Marc Playforth

My first memory of my venture into fishing goes back to when I was about 6 years old, I had become close friends with a chap around the corner along with his family. He kept asking me to go but with other commitments like going to watch Leeds United on matchdays with my Uncle It made me continuously put it off, but one day I finally agreed, this led me into going fishing with him and his mate, his name was Gary Brookes and his mate was John Bromilow and they were regulars on the River Don and figured in the majority of matches held on it. This is where my first encounter with the sport took place and from there on in I’ve never looked back, my first day I can vaguely remember but still remember the exact peg and my first fish, which came in the shape of a 2oz Roach on the bomb on peg 6 on the Spotbrough stretch of the River.
John was a superb stick float angler on the Don and Gary honed his skills more on the pole side of things so I began to go along with them on most of the matches they fished, of which the majority were in the winter on the Winter League which still runs today on the Spotbrough stretch. With anglers such like Denis White, Kevin Richmond and Andy Oldham to name but a few competing I learnt a lot by sitting behind these regularly, I knew Andy really well with me and his son being in the same year at school. Most weekends I usually just sat behind Andy or Denis as I felt I could learn the most from these anglers.

After 4 years of consistently going back every year to watch these anglers I competed in a small knock-up obviously only small money as I knew I had no chance in winning and after about two of these I came second and it really gave my confidence a massive boost.

My first real breakthrough was in a day through the summer when there was an Adult match at Hallcroft Fishery and Gary was competing in it, so I duly decided I would go and fish one of the other lakes while he fished in the open. While I was fishing nobody on the lake was catching a deal except from me and even though I liked the natural venues much more I was getting increasingly better at this style of fishing, and this prompted an oldish guy to come around and sit behind me, I didn’t know him from anywhere but he started making conversation so not being rude I chatted back. Eventually when Gary turned up after the Match to pick me up the oldish chap pushed a card in my hand and said give this chap a ring he’s a manager of the Worksop Cadet team and you could certainly fit in. After consulting my parents about it I eventually decided to phone the number on the card and I spoke to Darren Stables who was then the Worksop Cadet Manager.

This proved to be a massive step to me as I could compete against others much more and intern learn more, after my first 6 practices I had won 5 of them and I was picked for the Cadet team for the Shropshire Union Canal Cadet National, I ended up coming midway through my section and I was gutted to say the least after losing a pretty big Perch at the net, I was really down for a day or two afterwards but my team ended up winning Silver so it was more of a mixed feeling more than anything, even though we had drew with Farnborough for Gold but lost out on 20g on weight count back.

At the age of 13 I started turning my attention to the local open match circuit and after a year or so I was picking up money regularly at places such as the Don, Smithies Pond and Langold against the adults.

After many successful years with the Cadet team I eventually turned 13 meaning I had to move up into the Juniors, a pretty daunting prospect with a lot of very good anglers but after just half a year, I eventually broke into the A team and was making a name for myself more and more. My first Junior Individual success came at another Commercial in the form of BW Makin’s in 2005 where I managed to win the national individually aged 13 doubling the second placed angler weight, I was on such a high I rushed round to Gary’s when I got in with the trophy and he was over the moon. With the next National Knockout Final coming round next in 2006 I wanted to add to my Makin’s performance with another good performance with the team and individually as well. The Venue for the next chapter of my junior career came at Hampton Springs on the border of Wales. My team captain managed to dip a good set of pegs and I when on arrival to my peg found I was on a rare end Peg. My team Manager then, Glenn Foulds realised I had a chance to win the match and told me to go all out for it, so I duly did and managed to win the match individually at the age of 14.

After all those highs I applied for an England Trial at Larford Lakes just for the experience more than anything and was happy when I got a trial. Andy who now I had known for some time helped out a massive part by taking me down to Larford to practice and also taught me how to fish the Slider etc… and I will be always grateful to him for that!

After a disappointing display in the trials, it was time for me to start to turn my attention to the National at Bridgewater Canal coming up whilst still fitting my open matches in. This was another big match as I wanted to do really well like always and managed to put enough time and effort in to get a lot of info on the place. I ended up winning my 25 man section on the day and contribute perfect points for my Worksop Junior team, who unfortunately didn’t do as well as anticipated dropping down in the results table.

The year after brought another England Trial at the Milton Keynes Furzton Lake, after a lot of preparation and time practicing I put on a reasonable display on the day and did ok in both of the 3 hour sessions but didn’t get selected and realistically I know I probably won’t ever fish for England even though the trials did bring a lot of experiences and learnt me a vast amount of information to add to that of what I already know.

At the age of 16 and going into Intermediate level at National level I decided to end my Career with Worksop and am still very grateful for everything they have done for me but I felt if I wanted to make a name on the open match circuit I needed to give it 100% and by fishing for Worksop I couldn’t do that so I felt this was an option I needed to take and duly did.