Brunn Shield Round 4 - Fairfield Australia

[ChrisBaty]

Given I posted a rundown of Round 3 of this event I thought there may be a little interest in this report of the 4th & final round held earlier today. On a personal note after casting extremely well recently at our State Titles I was a little disappointed in todays performance, but I guess you have to grateful for the good days and learn what you can from the poor ones………and today I learned a few lessons.

The fourth & final round of the Brunn shield was fought out today at the casting pool at Fairfield. With everything on the line and a lead of 31 points to Ballarat 15 casters arrived to overcast and still conditions. A dry fly court was laid out first, casting orders picked and distances handed out to those that required them. With scores of 48, 47, 42 & 42 vs 46, 44, 43 & 40 Sunshine/Geelong had clawed back six points. Next up was the ICF SKISH and exceptional casting from Ken Lucas, Corey Heath, Ron Heath & Pete West gained another eight points putting Sunshine/Geelong within 17points of the overall lead. It was going to be make or break in the wet fly and the Ballarat team left nothing on the table with John Close, Phil Smith, Mark Cuthbert & Craig Coltman casting brilliantly in the conditions to gain 11 points back on their daily tally. A fantastic day of casting ended with Ken Lucas taking top honours for the day with a total score of 182 leading Sunshine/Geelong to a daily victory of 683 v 680. That three point lead though was not enough to take away Ballarat’s overall lead and they end the series as the Brunn Shield Champions for another year. Congratulations to all the Ballarat casters and everyone that competed for this prestigious trophy.

Personal daily totals in casting order : Phil Smith - 165, Ron Heath - 172, Darren Cutler - 132, Ken Lucas - 182, John Close 166, Brian Cox - 146, Craig Coltman - 155, Corey Heath - 168, Nick Roche - 166, Keith Howden - 132, Mark Cuthbert - 179, Allan Marchant - 119, Richard Scrivens - 139, Chris Baty - 138 & Peter West - 161.

[Paul Arden]

A bit of excitement there!! I think inter-club comps like this are fantastic for the sport. We really should try to promote this. Great stuff!

Cheers, Paul

[ChrisBaty]

A bit of excitement there!! I think inter-club comps like this are fantastic for the sport. We really should try to promote this. Great stuff!

Cheers, Paul

Agreed Paul, certainly spices things up through the casting season that’s for sure. Hopefully next year Sunshine and Geelong will have enough members casting to be able to compete as individual clubs and Southern Fly Fishers will compete again giving 4 clubs in the mix. Now that would get exciting.

Cheers Chris

[John Waters]

Well done Chris, sorry missed it.

John

[ChrisBaty]

Thanks for that John. You’ll be back into it soon enough. Was a great turnout and nice weather with some fantastic casting. I’m always amazed at how well the likes of Ken Lucas or Brian Cox cast, age is certainly not the limiting factor in the accuracy game. We do need to work on getting new casters into the mix though as there are many there now that won’t be casting in 5 to 10 years.

Chris

[John Waters]

Agree Chris, that's the challenge.

John