stand down this year had been put on hold and that he was prepared to stay on for a further 12 months. The main reason for this was the problems surrounding the newly formed Angling Trust and our subsequent step back from integrating with them. He then went on to explain what the Angling Trust was trying to do and the problems they had been experiencing.

Everything else he wanted to say would be covered by the Agenda.

SECRETARIES REPORT

Andy explained about another difficult year with membership down again to 205 members, and out of 107 qualifiers only 50+ had entered the Masters. We had to cancel the Individual league final because of lack of interest, and no matter what we do it does not seem to have the desired effect. We have introduced size limits, converted back to weight and produced new venues to no avail.

There is too much infighting going on within the federation and this needs to stop, in this climate we all need to pull together if we are to succeed in taking the federation forward.

Once again this year there have been complaints about the lack of qualifying events, and Andy pointed out that any member can organise one. However we are aware that in some areas there are not enough anglers to fish qualifiers and travelling can be difficult and expensive these days. To try and overcome these problems and to boost entry to the Masters Andy proposed a two tier qualifying system, qualifying in the normal way, and he proposed that we should accept entries from members who have not qualified but are prepared to pay the full £20 qualifying entry money. This obviously goes against what the Masters was all about but times are changing and we need to do something to reverse the trend. Nobody had any objections about this so we will trial it for the 2010 Masters.

On a positive note Andy said he was pleased that John was staying on for another year, the challenge match in Holland had gone well and he congratulated the team, and also for the first time in a while we had actually used the selection process for the Forces Challenge.

Andy went on to thank the committee for their work, especially Eddie and Hugh for organising the Individual Leagues, Darren for organising the challenge matches, Nick for running the Pairs and John for all his support throughout the year. Andy also thanked members for their support and in particular those in attendance at the meeting.      

TREASURERS REPORT

Copies of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting and were accepted as a true record. There were no questions about the accounts. The following is the treasurers summary:

The above figures show that SAMFs worth is £6537.42 which is an increase of £229.87 from 2008. However we have to bear in mind that this year we have not had the Forces challenge yet and we had a free year from the NFSAS for the third party public liability insurance. If these figures were to be in the accounts this year then we would be showing a deficit. With only 147 members (202 members in total) renewing their annual subscription it did not give us much of a budget to play with this year. The steps we have taken in the past has largely done away with the losses we were suffering however it is obvious that our income is only just keeping the federation going, and this despite our running costs, such as postage, printing & stationary, telephone & broadband reducing by £545 this year. 

Despite all of this we are still in a relatively strong position, we just need to continue being careful with expenditure. For this reason I propose that SAMF subscriptions remain at £20 for 2010.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The following people were elected:

Chairman – John Amery

Vice Chairman – Eddie Painter

Secretary – Andy Steele

Treasurer – Mary Steele

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – None

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Shane Russell

North East – Bob Gascoigne

Anglia – Ian Bowell

Sussex – None

Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mark Rogers & Mick Davies

Essex – Ian Reynolds

South West – Hugh Rathbone

Individual League Organisers – Eddie Painter & Hugh Rathbone

South Wales – Joe Arch

Humberside – Rob Neale

DAIWA PAIRS

A report had been sent by Nick:

Despite the difficult financial climate, the SAMF 2009 Daiwa Irish Pairs again attracted a significant turnout with 120 anglers competing in this prestigious annual fishing week. As always the competition was very tough with Eammon Foggerty and Paul Whelan from Dublin taking top honours, with Colin Carey and Darren Bond in second place. A full report and result listings can be downloaded from www.irishpairs.co.uk

Because of problems with accommodation, HQ etc. this years event has been brought forward one day so that registration will be on Friday 24^th September and the first match will be on Saturday 25^th September. The prize presentation night will be Thursday 30^th September. Again full details are on the website.

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUE                   

Because of the lack of support this event has been cancelled

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUES

John reported that following the cancelling of the final in 2008 he had agreed to co-ordinate the event in 2009. He was pleased to report that there would be an entry of 29 teams to fish the final, which would be at Eastbounre 21/22 November.

Numbers had been boosted by allowing qualifiers from 2008 to enter this years final, as well as 2009 qualifiers. He stated that the entry illustrated that this is still a popular event and he hoped it could mover forward from here.

He thanked Ian Hopper and Kevin Morgan as local organisers for all their help.

If anyone wants to start a league, or resurect an old league in their area then they should contact John for details. john@sa-mf.com

CHALLENGE MATCHES

No report had been received from Darren but Andy explained that the SAMF v Belgium & Holland had been recently fishing in Holland. Despite bad conditions and difficult fishing the SAMF team had won the event, gaining back our pride after the previous disaster in 2008. It was our turn to host the event in 2010 and Darren was making arrangements to fish at venues in Lymington Hampshire in July.

The AGM was opened at 6.30 pm by the chairman, John Amery who welcomed everyone to the meeting.

APOLOGIES
Darren Phillips, Nick Haward. Dick Penny
MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING AND MATTERS ARISING
The minutes from the previous meeting were circulated prior to the meeting and were proposed as a true record by Shane Russell and seconded by Bill Lindfield. There were no matters arising.
CHAIRMANS REPORT
This has been quite a traumatic year for SAMF.
Following the dramatic loss of support for the 2007 Masters when only 60 members fished we sat down and wrote to all members with a questionnaire regarding the future of SAMF.
First may I thank all who responded, some 120 of you took the effort, which was very encouraging.
The results were analysed in depth and formed the major part of the committee discussions in July. The July newsletter gave full details but briefly you wanted the following:-
Better communication. It has been agreed that we will establish a web site and also attempt to build up an e-mail address book of members for easier communication. The web development is not moving as fast as desired but we hope to be up and running shortly.
There was a 50/50 split regarding the Masters being intense/social. We have decided to look at venues which will cater for both.
72% voted in support of the challenge matches…BUT… where are you. We still struggle to make up teams.
Similarly the World Clubs. 61% in favour…not one application.
The Individual League was favoured by 84% and it is hoped that this is an event which will grow.
Catch and return was favoured by most people, but some had reservations about targeting small fish. Hence the application of size limits on Cod, Bass and Whiting this weekend. There are no Ministry limits for the other species. Personally I think we may have to consider this aspect again, it means that an 18cm flounder will be awarded points, a 34cm cod will not.
We all agreed that we would in future ask the opinions of all our members, not just those attending the AGM, on any major issues so that all could have an input.
We suffered the ignominy of coming last in the International Challenge with Belgium and Holland, something which has not happened before, but we did maintain our winning record in the Forces Challenge.
The National Sea League had to cancel its final due to finalists not supporting the event. Keith Morley had already announced he was not running the final after this year so the league is looking for a new secretary. We will be contacting all leagues in the near future but I have said that if necessary I will organise the final in 2009 so please go ahead with your local league.
Finally a brief report on Angling Unity. The 1st of January will see the start of Angling Trust an organisation made up of the merger between NFA, NFSA, ACA,NAFAC and SAA. This new body will be acknowledged by Sport England as the Governing Body for sea, course and game fishing in England. They will be responsible for running national and international competitions and investing in angling development and educational programmes. It is envisaged that ADB will join Angling Trust later in 2009. Membership of NFSA, NFA will cease and they will no longer exist. Their members will be invited to join AT.
This has happened over the last 12 months and whilst there was a lot of sceptism at first I have to say that they have got themselves organised very well. We will have to wait to see how anglers respond to their existence.

SECRETARIES REPORT
Andy said that most things he had to say would be covered by the meeting. Starting on a positive note he was pleased to see an increase in entrants to this years Masters which was up to 97 from last years sixty. He was sure that the committee decision to look for new venues would generate more interest, as the decision to go to Skegness next year was proving.
However membership was down again this year by 17 to just 230 members, and this despite having sought re-newals from past members which had generated 20 extra members.
There were real problems with lack of organisers, not just for qualifying events but also committee men. This year we have received resignations from Dick Penny, the Sussex representative and Keith Morley, the National Sea League Organiser. Replacing these two is going to be difficult and considering this AGM meeting is in Sussex there was not one local member in attendance. This federation needs new blood to generate new ideas and interest and it also needs more of the existing members to get more involved. Andy pointed out that any member can organise a Masters qualifier in conjunction with any other match and that once again we had to use two non members to make up the Forces Challenge Match Team.
Andy went on to thank the committee for their work, especially Eddie and Hugh for organising the Individual Leagues, Darren for organising the challenge matches, Nick for running the Pairs and John for all his support throughout the year. Andy also thanked members for their support and in particular those in attendance at the meeting 
TREASURERS REPORT
Copies of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting and were accepted as a true record. There were no questions about the accounts. The following is the treasurers summary:
After several years of reporting losses I am pleased to say that the accounts show we have just about broken even this year with a reduction of £228.42 in SAMFs worth.
Last year I said that I was going to write out to all past members to try and increase membership and as a result 20 ex members re-joined, which just about covered the extra printing and postage costs. Unfortunately we still suffered a reduction in membership with 17 fewer members than last year. The sending out of the questionnaires and circulation of the results also increased our printing and postage costs.
We have had to take some severe steps as a result of falling income, namely a big reduction in the amount of sponsorship we give to the various competitions. 
I am also altering a loophole whereby we give new members who join to fish the Masters their membership for the following year as well. It has been noticed that some members have not been re-joining in January and waiting until the Masters thus getting the following year free. This will now only apply to brand new members.
We still need to be careful about our expenditure but I do not think an increase in subscriptions is necessary next year.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The following people were elected:
Chairman John Amery
Vice Chairman – Dick Penny had previously indicated he would be standing down. It was Proposed by Andy Steele that Eddie Painter take the position, seconded by Hugh Rathbone, Eddie was duly elected
NB. At the prize presentation on Sunday evening Dick Penny was presented with a framed angling print, signed by artist Mick Graham, a regular to the Irish Pairs. Dick was thanked for all the effort he has put in for SAMF over the years
Secretary Andy Steele
Treasurer Mary Steele
AREA REPRESENTATIVES
South West Scotland – None
North West – Bill Lindfield
North Wales – Shane Russell
Anglia – Ian Bowell
Sussex – None
Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips
Kent – Mark Rogers
Essex – Ian Reynolds
South West – Hugh Rathbone
Individual League Organisers – Eddie Painter & Hugh Rathbone
South Wales – Joe Arch
Humberside – Rob Neale
DAIWA PAIRS
A website has recently been produced dedicated to the Daiwa Irish Pairs. This is an excellent piece of work by Darren Smith and Nick Haward has said that anything members needed to know about past and future events can be downloaded from www.irishpairs.co.uk
INDIVIDUAL LEAGUE 
Eddie reported that fishing had generally been poor at Eastbourne. 33 anglers fished this year’s competition and the winner was Dave Read from Stowmarket. Next years event was planned for Blackpool on 16/17 October. Eddie is looking for organisers to help him expand the event.
NATIONAL SEA LEAGUES
John reported that there had been problems due to lack of support for this year’s finals due to be held at Blackpool, which were subsequently cancelled. Also Keith Morley had told the SAMF Committee that he was stepping down after these finals so the Sea League is looking for a new organiser. John has told the league organisers that SAMF would run this years finals if no organiser is found therefore they could go ahead and run leagues in confidence of a final being held.
CHALLENGE MATCHES
Report received from Darren Phillips
SAMF v Belgium v Holland
This year’s challenge match against the Belgian and Dutch federations took place on
3~ 5 October. The event was hosted by Belgium and as usual the headquarters
were at Wenduine, The matches were originally scheduled to be held at Knokke and
Wenduine. However, due to adverse weather conditions resulting in storm force winds on the
beaches the first event was held in Zebrugge harbour on the Friday evening and the second
in daylight at Knokke
Zebrugge Harbour proved to be a tackle graveyard, especially in the first 20 or so
pegs, although there was plenty fish to be caught it was difficult to get fish up and over the
ledge using UK style rods and reels. Both the Belgians and Dutch chose to target smaller
Poor Cod, Pout and Whiting by using small hooks, mostly size 8 to 6 with correspondingly
small baits. Coupled with long rods and high retrieve fixed spools they were able wind fish in
quickly over the already tackle strewn ledge. Even then the opposition still lost gear although
their losses were not as significant as ours. To further compound the problem, most of us
used larger hooks and baits on size 2 and 4 hooks which resulted in generally larger but
fewer fish, these larger fish were even harder to get up over the ledge. It was interesting to
note that in many cases 14 or 15 of our fish were worth 25 to 30 of theirs but larger fish are
worth little when left on the sea bed. The problems with retrieval and subsequent tackle
losses in the first zones saw SAMF punished severely finishing in third place with Belgium
in second and Holland victorious after day 1
Day 2 saw us back on the open beach in what looked like perfect conditions. The
wind direction had changed and was now off the left shoulder, the sea was increasingly
calming and the water well coloured. Despite the conditions the fishing did not live up to
expectations with 8 fish being the most caught by any one angler. A few Codling appeared in
the early stages of the event with Bass, Sole and Whiting putting in an appearance later on
Despite an overall day win for SAMF team member Steve Durrant along with some other
credible performance from the SAMF team we again finished third this time behind Holland
with the Belgians performed exceptionally well on their home beaches and overtook Holland
to win the event
Once again the Belgians proved excellent hosts and organisers. This was to be our
worst result ever with 6 of our team in the bottom 7 in the individual table. Tough lessons
have been learnt and the opposition is improving at a great rate. The decision to move from
teams of 20 to 15 has been a great leveller and both the Dutch and Belgian teams had many
anglers with full international experience. Next years event wilt take place in the autumn and
will be hosted by Holland. Both of the proposed venues will hold a lot of fish with catches of
up to 70 fish per angler But and it is a big BUT, both venues have a steep ledge allegedly
worse than that of Zebrugge Harbour. We have been told that shorter UK rods will be
unsuitable and multipliers a definite no go. Anyone interested in applying for next years event
and helping avenge our defeat should contact either the Secretary or myself.
SAMF v Combined Armed Forces v Fire Service v Police Service
The event was hosted by the Combined Armed Forces and contested on the Kent
beaches of Deal and Hythe on 3-4 November. The first match was held in darkness at Deal
followed by a daylight event on Hythe’s Princes Parade.
The fishing at Deal took place in blustery conditions and despite heavy rain at the
start proved to be dry The fishing was extremely good along most of the venue with Whiting,
Codling, Pout and Dogfish making up the majority of the catches. In the main most were
caught no more than 60 yards out This was to be a closely contested day with SAMF
emerging victorious by an 8 point margin followed CAF, Police and Fire Service. Only 38
points separated 1~ to4th places.
Day 2 saw us start fishing on a bright sunny day in increasingly clearing water.
During the first 3 hours very few fish were caught, with just the odd Gurnard. Bass and Sole
putting in an appearance. However, as dusk approached the casting skills of the SAMF team
came to the fore as Whiting began to be found in increasing numbers, leading to a last minute
dash in the final hour. SAMF won the day with 57 points, I believe this to be our best ever
day win dropping only 12 points from the 45 point maximum achievable score
After the final count up SAMF retained their 100% record in this event with CAF
finishing as runners up, followed by the Police and Fire Services. The CAF were excellent
hosts and many commented on the quality of the presentation meal and the surroundings in
which the event took place.
General
Once again forming teams for these events has proved to be difficult You are all
reminded that these competitions are open by application to all SAMF members.
including those in Scotland, Ireland and Wales and are a great stepping stone and
learning experience for those who have aspirations of an international career. If you
would like further information regarding these events do not hesitate to contact me.
NIGEL ROBINSON
Ian Bowell had run the latest match in conjunction with one of his opens and £ 40 was raised for the fund. We are looking for someone to organise an event for this year, details can be obtained from the secretary.
WORLD CLUBS CHAMPIONSHIPS
John reported that no SAMF team had been entered in 2008 because of lack of applicants. It is hoped that more people will be interested in the event in 2009 when it will be fished in the Baltic, hosted by Germany. The matches will be fished at night, mid-November, and target species will be cod and whiting. Chris Clark stated that the fishing would be very much like our own winter fishing.
PEOPLE WISHING TO BE CONSIDERED FOR SELECTION SHOULD CONTACT JOHN AMERY 01995 61211, john@sa-mf.com , by the end of January.
FINALS 2009 – SKEGNESS
George Smith gave a report. He is still trying to find a headquarters which could accommodate all the competitors altogether in one location. Fishing will be onto clean sand for whiting and codling, and going into darkness.
ALF 
ALF has been dormant over the last 12 months. Funds in the account total £ 12234
PROPOSALS/RULE CHANGES
No proposals or rule changes had been received.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Dick Able challenged George Smiths proposals for the Masters in Skegness being fished into darkness, given SAMF’s commitment to try and make the event more ‘sociable’.
Johns reply was that if the event had to go into darkness to enable better catches to be made then that is what would happen, however consideration would be given to making sure the event did not go on too late. 

MEETING FINISHED AT 7.30 p.m

Meeting opened at 11.45 a.m.

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES:

Apologies received from Mark Rogers, Bill Lindfield, Rob Neale & Nick Haward
Attended – John Amery, Andy Steele, Dick Penny, Eddie Painter, Hugh Rathbone, Darren Phillips, Ian Bowell, Tony Thomas & Keith Morley.

2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING/MATTERS ARISING –

      Because these were more than 2 years old they were not discussed and there were   
no matters arising                                  

3. CHAIRMANS REPORT – everything to be covered by the agenda, in particular the results of the survey.
4. SECRETARIES REPORT

A lot of time and effort had been put in, with John’s help, to send out a newsletter and survey in January to all past and present members. The result of which will be discussed further down the agenda. However we have experienced a further fall in members with 179 having joined, 20 of which were from past members that would no normally have re – joined. This was compared with 247 members last year. Everything else would be covered by the agenda.

5. TREASURERS REPORT

The accounts show that SAMF worth is £7713.49, an increase of £1150 from the 2007 AGM. However some of this is due to increased stock levels e.g. rods but it was an encouraging situation. Obviously the question of what events to sponsor would affect the eventual outcome this year. Andy made the point that members at the AGM had given us direction on what to sponsor but Andy felt that that was a little unfair given that an AGM is not represented by all the members. Eddie raised a question about the NILC monies and it became obvious that some organisers had not yet sent in their returns. ACTION POINT – Eddie

6. SURVEY RESULTS

John handed out survey results and we went through each item. He thanked everyone for their replies and said that we had received a good number of returns. We went on to discuss each of the subjects to consider what to do about members main concerns:
Web site – Darren had looked into this in the past and explained about the problems, especially with the costs. It was felt however that we needed a web site to promote SAMF and  to include things such as a match calendar and a forum.  
Tony explained about an angler he knew who had offered to produce and run a website for us for £5 per month. A unanimous decision was made to take up the offer. ACTION POINT - Tony Thomas.  We also went on to discuss other issues such as advertising revenue, problem with updating, commitment once a month. Individual’s access, document policy, control mechanism etc.
ACTION POINT – Everyone to e- mail bullet points of what they think should be on the website to Tony.
Darren requested a list of members e-mail addresses. ACTION POINT Andy
ACTION POINT – Everyone to set up an e-mailing database (except dick)
Sponsorship – We then went on to discuss the withdrawal of funding for events and what members actually benefited from by being a member. We discussed membership fees and whether to reduce but them, but it was felt we could not afford to do this at this moment in time. The Web Site would help people understand the benefits of being a member and the costs we have.
We had a discussion on why membership is falling and concluded there were several reasons, but we have to try and get these anglers back.
The question of funding for NILC was discussed because it was the only event, apart from the Masters, where it is a member’s only competition. Eddie explained that he expecting up to 65 entrants but if he thought funding was necessary he will ask, it was more than likely to be self funding with a £10 entry fee
Venues – We need to diversify and find different venues for Masters/NILC to get more interest. Andy explained that we had a proposal for the Master in 2009 to go to Skegness which should achieve this, and when it was the South West turn it we look for another venue other than Chesil. We went on to discuss reducing level of prize money and spreading it around i.e. in zones. Andy said that he had some ideas for the Masters which he would outline under that Agenda item.
Future format - Darren had an idea to take SAMF forward, suggesting a league incorporating all events. Andy agreed that something needed to be done but those kind of ideas were too involved to discuss at this meeting and that maybe we would need another meeting in the future to reshape SAMF in its entirety. It was also suggested that the website forum could generate good feedback for this.
Challenge matches - John explained that 62 people had responded to the survey, wanting to fish challenge matches and the world club championship, and that we now have a database to use to target applicants.
Masters – there was a 50% split on night v day matches. The committee decided that there was a need to select the right kind of venues that would produce good fishing in the daylight and possibly going into early darkness therefore giving the social element. Because we now only seem get one proposal (if that!) for the master’s venue at the AGM it was also decided that we would go to the AGM prepared with all the details of next years Masters. This would take away the voting/discussion/ arguments from the floor and give us more control of the details. This will also mean having a committee meeting prior, say an hour, to the AGM to decide on these details.
It was also decided that where there is no local organising committee at the Masters, then the Area Rep will need help from the SAMF committee with such things as pegging.
Bait Bans – A discussion took place on whether to have bait bans and the committee decided unanimously to ban white ragworms from all SAMF events because they were not freely available to all anglers and that there were environmental issues at the few places they could be collected. However it was said that we should be selecting venues that would restrict the need for specialist baits like white ragworm. Additives would not be banned because the rule was difficult to police.
Fishing methods – It was decided that we would have no restrictions on fishing methods, such as banning freeline float fishing on Chesil. There were rules already in place to protect other angler’s i.e. fair play / conducting themselves within the spirit of the sport.
Catch and release – the results showed 100% in favour of keeping the catch and release system, but there was a strong feeling that we should go back to size limits, which would only affect cod, whiting and bass. Andy suggested that if having an 18cm size limit was stopping anglers from entering competitions then we should go back to having size limits and see what affect this had on numbers. Being only on a trial basis we could return to the existing system if this failed. Hugh seconded the proposal. There was a vote whether to introduce the size limits on whiting (27) cod (35) and bass (36). It was carried 7 to 2 in favour.
It was also suggested that we needed to get strong on the need for conservation and how anglers were handling fish. For example we need to enforce the rule that anglers should have a bucket, and use it properly. We also need to educate people on conservation issues, and that we could use the website forum for this.
It was suggested that anglers should not sign for a fish unless it is carried in a bucket of fresh sea water, Andy said that  he would remind anglers of this rule in the Masters correspondence. ACTION POINT - Andy

7. MASTERS 2007 REPORT

Andy gave a brief run down on the 2007 Masters held at Pwlhelli. Only 61 anglers had fished what was a very successful event, with 2679 fish caught over both days. In fact in one of the zones on the first day the last person had 20lb of fish. Unfortunately we have been a victim of our own success because the large numbers of dogfish and the darkness had generated a number of, unproven, accusations of cheating. The adverse weather on day 2 proved the benefit of having a reserve venue organised. Andy thanked Shane Russell and his team of volunteers for their input into the event and the pegging of the beaches..

8. MASTERS 2008 – PEVENSEY BAY

The event, being held on the weekend of 14th, 15th and 16th November, was already in the process of being organised and John has written to Paul Parsons of the Eastbourne Angling club to use their premises for the HQ. Dick is the local organiser and Tony will be a there to use his result system. Andy will produce the Match cards. It was decided to stick with original charts/rules sheets but we needed to add turbot and brill in the unclassified section. There were 84 qualifiers at present and the qualifying period was up to the end of August, anglers can now start qualifying for the 2010 event.
Andy said that some members had suggested making the Masters an open match to promote SAMF, the committee felt this was too soon but it was something to consider for the future if we could not generate more entrants.    
The event would be run to the new rules on size limits and baits.
Andy explained that it was getting quite expensive to fish the Masters, especially if you had to pay membership, it was therefore decide to reduce the entry to £15.
As a result of the survey feedback Andy also suggested reducing the main prizes and spreading the prize fund around in the zones. This would also encourage competitors to remain for day 2 even if they had done poorly on day 1. It was decided to have a top prize of £750 and only pay the top 3 overall. The top 3 would have had to do well in the zones and would therefore have their prize boosted by the zone prizes, which will be paid down to 5th place.
We will also use the continental system of decided the zone results which will need communicating effectively to the anglers, ACTION POINT – John and Darren to provide the details to Tony
Andy suggested limiting past winners automatic entry to the last 10 years, but the committee decided we should continue with the present format to try and encourage the past winners to enter.

9. MASTERS 2009 – NORTH EAST

At the 2007 AGM George Smith made a proposal to take the 2010 masters to Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast. This was approved in principle and Andy is to contact George and ask him to put together the details for the  AGM in Pevensey Bay. ACTION POINT – Andy to contact George

10. BELGIAN CHALLENGE

Darren explained that the Belgians wanted to host the 2008 event in November/December, still with teams of 15. Darren was asked to contact them and ask for a change of date, if possible. ACTION POINT – Darren.

11. COMBINED SERVICES CHALLENGE

The proposed event was to be on Kent beaches with the Burstin Hotel as the HQ with late October, November having been suggested as the dates. Once again Darren was asked to contact them about a possible change of date. ACTION POINT - Darren

12. NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE

Keith explained about the event planned for Blackpool on the weekend of the 1st November. It will be run to SAMF rules, with a ban on whites, and measure and return to the size limits. The matches will now start at 10.00 a.m. and the reason to move the dates because of accommodation problems. The event could not be put back any further to allow fishing into darkness because it would then be just before the Masters. The HQ is the Norbreck Castle.
The 2009 final will be in the South East  and Samphire Hoe was suggested as the venue, also, with this venue it would be the ideal opportunity to have a bait supplied competition i.e. ragworm and fish only. There would be a reserve venue at Deal or Princes Parade.
Keith asked about the competitors having third party public liability insurance. The committee decided that if they were not already a member of SAMF, the NFSA or could provide proof of their own insurance the he would have to levy a £5 temporary membership. Andy can provide a list of existing members to Keith. ACTION POINT – Andy & Keith.
Keith also told the committee that this would be his last time as organiser and that he would be standing down after the Blackpool event. A volunteer to be requested at the Finals meeting.  ACTION POINT – Keith & John.

13.  NIGEL ROBINSON MEMORIAL MATCH

Ian ran the event this year in conjunction with the Suffolk county match raising     £40 for the fund. Darren volunteered to run the 2009 match on Samphire Hoe, further details to follow. ACTION POINT – Darren.

14. DAIWA PAIRS

Nick sent a report to say that 60 pairs have already entered, this was slower than usual and that he could accommodate more entries. Only 3 cottages were available. The strength of the Euro could cause a levy to be raised at the registration. There will be a new venue tried this year, Bana Strand. He has asked Andy to promote the event in the next newsletter to try and get the numbers up.
The committee also decided that, similar to the National Sea League, to ensure that every angler is insured all entrants must either be a SAMF member, NFSA member or have their own third party public liability insurance. If not then a £5 temporary membership should be levied. Andy can provide Nick with a list of members. ACTION POINT – Nick and Andy

15. INDIVIDUAL LEAGUE

      Eddie reported that 2008 final would be held at Eastbourne on 18th/19th October.   
As previously reported he was expecting 64 to fish the final, and with entry monies
totalling £1920 he felt that he could put together a decent prize list. It was left to
Eddie to ask for sponsorship if he felt he needed it. It was brought up that no   
official reply had been received from Eastbourne re using the headquarters.
ACTION POINT – John to contact Paul Parsons, Eastbourne Angling    
Association.

16. ALF

Nothing to report, exactly the same situation as last time, still inactive.

17. WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

No SAMF team, or English team, attended this year’s event because we did not have enough applicants, if SAMF wants to support it again we would have to select a team and apply to the NFSA. Next years event is in The Baltic, Germany. in late September.

18. ANGLING UNITY

John gave a report on Angling Unity. See document previously circulated.

19. RULE CHANGES

None

20. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Ian Bowell asked what cover there was within our insurance for organisers. Andy said he would check with the NFSAS. ACTION POINT – Andy.
I have done this and Wayne Harriman has stated that as long as you are a member then that covers you as an organiser also. However the limit is £2 million for public liability, therefore, and like last time in Felixstowe, we would have to apply and pay for an increase to £5 million if this was necessary.
It was suggested that we should introduce a direct debit system to prevent people from forgetting to renew their subscriptions. Ian said he would look into this because his local club already did this. ACTION POINT  - Ian.
Dick Penny announced his retirement from area representative and vice chairman from next year.
John finished the meeting for thanking both Dick and Keith for their services to SAMF.

MEETING FINISHED AT 16.45 p.m.

The AGM was opened at 10.00am by the chairman, John Amery, who welcomed everyone to the meeting.

APOLOGIES

Apologies had been received from Dick Penny and Rob Neale.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM

The minutes had been circulated previously and were proposed by Dave Read and seconded by Bill Hodgson that they be accepted as a true record.

MATTERS ARISING

Darren Phillips had stated that he would try and set up a website. He reported that this was not quite finished but he hoped it would be operational early 2008.

CHAIRMANS REPORT

John stated that it had been a very disappointing year for SAMF. We have seen a further reduction in membership and therefore reduced funding. We have the lowest ever attendance at the Masters, we have struggled to get teams to fish the Challenge Matches (but at least we continue to be successful in them) and the Individual League has only small pockets of support. Even the team for the World Club championships does not get too many applications. All this is despite the financial support we offer these events. At the moment it appears that only the Daiwa Pairs is attracting good support.

John felt we needed to discuss how we are to utilise our funds.

He thanked all the people who had put efforts into running events for SAMF.

SECRETARIES REPORT

Andy, similar to John, stated that he was very concerned for the state of the Federation, with the lowest numbers of members for many years at 247 and the lowest ever entry for the Masters at 70. It was difficult to pin point any particular reason and we were probably just mirroring what was going on in other branches of fishing and sports in general. This was having a knock on effect with the amount of available funds to be able to run SAMF and this would be discussed under the Treasurers report.

For the Masters one of the overriding complaints from members is the lack of qualifiers in some areas, and we would like to see more people organising these events, and it was pointed out that any member could run a qualifier and run it in conjunction with another event such as an open.

Andy went on to say that he was not convinced that the system of converting length to weight was having the desired effect i.e. getting anglers back on the beach fishing competitions. It was causing numerous problems managing the system from both the organisers side of things as well as the anglers on the beach.

Andy thanked all the members for their support through the year and in particular those people who organise qualifiers, the committee for their efforts and in particular for John for his assistance.

TREASURES REPORT

Copies of the balance sheet had been circulated and studied by the members. The following report was made by the treasurer after declaring a worth of £ 6554.97 in the years accounts.

The above figures show that SAMF’s worth has reduced this year by £ 2128.02. There are a number of reasons for this:-

• These accounts cover a 13 month period and thus have higher than normal costs.e.g.telephones
• Because of the dates selected we had been involved in 4 challenge matches
• Membership is down, reducing income by £ 1314 from last year

Even though this loss looks bad on the face of it, when you take the above factors into consideration it is not quite as bad as it appears. However, we cannot continue to lose money like this and we need to look at reducing expenditure and increasing income.

I am planning to increase the income by sending the December newsletter to every angler on the books, not just existing members, inviting them to rejoin, without the rejoining penalty fee.

We also need to look at our sponsorship and might have to significantly reduce or cancel this, even if only for one year, bearing in mind that we will not have the same number of challenge matches this year.

Personally I would not like to see an increase in subscriptions at this stage.

Various discussions took place on the state of the Federation’s finances. It was generally agreed that we should reduce the amount of funding we give to the teams that represent us. It was also suggested that we need to look at our funding to the Individual League and the Daiwa Pairs.

A suggestion from Dave Read that membership fee of £ 20 had led to people not rejoining and he suggested reduction to £ 10. The chairman pointed out that if this was done we would have to double membership just to stand still, and that was not a likely prospect.

Quite a long debate followed with several suggestions from members on how we should fund SAMF this year:

 There was a proposal from John Bower, seconded by Martin Waters and Dave Read that we should cancel the sponsorship for the Individual League final, at least for this year. The proposal was carried with 19 votes for and 4 against.

It was also proposed and accepted unanimously that we reduce sponsorship for the Challenge matches to 25% for this year.

There were also other suggestions on how we could improve the Masters entry, including making it open to all members or giving new members free entry for the first year. It was decided that these are things that the committee can consider for the future.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The following people were elected

John Amery – Chairman

Dick Penny – Vice Chairman

Andy Steele – Secretary

Mary Steele – Treasurer

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – Jimmy Briggs

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Shane Russell

Anglia – Ian Bowell

Sussex – Dick Penny

Hants and Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mark Rogers

Essex – Dion MacFayden

South West & Individual League organiser – Eddie Painter, assisted by Hugh Rathbone.

South Wales – Joe Arch

Humberside – Rob Neale

The chairman stated that he intended to write to all the area representatives asking them to take a more active part in getting qualifiers. He pointed out that they did not need to run a separate event for Masters qualifying, but could run in conjunction with local open events. People in the meeting commented on no qualifiers in their area. It was pointed out that as members they could themselves organise the qualifier.

DAIWA PAIRS

Unfortunately Nick Haward had been taken ill as he prepared to leave for the weekend so was not present.

Andy reported that the 2007 event had gone very well and the event continued to attract good support.

2007 winners were Irish pair of E Duff & P Forrester

Dates for 2008 had been set as Saturday 13^th September. Nick would accommodate people on a first come first served basis so early application was recommended.

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUES

Eddie Painter has sent a report stating that the 2007 final had been fished at Orford with the help of Ian Bowell. Mark Pinder had won the 2 day event at what could only be described as a fantastic venue.

There are 4 leagues already running and some spring ones in the pipeline, so he fully expected to achieve the target of 40 finalists.

He suggested that an entry fee should be introduced, £10. The return of the entry fee with completed acceptance form would make his life easier and would raise the prize fund and make the league less dependant on financial support from SAMF.

Eddie made a plea for all members to support the SAMF events and to try and encourage new members.

2008 final will be fished at Eastbourne in October.

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE

The final of the league had been marred by problems with the results. Two matches had to be fished on one day due to problems caused by a huge tidal surge in the Great Yarmouth area. Cards went missing, many were incorrect which led to organiser Keith Morley cancelling the results till he had time to scrutinise the cards fully.

There were some angry comments from people who felt they had not been treated fairly but Keith stressed that with all the information at his disposal he had made what he felt was the only fair decision.

The meeting agreed that as the NSL has its own AGM it would be better for this matter to be discussed there.

CHALLENGE MATCHES

Darren had sent the following report:

This year has been extremely busy for the SAMF match team, January saw us competing against the Combined Forces at Great Yarmouth for the 2006 title, June was the turn of Belgium and Holland who we hosted at Samphire and Deal. In November we found ourselves fishing the famous Chesil beach in Dorset once again against the Combined Forces.

I am pleased to report that we retained our 100% record and I would like to thank all SAMF members that have given their time to support these prestigious events.

However yet again it has been a struggle to put together a team. I would like to remind membership that the team is open to all, please seriously consider applying for these events after all the costs are subsidised and the bait is always supplied.

The 2008 challenge events will take place in the Autumn. It is planned that dates for both will be confirmed by the hosts in time for the next newsletter. If anyone would like further information regarding these events please do not hesitate to contact me.

John went on to reiterate what Darren has said about the struggle to get the required numbers for the teams and also explained that these events are now highly recognised for those anglers that had a desire to be selected to represent their country.

WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

Report  from team manager John Amery

This year’s championship was fished in Belgium using the same venues as the challenge matches, so we were familiar with the beaches.

SAMF team was:-Mark Pinder, Tony O’Grady, Ian Bowell, Andy Gallacher and new cap Nick Haward.

A total of 19 teams fished and Worthing made up the other English club.

The team had a reasonable day 1 finishing 7^th and backed this up with a 3^rd on day 2 to get into a medal position. Another 7^th on day 3 left us going into the final day in bnronze. However our last day jinx struck again and we had a very poor day and slipped down to a final position of 8^th.

Our congratulations go to the Worthing team, who after 2 days were leading the competition, but went off the boil a little and eventually finished 6^th overall.

2008 championship will be in France, near Bordeaux, late May.

NIGEL ROBINSON OPEN

No event had been run in 2007 but Ian Bowell had informed the secretary that he would put the event on in 2008 in East Anglia, probably within an open event.

MASTERS FINAL 2008

By rotation the match is due in the South East and Dick Penny proposed Eastbourne, which was accepted. Dates will be November 15^th & 16^th.

ALF

John reported that the fund stood at £ 12048, the only income over the year had been a little bit of interest. Questions were asked from the floor as to what the fund was for. John explained that it was set up several years ago to assist with legal costs in defending angling interests. An example would be the involvement of Tony Anderson in the bait digging issue in the North East.

As it appeared to be pretty defunct the meeting asked John to find out what would be involved in closing the account.

PROPOSALS/RULE CHANGES

None had been received

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Discussion took place on the venues for Masters Finals. John stated that a rotation around the country had been decided many years ago. Areas to host a final were to be:-

North East: North West: South East; South West: Anglia

The North East had been dropped as a venue as it was felt the rivers were not suitable and the north east anglers did not feel that they could fish the match on their beaches.

It was proposed by George Smith that the North East boundary could be extended into Lincolnshire, where he felt a very good match could be held at Skegness. The meeting accepted this proposal unanimously.

The committee were also asked to publish the rotation sequence

Mark Rogers reported that he was back with Ultima and that the company would be happy to print match cards and conversion charts for us. He was thanked by the meeting. He also started a discussion about catch and release and that he thought the lack of numbers entering matches was down to this and that in his area in particular anglers preferred to have a fish kill / weigh in competition. Andy replied that SAMF policy was for catch and release in our events but we would not dictate how clubs or organisers run their own events. 

The meeting closed at 11.40am.

The AGM was opened at  8.45 pm. by chairman, John Amery, who welcomed everyone to the meeting.

APOLOGIES

Apologies had been received from Rob Neale, Jimmy Briggs, and Dick Penny.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM

The minutes had been circulated previously and were proposed by Eddie Painter and seconded by Hugh Rathbone that they be approved by as a true record. There were no matters arising.

CHAIRMANS REPORT

John stated that most of what he would talk about was to be discussed under various items on the agenda, but he made the point that he was concerned that our funds were decreasing .We are still promoting a wide variety of events for our members, many of them subsidised, which is where some of the money is going, so he encouraged all members to apply for these events and take advantage.

He stated that we needed to generate more publicity and try and get the web site up and running. Darren Philips had indicated he would look at this for us.

He reported that throughout the year we had worked on completing the length to weight conversion charts, and the match was being fished to these. He thanked Gerry Bell for his assistance in this project. 

SECRETARIES REPORT

Last year Andy reported that membership had fallen to its lowest figure for several years with 387, once again the worrying trend was continuing with membership down to 307. This was also resulting in the lowest ever Masters entry of 139, 10 of which had not even turned up, resulting in the value of the prize fund being down

His thinking that it was the general demise of match angling rather than a particular issue with SAMF, but he felt the crux of the problem was the lack of junior anglers.

Andy talked about the new rules, which were printed on the back of the conversion chart which he and John had worked on. These new rules were he subject of an agenda item later in the meeting.

Andy, having walked the beach that day during the competition expressed his surprise at the number of anglers who do not use a bucket of water to put their fish in. It is imperative for the welfare of fish that landed fish are immediately put in a bucket of fresh sea water, whilst still on the trace, during the anglers next cast etc. He reminded members that it was a rule and that if a complaint was made then a competitor could be disqualified for not following this rule. Being a conservation minded federation we all have a duty to ensure returned fish have a chance of survival, this also sets a good example to pleasure anglers and the general public.

He went on to thanks to Darren Phillips, Eddie Painter, Nick Haward and Keith Morley for their continued efforts in running their events, and once again a big thanks to John Amery for his continued support.

Andy finished by also thanking the membership for their positive support for the federation.

TREASURERS REPORT

The following is a report from the treasurer after declaring a worth of £8682.99p in this years accounts:

The above figures show that SAMFs worth has increased this year by £643.49p, however there are a number of reasons for this which means that we still have to keep a careful eye on the finances this year.

Last year members voted to increase subscriptions to £20, but we have 66 members less this year, reducing our income by £1320. Costs have been reduced significantly on printing and stationary, postage and telephones but the main saving this year has been a one off free year for our insurance by the Northern Federation of Sea Angling Societies. It is likely that the sponsorship of the Individual League final will be reduced to keep us in a positive situation, therefore I propose that there is no need to increase subscriptions this year.

There were no questions on the accounts.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The following people were elected:

John Amery – Chairman

Dick Penny – Vice Chairman

Andy Steele – Secretary

Mary Steele – Treasurer

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – Jimmy Briggs

North East – Tom Parkin

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Shane Russell

Anglia – Ian Bowell

Sussex – Dick Penny

Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mark Rogers

Essex – Dion MacFayden

South West & Individual League organiser – Eddie Painter, assisted by Hugh Rathbone.

South Wales – Joe Arch

North Wales – Shane Russell

Humberside – Rob Neale

DAIWA PAIRS

Nick Haward gave a brief report about this year’s successful event. This was an upbeat report because the pairs is bucking the downward trend in match fishing by continuing to be popular. Possibly for a number of reasons: the venue, the fact that it is a holiday and they can enjoy a weeks fishing in Ireland and the social side. The matches had continued to be run using the conversion to weight system which had appeared to go down well  Specimen hunting still being 100% catch and release was beginning to be accepted by the competitors and in fact most had expressed their satisfaction at seeing their specimens being returned alive. 

Just fewer than 140 anglers had fished the 2006 event and Darren and Alan Smith were the winners.

Next years event was being held on 30th September to 5^th October and the accommodation/HQ had already been booked. It was anticipated that the event would be popular  Nick was guaranteeing £2000 for the winners. Entries would be accepted on a first come basis

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUES

Eddie Painter reported that he was still struggling to get support for the league. 4 leagues were being fished which got 40 people into the final, which was fished at Pwlhelli and won by Alan Price.

He announced that the 2007 final would take place at Orford Ness, end April/early May. Ian Bowell would be helping Eddie to run the final. Crab would be essential for this match.

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE

Keith Morley gave a brief report on the NSL final held at Pwllheli which had gone smoothly with a good turnout. Next years event would follow the Masters and be held at Great Yarmouth with the Waterside Village as the HQ.

Because of the recent problems about the banning of garfish at the NSL meeting it was decided the NSL would stand on its own two feet i.e. would be able to set its own agenda etc. This was acceptable to the members and this now technically puts the NSL as Associate members of the Sea Anglers Match Federation.

CHALLENGE MATCHES

Darren Phillips sent a report for the AGM:

Generally the numbers of people applying to represent SAMF remained disappointingly low. He reminded members that the events are open to all, not just those from England, and that the events were subsidized by 50%. which represented extremely good value  and a great learning experience for those anglers that aspire to represent their respective nations in the future. Wherever possible the matches are bait supplied. He requested that if anyone had any ideas on how to make the events more attractive to let him know.

He went on to give the result of the SAMF hosted challenge match at Slapton Sands in January, which SAMF won. The idea of using this venue was to identify a future venue for other events, and despite the fishing being generally poor due the exceptionally mild and calm weather (even mackerel were caught!!) the venue had great promise for future events. The next forces challenge was to be held at Great Yarmouth in January, hosted by the Police force.

The Belgium challenge was due to be held in December at Wenduine and Knokke Heist, the team already having been selected. He went on to explain that the event will see a major change in 2007 when a team from the Dutch Federation will take part. Teams could be dropped to ten anglers to make the event more competitive. SAMF was due to host the event in Kent, further information will be made available as it develops.

WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

SAMF were again selected to represent England in the World Club Championships fished at Vieux-Boucau in the south west of France on the Atlantic coast. The team was Mark Pinder, Colin Provins, Andy Gallacher, Tony O’Grady and Malcolm Stote. Fishing was poor, with lots and lots of blanks. A bad start on day 1 when we finished down in 10^th place was a burden we could not overcome, and despite some individual good results the competition was in many respects lottery and we eventually finished in 8^th position. The championship was won by Club Benfica from Porto, Portugal.

Next years event is being hosted by Belgium, on the beaches we use for the Challenge matches, so we should know our way round if selected.

NIGEL ROBINSON MEMORIAL FUND

Ian Bowell said he would look at the possibility of running the Nigel Robinson match in East Anglia, probably within another open event.

FINAL 2007 – PROPOSALS

There had been no proposals to run the 2007 final, but by rotation it was due to be held in the North West. Andy and John said they would run the event and it was proposed to go to Pwlhelli, hopefully early in the year, April/May.

ALF

There was no change to the ALF fund as reported at the last AGM..

PROPOSALS AND RULE CHANGES

The committee had been asked to look at the rules and make recommendations to the members.

The following changes were discussed:-

1)         No limit on number of spare rods, made up and baited.                    Accepted.

2)         No additives to be used.                                                                     Accepted

3)         Minimum hook size..No 4                                                                   Rejected

4)         No feathers or lures                                                                             Accepted

Nick Haward asked us to confirm that any rule changes were still agreed through the NFSA, because in the past there had been a lot of joint work done to formulate the existing rules. John confirmed that these proposals had been sent to the NFSA but there had not been any feedback from them.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

None

The meeting closed at 10.15 p.m.

The AGM was opened at 9.30 p.m. by chairman, John Amery, who welcomed everyone to the meeting.

APOLOGIES

Apologies had been received from Rob Neale, Jimmy Briggs, Chris Clark and Dick Penny.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM

The minutes had been circulated previously and were approved by Tom Parkin and Paul Molyneux as a true record. There were no matters arising.

CHAIRMANS REPORT

John stated that most of what he would talk about was to be discussed under various items on the agenda, but he made the point that he was concerned that our funds were decreasing and would be making comment under Treasurers Report. We are still promoting a wide variety of events for our members, many of them subsidised , which is where some of the money is going, so he encouraged all members to apply for these events and take advantage. 

SECRETARIES REPORT

Andy reported that most of what he wanted to say would also be covered by the agenda items. Membership had fallen to its lowest, once again, for several years with 387 members of which 30 were life members, and just 2 juniors. This was having a knock on effect with the funds which would be covered next.

Once again the numbers fishing the Masters was low which had resulted in this years prize fund being low once again and SAMF had to use its own funds to keep the prize fund the same as last year.

He went on to thanks to Darren Phillips, Eddie Painter, Nick Haward and Keith Morley for their continued efforts in running their events, and once again a big thanks to John Amery for his continued support.

Andy finished by also thanking the membership for their positive support for the federation.

TREASURERS REPORT

The following is a report from the treasurer after declaring a worth of £9766.86p in this years accounts:

The above figures show that SAMF worth since the 2004 AGM has decreased by £1727.36. This is the second year running we have made a loss and as reported then we would have to take action to address this if it continued. Last years figures were slightly inflated because I had purchased a large amount of stock which increases SAMF worth, also there was no CAF challenge to account for. This year has seen the same trend with £305 less income from membership plus £727.00 less sales of clothing. Expenditure has basically remained the same however, quite simply we are spending more than we receive each year. Also this years Masters has cost over £200 more than we have received. SAMF is still in a healthy position when you consider all the sponsorship we do i.e.Individual League, Irish Pairs & 50% of the cost of the challenge matches, but this clearly cannot continue and we have to take action now. We can either increase our income, normally done by increasing subscriptions which is something I personally would not like to see. Otherwise we need to reduce expenditure which will probably mean we would have to look at the amount of sponsorship we give to our competitions.

I will leave this up to the members to decide.

After a discussion the membership wanted to keep the sponsorship similar to what it is now and unanimously voted to put up the subscription rate to £20 per annum.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

We had received a resignation from Chris Clark as vice chairman and it was proposed to elect Dick Penny, in his absence, to this role. We also had a vacancy as area representative for North Wales and Shane Russell agreed to look after our interests in this area.

The following people were elected:

John Amery – Chairman

Dick Penny – Vice Chairman

Andy Steele – Secretary

Mary Steele – Treasurer

AREA REPRESENTATIVES

South West Scotland – Jimmy Briggs

North East – Tom Parkin

North West – Bill Lindfield

North Wales – Shane Russell

Anglia – Ian Bowell

Sussex – Dick Penny

Hants & Challenge Match organiser – Darren Phillips

Kent – Mark Rogers

Essex – Dion MacFayden

South West & Individual League organiser – Eddie Painter, assisted by Hugh Rathbone.

South Wales – Joe Arch

Humberside – Rob Neale

DAIWA PAIRS

Nick Haward gave a brief report about this year’s successful event. The matches had been run using the conversion to weight system which had appeared to go down well but needed a little bit of adjusting for next year. Specimen hunting now being 100% catch and release was beginning to be accepted by the competitors and in fact most had expressed their satisfaction at seeing their specimens being returned alive. 

Next years event was being held on 23^rd to 30th September and the accommodation/HQ had already been booked. It was anticipated that the event would be popular because it is the 25^th Anniversary and Nick was guaranteeing £2500 for the winners. Entries would be accepted on a first come basis

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUES

This year’s final at Blackpool had gone well with good catches and had put paid to the myth that there were no fish in this area. However the continued lack of support from members was putting this competition under pressure of being discontinued. Eddie Painter has a number of ideas to try and generate more interest and despite the subscriptions having been increased to cover sponsorship the SAMF committee will not guarantee what level of sponsorship it will give at this stage. The 2006 final will be at Pwlhelli in April / May..

NATIONAL SEA LEAGUE

Keith Morley reported that arrangements for this year’s final in Eastbourne, 9^th/10^th December were well under way, and he expected to see about 26 teams competing.

The final in 2006 would be fished at Chesil. He reported that there is scope in several areas of the country to organize a league and he would be pleased to assist anyone who contacted him. New phone number 01502 741556.

CHALLENGE MATCHES

Darren Phillips reported on the success of the SAMF team against the Belgians fishing at Dungeness and Samphire Hoe in September. He also explained about the arrangements being made to fish against the Forces in January at Slapton Sands in January. He asked for anyone interested in being in the team to forward their names to either him or Andy Steele for selection.

WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

John reported that he had managed the SAMF team in Portugal and they had a very successful championship. The team of Mark Pinder, Ian Bowell, Andy Gallagher, Tony O’Grady and Malcolm Stote had fished exceptionally well, and in fact went into the last day of 4 in gold medal position. Whilst they were one of only 3 teams with 5 weighers on the last day the few quality fish that were about eluded them and they eventually finished in 3^rd place to take the bronze medal. John congratulated the team on their performance.

He also reported that in this World event each country is allowed to send 2 teams, and Worthing had made up England’s 2^nd team. They had finished a very creditable 7^th out of 20 teams. This is an event which allows competitors to see how a full-blown world championship is fished and John encouraged members to apply.

The 2006 competition would be fished in the South of France, on the Atlantic coast.

NIGEL ROBINSON MEMORIAL FUND

Mark Rogers ran this match on 2^nd January on the Parade at Hythe, helped by Peter Owen from Folkestone Angling. The match had been fished by 150 anglers thus boosting the fund by £150.

We are looking for a volunteer to run next year’s event.

FINAL 2006 – PROPOSALS

There were no proposals for next years event to be held in the North East and the committee had been expecting to suggest Pwlhelli. However a surprise proposal came from Mark Sharman to take the event to Great Yarmouth in November, and gave members a brief rundown on how it would fish. He had no concrete proposals to put forward at the time but it was accepted that we would go to Gt. Yarmouth if Mark and his organizing committee could make the necessary arrangements. If this failed there would be time to change this back to Pwlhelli if necessary.

We also discussed the continuing reduction in the prize fund and it was unanimously decided to increase the qualifying entry fee to £4.00

ALF

There was no change to the ALF fund as reported at the last AGM, and Chris Clark is looking for someone to take over looking after this.

PROPOSALS AND RULE CHANGES

We had not received any proposals or rule changes.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Andy Steele aired his concerns about the new system of catch and release with regards to the conversion to weight. He could see the merits of introducing this at grass roots match fishing level but felt that at our level in top competitions it was wrong to give so much importance to the catching of the ‘lucky’ larger fish. He had seen it in action in 4 major events and was not convinced it was the right system, quoting “there was nothing wrong with the system we already had”  Just to get members views on this subject a show of hands proved members liking for the conversion to weight system.

The controversial subject of bait bans was also discussed and there were no objections from the floor to continuing with this practice at the discretion of the organizing committees.

The meeting closed at 10.15 p.m.