I was very pleased to have had the opportunity of visiting Palotas last weekend and I was looking forward to meeting all of the competitors in the first Hungarian World Carp Classic National Final. Unfortunately due to the exceptionally bad weather and high rainfall the event had to be reduced to 45 hours. A great number of fish had been caught and as such it was possible to identify the pairs that would go forward to represent Hungary in this years World Carp Classic and the section winners.

As an event organiser I know how much hard work goes into preparing for and running competitions and I would like to congratulate Ferrie and his team for an excellent job. It was very disappointing that on this occasion  the full event was not possible and for the first time the rules that we have in place for this type of  situation have been implemented. To make up for the shortened event all competitors have been invited back to the venue for a free weeks fishing over the course of this coming year.  I would like to thank the venue owner for there understanding and co operation in this regard.

I forgot to mention that my flight back to the UK  from Hungary was "interesting"  I was due to leave at 06.00 which was fine and after checking in in the normal manner the plane took off on time. 25 minutes into the flight the captain announced that there was    " technical problem" with the plane and that we were going to have to turn back to Budapest. When the plane arrived back in Budapest there was too much fuel onboard to land so we had to circle round for another 20 minutes. We then landed back at the airport to be told that the repairs would take 1 1/2 hours. All the baggage was taken off the plane and we waited in the terminal.The next message was that  the problem was more serious than expected and that they would be getting another plane . This took another 4 hours. We all then eventually re-boarded the plane only to be told that they were 2 passengers short for the baggage that had been loaded so  guess what... all the baggage had to be off loaded and checked to find the extra bags.  So rather than get home to the UK at 07.00 I got home some 12 hours later at 19:00 PM what a day!!!