Team Carp England van-quish world rivals

That is exactly what Team Carp England achieved when they lifted the world championship title for the first time, beating 23 countries along the way.

The team was led by Oswestry angler Rob Hughes, who took an eight-strong side to Spain for the 17th FIPS Carp Fishing World Championships, returning with the gold.

Hughes, 45, who now lives in Shrewsbury, was contacted by the country's governing body, the Angling Trust, about taking on the manager's role, because of his previous success in competition fishing.

He won a world title in 1996 with Codsall team-mate Simon Crowe and discussed the idea with a few people and his sponsors, eventually agreeing to take on the position.

He said: "Each one of the nations picks their best competition anglers for world championships. Some are chosen by the management whereas others have to qualify.

"I had only been manager since March so it was decided we'd be better off picking the team ourselves."

Each nation puts forward a team of eight anglers, which includes two substitutes.

Three pairs are tasked with catching as many fish as possible over a 72-hour stretch, staying on the banks fishing throughout.

Hughes said: "Some of the teams take it in turns to fish and get sleep. Our lads did not have much sleep, because we wanted to keep them at it.

"It's important to keep your wits about you, but to try and fish as much as possible."

The competition was held on the banks of the River Ebro in Spain, and area close to the Sea of Aragon. It's a long stretch of water that can reach 2km in width in places.

The competition is split into three sections and each pair fishes a designated section.

Those who finish first in their section are awarded one point, which goes all the way up to 24. So the task was to finish with as low a score as possible.

For England, regular squad members Billy Flower and James Londors fished the A-section.

Harry Charrington and Alexei Bygrave, both in their early 20s, were given B-section, leaving former British champions Neil Rivers and Chris Holmes with C-section.

The substitutes were Paul Booth, an ex-pat and Ebro expert, who lives in Spain, and captain Mark Barlett, who would be the team's trump card.

Hughes said: "The competition format means everyone has to be consistent because if two pairs win their section and the other finishes last, you are not going to win.

"Mark Barlett is one of the best long distance casters in the world and we used him as our super sub. We wanted to make sure we knew where to place him and we didn't want to deploy him too early.

"After 24 hours, we knew exactly where we needed him because in the C-section the anglers were cancelling each other out.

"At the time, we had two firsts and a second in each section, so we had started really well.

"I noticed the fish had started to move further away from the banks and nothing had been caught for 12 hours.

"Mark came in and caught a fish within 20 minutes. Seeing as we went on to win by one point it could be argued that fish won us the championship.

"From a manager's point of view is was a very technical match."

Hughes is no stranger to winning having lifted the world title in 1996, when the competition was for pairs and not teams.

The format changed in 1999 but England, who had brought carp fishing to the world, had never lifted the highest honour since the changes had been made.

But the team's glorious moment would eventually come on the banks of the River Ebro, on October 10, following a close battle with favourites, Croatia.

The married father-of-two said: "Croatia had been on the podium eight times in the last 10 years. Everybody accepts they are the best carp fishing nation in the world.

"A few more nations started to come into it at the end with the Italians creeping ahead of us in B-section and then Spain caught one to go one behind.

"We thought we'd blown it when we heard they'd caught another but, following a steward's enquiry, we found out it was the same fish, but had only been put on the scoreboard three hours later.

"It's normally a pretty close competition and each team is judged on the weight of their overall catch.

"To be honest, I would have been happy with a top 10 finish during my first year as manager, so to come away with the win was unbelievable.

"This is the World Cup of fishing and it's everyone's dream, whether it's football, fishing or Tiddlywinks, to represent your country in your chosen sport."

Hughes, who worked as a solicitor for 11 years in Wolverhampton, decided to take up fishing full-time in 1999.

He now has a three-year contract in place as England manager and plans to return next year to defend the title.

One of his aims is try and get more financial backing for his team, which was hit by numerous problems trying to get back from Spain once they had won the competition.

Only one van survived the return journey without breaking down and Hughes even had to leave his own van in France, returning by plane with parts to get it back to his home in Shrewsbury.

He said: ""We get a lot of support from angling businesses,. but the Angling Trust has no money to spare and Sport England doesn't fund us.

"Ultimately, none of the lads could be classed as professional anglers – we just loaded our vans, turned up and off we went.

"The Dutch and Italian teams are well funded, and the Romanian and Croatia teams are paid for their performances by their governing body and can earn anything up to 70,000 euros.

"We're always looking for sponsorship and we'd love Ford to get involved so we could drive a red, white and blue Transit van back to defend our title.

"Fishing is the biggest sport in country and we'd love the mainstream media to give us a few more column inches."