July 2009 CLA Gamefair Belvoir Castle
11/07/2009
The annual CLA took place over 3 days at Belvoir Castle, Carron had a strong presence at the show and welcomed customers old and new, it was great to meet up with some old friends who always make this weekend special. There were numerous competitions taking place over the weekend, with the Worldwide Travel Open Saltwater distance competition on the Saturday and the Presnell Sporting Collection Open Speycasting Competition over the 3 days with the grand final taking place on the Sunday being the highlights of the show.
The weather was very changeable over the 3 days with a mixture of thunder and lightning rain and sunshine, so to be qualifying at the right time was important. The platform for the Speycasting qualifying was very busy with a very strong Scandinavian presence this year with 4 new faces to the CLA,this all added to the camaraderie during the course of the weekend as the judges struggled to keep up with all the names. There were also new entries this year from Ireland which is very encouraging to see all the new faces taking part.
Discussing tactics and comparing notes
The top 10 qualifiers over the three days, only 6 men would make Sundays final.
| 1st | Gordon Armstrong | 65 metres (New CLA Record) |
| 2nd | Ruairi Costello | 63 metres |
| 3rd | Andrew Toft | 62 metres |
| 4th | Tommy Aarkvisla | 62 metres |
| 5th | James Chalmers | 61 metres |
| 6th | Michael Egan | 60 metres |
| 7th | Mathias Lillieheim | 58 metres |
| 8th | Knut Eckelund | 53 metres |
| 8th | Iain Gardner | 53 metres |
| 10th | Mathew Tompkin | 51 metres |
| 10th | Derek Doyle | 51 metres |
Congratulations to Gordon Armstrong for breaking the CLA Speycasting record which was set at Belvoir in 2005 by Scott Mackenzie at 68 yards.
65 metres or 71 Yards is the new CLA Speycasting Record!!
Gordon gets a big one away
Saturday saw the Worldwide Travel Saltwater finals take place in front of the main grandstand, and what a final it proved to be absolutely thrilling a classic nail biter are the only words you can use to describe it.
The top 6 qualifiers took to the stage and produced some splendid casting the only thing that most of them were lacking was a good breeze to assist their turnover. The 3 Norwegian casters just missed out the top slot; this was a dead heat between Carl Hutcheson and Ruairi Costello who had to have a cast off to take the prestigious prize, as both men were previous winners we were in for a real treat.
Carl took to the platform first and cast a magnificent 41 metres,Ruairi was next up and during his casting his running line got tangled up with 60 seconds to go everyone thought that he would wind up and finish, but with a true competitive spirit he bit through his running line and re tied his knot with 10 seconds to go and on a count down from 10 seconds 9,8 7,6 he threw a magnificent cast of 41.5 metres to win this prestigious trophy, absolutely thrilling Ruairi had the whole grandstand on their feet applauding in appreciation.
Ruairi with the winning cast
Ruairi Costello receives the Saltwater Trophy and prizes
The Speycasting final took place on Sunday afternoon in front of the grandstand,unfortunately the weather had worsened and it was a very tricky wind.The breeze was very strong and coming downstream which made it particularly difficult to keep the cast within the designated course.The skill factor tended to go out the window during the final and it was a case of trying to get one good cast which didn't blow out of bounds.The first 4 casters had conditions which were tolerable but the last 2 were really up against the elements.In spite of the wind some respectable scores were produced to make it a good final.
Final Scores
| 1st | Tommy Aarkvisla | 61 metres |
| 2nd | Gordon Armstrong | 59 metres |
| 3rd | Andrew Toft | 57 metres |
| 4th | James Chalmers | 55 metres |
| 5th | Ruairi Costello | 54 metres |
| 6th | Michael Egan | 53 metres |
Congratulations to Tommy and the Carron boys for making the final exciting under such difficult conditions.I would like to also thank the sponsor Presnell Sporting for reviving this very exciting competition.
Looking forward to 2010 at Ragley Hall .