North West officially has the best anglers in the South African Police Service.

This was established without a doubt on Saturday, 17 October 2015 as the Provincial Freshwater Bank Angling team participated in the South African Police Service (SAPS) Interprovincial Championships that took place at Voëlvlei Dam in the Western Cape.

Warrant officer, Bennie Cloete, was the leader of the successful team that dominated their opponents with their angling skills.

Cloete is also the provincial chairperson and competed in his 20th provincial championship and 40th in total at national and international levels.

Cloete was also awarded a 20-year certificate for participating in 20 of the 25 Police National Championships. He has achieved his National (Protea) colours 5 times and this is the 9th time that he has been selected for the national police angling team.

North West obtained the first position with 179 points with KwaZulu-Natal in second with 149 points, followed by Free State in third with 144 points.

“On the first day, lots of fish were caught but also a lot of small ones. We made some adjustments and  we were immediately catching the big ones.

The last day started with the wind picking up before we reached the Venue at Voëlvlei, and when we saw the dam, waves up to almost 2 metres awaited the anglers,” Cloete said.

The wind was so devastating that the hired toilets were blown over, fishing rods were damaged, vehicle doors were damaged and fishing tackle boxes were blown over and beyond repair.

“All managers and team captains were in a meeting together with the officials to try and establish whether the day should go ahead or be stopped, due to nature. We were immediately informed that we were about to be crowned the new champions for 2015. This was indeed a very big honour for me, and for the team that I led with great respect and dignity,” he said.

At the prize-giving function, six NW members were selected for the national team, and WO Cloete was selected as the national team coach for 2016. The province will also host the police inter-provincial angling tournament in 2016.

“A big thank you to the various station and unit commanders for allowing the selected members to compete in the sporting code that they love so dearly,” he added.

These members were selected for the national and president’s teams: Capt. C J Pansegrouw (DPCI) Capt. D J Fourie (Division HRD Mounted Academy) W/O Scheepers (Division HRD Mounted Academy) W/O Stevenson (Marikana Detectives) and Sgt A Bergsma (Explosives Section, Rustenburg.)