Journal angling correspondent Coster was introduced to county team by four-times world champion Bob Nudd

Journal angling correspondent Dave Coster would like to thank the reader who sent him the accompanying old photograph, found somewhere deep within the archives of the internet.

It is a team portrait of the hugely successful Essex County match fishing squad, of which Dave was a regular member when it was taken way back in the early 1990s.

You can see Dave in the back row, fifth from left, standing next to England internationals Kim Milsom and Bob Nudd (sixth from left).

Sir Bob, as he is known these days, earnt an MBE for his angling exploits after becoming Individual World Champion no less than four times.

It was he who introduced Dave to the Essex Van Den Eynde side, as they used to bump into each other regularly on open matches staged on North London’s River Lea Navigation.

The latter waterway is where Dave enjoyed great success in competitions, including winning the coveted River Lea Championships, also breaking the record match weight with a big haul of bream.

Back in those days, Dave lived in the capital but used to frequently travel up to this area. That was because many of the big team competitions were staged on venues like the River Trent and Holme Pierrepont rowing course. Essex were runners-up on the River Trent National and won the National Federation of Anglers Team Challenge on the rowing course in 1993.

Bob Nudd also claimed one of his memorable World Championship victories on the same venue, which was sadly closed to angling shortly afterwards.

The crying shame about fishing being stopped at Holme Pierrepont is it meant the World Championships can no longer be staged in this country, because it was the only venue that meets the required criteria for such big events.

Many people in the Grantham and Nottingham areas are still at a loss as to why this great asset was closed to fishing, because there was never any conflict between the two major sports using the facility, plus big angling competitions attracted large numbers of visitors from far and wide.

Returning to the Essex County photograph, due to there being so many big events in Lincolnshire, a local Nottingham angler was also recruited into the ranks. Wayne Swinscoe can be seen second from the left in the middle row of the picture.

Wayne still fishes various competitions in this area, particularly on his favourite River Trent, and is now sponsored by Drennan International fishing tackle company. They also sponsored Dave at one time, after Essex won the Drennan Super League in 1994 and he was crowned individual champion. That was during the golden years of match fishing, when major events attracted massive entries.