Junior Day
Each year we run a Junior Day, where we invite young anglers to come and have a go for free. All the necessary tackle and bait is provided by the Club. We use three qualified coaches from the Angling Trust, under the leadership of Alan Sandom. All the helpers provided by the Club are CRB checked. We encourage parents to stay on site while the children are under tuition and usually the parents enjoy it as much as their children. We run one morning session and one afternoon session.
Junior Day Saturday May 21st 2022
30 Junior Anglers enjoyed the annual Junior Coaching Day organised by Crowborough & District Anglers Association, in conjunction with coaches from the Angling Trust, on a local Crowborough Lake this last weekend.
Pennybridge Lake, which was developed with the aid of Sports Lottery funding, provides disabled access for the Associations members and ‘day ticket’ anglers and has become the regular venue for this popular event.
Three qualified Angling Trust coaches lead by Head Coach Alan Sandom with Les Pearce and Brian Potter provided instruction to the keen junior anglers at the waterside. CDAA members Dave Cottington, Roger Harris, John Manktelow and Derek Blakeway assisted the coaches.
Participants were divided between morning and afternoon sessions, with both sessions providing plenty of action for the junior anglers. The day was enjoyed by all, with many catching for their first time. The afternoon session was visit by the Town Mayor Councillor David Neeve who was very impressed and stayed for the presentation of bait boxes and vouchers.
The day was funded by Crowborough Town Council and vouchers for fishing equipment were given to the participants donated by Crowborough & District Anglers Association.
Once again this event was organised by Roger Funnell, who organises the Junior Match section as well as most of the other matches too, and helped by his wife Janet.
Correspondence from Parents
From Nicholas Bellamy in the Courier, June 22nd 2012
I must put on record my experience of last Saturday. My son Ben aged six, attended the junior open day of the Crowborough and District Anglers' Association. He had a superb time, being welcomed and tutored by the senior members of the club in an extremely understanding and helpful way. The day was constructed and run in a highly professional manner - there were probably a dozen youngsters of similar age and they all had a brilliant time, catching many fish and being shown the basics of coarse fishing. My special thanks must go to Roger, Dave and Alan who managed to keep Ben's close interest for over three hours, and they even let me have a go! At the end of the session the children were presented with highly generous starter equipment donated by the club sponsors and the members. My older sons joined the club last year and have received fantastc support and encouragement from their fellow members. the whole club set-up, organisation, and its' beautifully kept waters are a wonderful credit to those involved.
From Peter Meiners by email, June 16th 2012
Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in organising today's Junior Day. My son Alex is really pleased with his fishing gear and looking forward to giving it a try asap. I've recently joined the Club so i'm sure it is something we will enjoy doing together. We both thought the day was excellent and a special thanks to Dave Cottington for patiently passing on his knowledge. Alex has been full of Dave's tips this evening. I was so impressed with the encouragement that the Club gives to youngsters and sure that today will have inspired the next generation of anglers.
From John Martin by email, June 16th 2012
To all who helped with or sponsored (or both) today's Junior Day a massive thank you from John, Toby and Annabelle Martin. It was a great morning and both Annabelle and Toby seem to "have the bug." A special thanks to John, who stuck with Annabelle all morning and helped her catch an impressive 35 fish. Special thanks also to Dave who helped Annabelle, Toby and Tom with his time, expertise and tackle. Finally we were all astounded at the amount of tackle and bait that was presented to the kids at the end of the session - thanks to the very generous sponsors. I'm sure they have helped to inspire some fisher folk of the future.