Angling Trust Team England Fly Fishing

What is the EPP?

The EPP is the Elite Performance Programme, which is a competitive fly fishing programme established in 2018 in order to develop elite anglers and provide a framework for selections teams to represent England in World, European and now 5 Nation Championships.

Who runs the EPP?

For the 2022 programme the official is Scott Nellins, however assistance is requested to peg river sections.

The programme is supported by staff at the Angling Trust (AT) and Team England Fly Fishers (TEFF).

What is the timeframe for EPP?

The Elite Performance Programme will run between June 2022 and September 2022, running over 7 days (2 x 2 days and 1 x 3 day).

What is the format of the EPP?

The programme will have 16 places available and is based on 4 events

Rivers: 3 x 2-day events
Lake: 1 x 1-day event

For more information, open the document below

The Angling Trust reports: We are delighted to announce the appointment of Steve Fitzpatrick as the new Head of Competitions at the Angling Trust.

Steve (48) joins the Senior Management Team following a 25-year career with Bauer Media’s angling portfolio where he was lately Editor-in-Chief, having stepped down earlier this year as Angling Times’ longest-serving member of staff and Editor.

Angling Trust CEO Jamie Cook described Steve as the “right person to take our competitions offering across sea, game and coarse to the next level.”

During his time at Bauer, Steve edited Match Angling Plus magazine and led the teams on Improve Your Coarse Fishing, Sea Angler, Trout & Salmon, and Trout Fisherman print titles along with their websites, video production, and social media channels.

A passionate match angler, sea fisherman and carper, Steve brings a wealth of experience from all sides of the angling industry, with experience of running a tackle shop while studying at the University of Liverpool where he completed a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Biology.

As Head of Competitions, Steve will lead the strategy and development of competition angling across all disciplines, ensuring gold-standard events are delivered both now and in the future. He will also play a leading role in driving the success of the England teams on the World and European stages.

“When the opportunity arose to work with the competitions side of the Angling Trust, I knew it would be a perfect fit,” Steve said.

“My most enjoyable role on Angling Times was as the title’s Match Editor and this saw me covering events from small club matches to National Championships and World Championships, travelling all over Europe with the England teams.

“I’m also proud to have launched and run the Clubman Supercup and Maver Pairs events and worked closely with the team in organising the Angling Times Team Championships (Winter League) for many years.

“This is an exciting new role and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to help shape the present and future gold-standard domestic events managed by a superb team at the Angling Trust and deliver competitions for every level of match angler from grassroots right up to the elite levels.

“I’ll be working hard with all the England teams and managers to ensure we not only bring home gold medals, but also host a World event on English soil within the next few years.”

Steve will take up his position in mid-April and will report directly to Jamie Cook.

Jamie said: “Competitions are a key part of what we do as the National Governing Body and in Steve I am confident we have found the right person to take our offering across sea, game and coarse to the next level.

“As a not-for-profit organisation our commitment is to invest back into promoting, protecting and developing angling at all levels. Steve’s appointment builds upon the work we have done for our customers and members in the competitions sphere over the past two years and will provide greater focus on developing the Team England brand to deliver international success at the highest level.”

The Loch-style Rules and FAQs have now been updated.

See the link from the National Loch-style menu.

Loch-style Rules 2022 – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q6smcFtXlDCnN9vs1PjLbdDvWQMtK59dM6oojE4AgVM/edit?usp=sharing

Loch-style – FAQs 2022 – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l4raW5f_hC2hA5wLS9PekIhSn3k8XNIAU-2raUiDjO4/edit?usp=sharing

As well as accessing the AT TEFF Match Calendar via the link on the top right, you can now download the full Angling Trust Game Competitions Calendar for 2022, including all current Angling Trust, AT TEFF, EYF, ELFF – Domestic, Home Nations (Home Internationals) and FIPS-Mouche – European & World events. (see link below)

This is their current programme and will be updated as the season progresses for all disciplines.

Note: The ‘AT TEFF Rivers National’ events on the 23rd January – R.Dee, 20th February – R.Dee, 10th April – R.Ure & 15th May – R.Wear are actually AT TEFF Rivers Qualifiers. The AT TEFF Rivers National Final is scheduled for 3rd-4th September on the R.Tees.

As you might have seen, the first ever Team England Fly Fishing email newsletter is now out. Its purpose is to engage with those that enter Team England Fly Fishing events, be that loch-style, rivers or bank competitions at national or international level.

For some time anglers have been saying that they struggle to get the latest information on what TEFF is doing, so the TEFF Executive has decided that the best way to engage with its entrants is by direct email, though much of what is in this newsletter is also here on this website.

Please spread the word, and encourage others to sign up, via the ‘TEFF Newsletter – Click To Sign Up’ panel on the right.

The Angling Trust states: ‘Keep us fishing’ is the Christmas message to Government ministers from the Angling Trust following the refusal of the Health Secretary, Saijid Javid, to rule out further Covid restrictions or even a fourth lockdown as is occurring right now in parts of Europe.

Angling Trust CEO Jamie Cook has written to senior members of the Government, including Michael Gove and the Secretaries of State for Environment, the Cabinet Office and Culture, Media and Sport, to remind them of how angling continued successfully and safely through the last two lockdowns and to press for similar treatment should new restrictions be introduced.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning, the Health Secretary made clear that he did not rule out new coronavirus measures before Christmas – saying there are “no guarantees” in the pandemic.

In his letter to ministers, Jamie Cook said of previous lockdowns: “We were pleased that the Government agreed to permit and encourage individual outdoor recreation to continue so that those who were initially restricted in the first lockdown could once again participate in individual, socially distanced outdoor recreational activity. This delivered huge benefits to those whose recreation is not narrowly confined to running, walking or cycling. Experience has shown that socially distanced outdoor recreation such as angling is a safe and responsible activity and that its continuation does not contribute to the spread of infection.”

He added: “Whatever decisions you have to make in the coming weeks we urge you to allow angling to continue for all the reasons set out above and in the attached report. We stand ready to guide our sport through these difficult times in a safe and responsible manner as we have done throughout.”

Back in February, as the government prepared its stepped approach to easing lockdown provisions, the Angling Trust submitted it’s ‘Fishing out of Lockdown’ paper outlining the advantages of keeping people engaged in angling and the measures that were taken to keep people safe and to ensure that our sport delivers economic and social benefits and makes a significant contribution to improving mental health outcomes.

The paper, which has been resubmitted to ministers, outlines other reasons for permitting angling to continue including:

• a largely solitary sport where social distancing occurs naturally
• proven benefits for mental health and physical well-being
• appealing to people of all ages and backgrounds
• evidence that non-contact outdoor activities will not increase infection rates
• a reduction in pressure on other public open spaces

Martin Salter, Head of Policy at the Angling Trust said: “Angling has proved both popular and beneficial throughout this dreadful pandemic with more people getting closer to nature and enjoying a safe, healthy and naturally socially distanced activity within Covid secure guidelines. While other sports like golf were locked down, anglers were able to get out in the open air presenting no risk to themselves or anyone else. The Angling Trust is determined to do what we can to ensure that this remains the case through the difficult period that lies ahead.”

The AT TEFF Executive has recently concluded its budget for the 2021/22 Season which projects that the cost of England representation in World, European, 5 Nations, Loch, River and Bank Internationals in 2022 will be approximately £70,000 in total. The majority of this cost, approximately £57,500, will be borne by the Team Members and Managers. The remaining cost will be funded from AT TEFF grants distributed from the proceeds of the EPP League, Qualifiers and National Finals organised by AT TEFF Volunteers as part of the England Team selection process.

Entry fees for the 2021/22 season have been set at £27.50 per event (a reduction on previous years). Around 700 entries are anticipated from the League, Qualifiers and National finals.

The budgeted Income from entry fees is £29,500, of which £15,500 will be used to cover £5,000 of Volunteer organisers out-of-pocket expenses; £7,000 Loch and River National Final fishing and supper costs; and £3,500 other expenses. The remaining £14,000 will be available to support our competitive activities.

For 2022, the AT TEFF grants will be applied to the Teams at a rate of £200 pp.

In summary, AT TEFF’s total budget for the season is £87,000 income, £85,500 expenditure, with £1,500 being held in reserve.

AT TEFF Executive

11^th December 2021