Staunton Court, Pole only, 7 March (11 pegs)

Despite a hard overnight frost and temperatures down to -5, fortunately the lake was free of ice but it was unlikely that the Staunton carp would be on the feed so the main target for the day was the lake's neglected population of skimmers.
The carp still had an influence on the final outcome though, as four out of the top six weights included a bonus fish.
Fair-weather angler Rich Jones, pegged on the concrete at the start of the metal pilings, had a good start with a bonus carp early into the match but his neighbour in the corner peg, former Spitfire pilot and serial fish-avoider, Derek Lucas was the man to beat.
After snaring a good sized carp in the tail early on Derek went on to capitalize with a run of good sized skimmers on soft pellet over micros at 14m.
Derek said after the match: "I started on maggot (donated by Rich Jones) but was getting only small stuff until changing to soft pellet (donated by Steve Burgess) which sorted out the decent skimmers"
Steve Burgess, pegged on the bottom bank with the icy wind in his face fished two lines at 13m, one fed with groundbait and the other with 3mm pellet. Fishing double red maggot and alternating between the two lines, Steve caught at a steady pace from start to finish and included a near 8lb foul-hooked carp in his 19lbs 8oz total.
Most of his fish which included some good skimmers up to the 2lb mark were caught over the pellet feed.
This meant that Steve was able to claw back a pound coin off the Knowle West pheasant beater bringing the 2010 score back to a more bearable 3-2 to Alan.
With Steve and Derek van sharing it was rumoured that Curry Kings would be getting a good seeing-to later on!
Third spot went to Southmead veteran Stevie Wynne with an impressive all-skimmer net of 18lbs 9oz caught on maggot over micro pellet feed. Steve could easily have won the match had he landed the "proper" bream that managed to snap his power kit before making it's getaway.
It is rumoured that Stevie Wynne's pole now contains more gaffer tape than carbon!
The final frame place went to silvers specialist Chris Zak pegged next to the wooden pontoon with a total of 17lbs 10oz. Chris started on the chopped worm but struggled until switching to his long line where he fished soft pellet over micro and was able to put together a good run of skimmers until, unfortunately, a lost carp unsettled his peg and left him virtually biteless for over an hour.
And on a final note, matchwinner Derek Lucas never managed to turn up for work on Monday so it seems his new found success got the better of him (or the Natch did)!


Overall Results:

1. Derek Lucas ..... peg 5 ..... 21-9
2. Steve Burgess ........ 11 ..... 19-8
3. Steve Wynne .......... 8 ...... 18-9
4. Chris Zak ............... 1 ....... 17-10
5. Adam Woodland* . 10 ..... 13-15
6. Alan Healy ............. 6 ...... 11-3
7. Rich Jones ............. 4 ...... 11-1
8. Adam Caswell ........ 9 ...... 10-9
9. Stuart Riddle ......... 3 ....... 8-15
10. Mark Radford ........ 7 ....... 8-0
11. Paul Reed ............... 2 ....... 5-10

*golden peg