Cooper books world berth with Scotland

It is a reward for consistent performances in matches throughout Scotland in the past year.

The 38-year-old has been included in a five-strong team which also includes Barry McEwan from Port Seton, an official in the Bass Rock Shore Angling League, who made his debut in last year’s event in Sicily.

Also travelling will be Isaac Muir and Neil McMillan (both Stevenston) and Billy Buckley, the captain and the most experienced member of the squad.

Barry McEwan (Port Seton) who is also scheduled to travel to Spain for the world shore championship.

Buckley is a previous winner in Spain having emerged victorious with partner Kevin Lewis from Tayside in the 2017 Yuki Masters which included over 100 other teams.

Uddingston-based Buckley has appeared in 15 world championships and Muir has fished in six while McMillan will add a second cap to his CV.

Four beaches in Peniscola, 225.8km from Barcelona, described as one of the most beautiful towns in Spain, and dominated by a 13th century castle, will be used for the four-day match from November 19 and the Scots jet out from Glasgow on November 10 to practice.

Edinburgh-based Cooper, a self-employed painter and decorator, knows all of his fellow team members well and has enjoyed recent success, winning the Erskine Open. He is the current holder of the Edinburgh Winter Shore League title.

Scotland's most experienced international angler, Billy Buckley from Uddingston, who is heading for the world championship.

The father-of-two is excited by the challenge and has done his homework as rigs and conditions are set to be different from those he experiences North of the Border, so is the weather.

Cooper said: “Bait is supplied by the organisers, but we have been told that we’ll be fishing light gear with weights from 50gm up to 150gm in water which has a low tidal flow of just over a metre.

“We’ve also been told that we’ll have to cast a distance and we’ll work on that over there in the practice days. You need softer rods for long distance casting and I’ve been sourcing them locally.”

He added that rigs are likely to be three hook flapper and he added: “We’ll know more once we get out there but this is all a new experience for me.

David Cooper focuses on Raversheugh Beach in East Lothian during the recent Colin McEwan Memorial match.

“Normally, I don’t get nervous and the aim is to treat this as just another competition, but I’ll be giving it 100 per cent and I will, no doubt, learn a lot from the experience.”

Scotland are ranked 13th out of 21 nations and Buckley has a track record in the event and was top Scot having claimed 16th place 12 months ago.

Cooper, he said, is an experienced angler and should dovetail well with the rest of the group who will attend a reception on Saturday, November 19 before the official opening ceremony the following day.

Practice starts on Monday, November 18 with the distribution of bait and the match, the 40th in the history of the competition, begins the following day.

Meanwhile, Scotland, represented by three anglers from Fife, won the Civil Service Championship at Elliot Beach near Arbroath and one of them, Gus Brindle, was top overall rod in the event which attracted 25 anglers.

Sean Baxter from Kettlebridge was team manager and he confirmed that it is the second time in four years that the Tartan Team have emerged victorious.

The match was split into three zones and Peter Smalls won Zone A, Dave McKervail was second in Zone B by only 6cms, and Brindle won Zone C by over a meter in the catch, measure and release, six-hour match.

It was fished in blustery conditions with a small swell with light rain later in the event and Scotland kept their casts closer to the shoreline while other anglers ventured 150 yards into the surf, over the heads of the fish.

Baxter, owner of Deals on Reels at Cowdenbeath, and a former Scotland international, said the Scots changed tactics during the match which paid off.

Conditions, he added, were different from a practice session held two weeks before and he said: “The guys were allowed to use three hooks and we went for 2/3oz weights and changed the shape of them during the match. Our tactics paid off.”

The Big Arbroath Winter Open is set for Saturday, November 2, and the angler with the heaviest cod winning £1,000.

Boundaries are Ferryden to Carnoustie and fishing is from 3pm to 9pm and registration is at the Victoria car park toilet block in Arbroath from noon to 1.30pm.

Meanwhile, Chris Empson (Dunbar) won the second leg of the Edinburgh Winter Shore League sponsored by Edinburgh Angling Centre, the Fishing Megastore and Cox and Rawle at Joppa with 17 fish for 374 points.

Second was Tyneside-based Neil Cutler with 14 fish for 281 points and they were fishing side-by-side while third was Edinburgh fisherman Stevie Souter with 11 fish for 234 points.

A field of 25 contested the match in calm conditions with 123 fish landed including whiting, dags, rockling, flounder and codling.

Other top placings were: 4, Chris Anderson nine fish, 198 points; 5, Ian Campbell eight fish, 174 points; 6, Steve Potts seven fish, 144 points; 7, Chris Barrett six fish, 128 points; 8, David Cooper six fish, 124 points; 9, Stevie Burns five fish, 107 points; 10, Mike Kyle five fish, 107 points; 11, Ryan Venters five fish, 105 points; 12, Thomas Slow five fish, 104 points; 13, Kyle Taylor four fish, 91 points; 14, Stephen Barrett four fish, 82 points; 15, Kevin McNeish three fish, 69 points; 16, Eryk Janik three fish, 65 points.