The Optimist Open Meeting has had to be cancelled because of a clash with a prestigious National First Division angling event. (There are five divisions with the First Division having the highest skills level.) Very long poles are going to be used and there's no way we can hold the event on the same length of water that the anglers are using.

The angling event is very large, spread out along most of the river from the Pike and Eel in Chesterton to Ely. With anglers coming from all over the country, there's a fear of bringing foot and mouth from areas where there have been recent cases. So some of the angling positions that were planned for below the lock will now be above the lock on our course.

We only found out about the angling event on 21 September and have tried to negotiate that we share our normal waters by using a shortened course to the middle buoy. Unfortunately, although the local angling club made an effort to find alternative spaces, they were unable to find enough.

So we have had to cancel the event, there being no suitable date to postpone it to this season.