Boyd Valley, 23 Jan (12 pegs)

With Boyd's resident carp reluctant to feed only four anglers managed to hit double figures and keen to make up for a dismal performance from a gift of a peg last week at Westerleigh, the Knowle West pheasant beater was making no mistakes this week.
Having drawn yet another flier, peg 8, Alan caught steadily all day at 14m and up against the reed margins to weigh in 19lbs 8oz of quality silvers for a comfortable win with over five pounds to spare.
Winner of the same match this time last year, (view here) Neil Mercer arrived at the venue "Trigger-style" looking very much worse for wear and a strange greyish-yellow colour but he managed to get his act together tucked away in the relative shelter of peg 11 with his lucky stupid hat on! 
Fishing short in the margins and a bit longer as the day progressed (and the fuzziness cleared) Neil managed to put together 14lbs exactly to take second place.
At one stage it was necessary for Neil's mum to bring him some hot food and stroke the back of his neck for a while but I guess that's what mummy's are for!
Third spot went to born-again angler Paul Reed who was pegged next to the winner on peg 9.  If you are interested (and have the time) Paul will give you a blow by blow account of how he caught each of his fish for his well earned 11lbs 3oz.
Making up the frame was our in-form match secretary, Steve Burgess who skillfully (some would say luckily) managed to boost an unimpressive net of small roach and skimmers with the only sizeable carp to be landed on the day to give him a thoroughly impressive 10lbs 12oz from a mediocre peg 6.


Full Result:

1. Alan Healy ........ peg 8 ..... 19-8
2. Mugger Mercer ...... 11 ..... 14-0
3. Paul Reed ............. 9 ....... 11-3
4. Steve Burgess ....... 6 ....... 10-12
5. Mark Britton .......... 1 ....... 9-15
6. Bob Warren .......... 10 ...... 7-7
7. Simon Belcham ..... 2 ....... 6-0
8. Stevie Wynne ........ 7 ....... 5-0
9. Mike Wilson* ........ 12 ...... 3-13-1
10. Darren North ........ 5 ........ 3-13
11. Ryan Jordan ......... 3 ......... 2-11
12. Derek Lucas ......... 4 ......... 2-4

*golden peg

Christmas Match, Westerleigh, 15 Jan (19 pegs)

No big weights today but a very tight result with only 6lbs separating the top 10 places.
The old lake was the place to be with peg 19 producing the top weight of 18lbs 8oz for Paul Elmes (despite his reservations at the draw) followed by Adam Caswell on peg 1 with 17lbs 2oz. Third overall and top weight on the new lake was Neil Mercer with 15lbs 6oz from peg 26.
Thanks, as ever, to Tony for the tackle prizes and also to Dean (who was sadly missed at the evening do), and to Bob Warren for his invaluable help with the pegging.  In addition, a big thankyou to my good wife for doing the food (bless her) and to Mike Smith's wife, Jacky for folding up the raffle tickets.
And thanks to everyone for supporting the club throughout 2010!

Full Result:

1. Paul Elmes .... peg 19 ..... 18-8
2. Adam Caswell ....... 1 ..... 17-2
3. Neil Mercer ......... 26 .... 15-6
4. Ryan Jordan ........ 2 ..... 15-0
5. Trigger ............... 10 .... 14-10
6. Simon Belcham ... 33 .... 13-13
7. Steve Wynne ...... 15 ..... 13-12
8. Ade Crawley ....... 6 ....... 13-9
9. Eddie Wynne ...... 21 ...... 13-6
10. Rich Jones .......... 24 ..... 12-6
11. Adam Woodland .. ? ....... 9-14
12. Mike Smith ......... 8 ....... 8-12
13. Bob Warren ........ 29 ...... 8-9
14. Steve Burgess .... 23 ....... 7-1
15. Alan Healy ......... 31 ....... 5-0
16. Stuart Ashton ..... 22 ...... 4-12
17. Paul Reed ........... 11 ...... 4-2
18. Mark Radford ....... 4 ....... 3-11
19. Derek Lucas ....... 28 ....... 3-4

Christmas Match Details

Draw will be at 9 in the car park, fishing from 10 til 3.
As it stands there are 18 fishing so there will be 9 pegs on each lake.
£20 payable on the day to cover peg fees with all remainder paid out as follows:
1st Overall £50
2nd Overall £40
1st on Each Lake £40*
2nd on Each Lake £30*
3rd on Each Lake £20
*by default
I think that's the fairest way to pay out as if one lake fishes better than the other (as the old lake did last year) then there is still a reasonable chance of picking up money whichever lake you are drawn on.
Normal Westerleigh rules apply, ie: no groundbait, no bread, no swimming and no interfering with geese!
The upstairs room in the Midland Spinner will be available from 6 where we will have the results, payouts, prizes, raffle??? and, of course, a banquet prepared by my wife (God help us all)!!
If you are interested you can read last year's results by clicking here
See you all on Sunday and take care as the car park can be slippery!

Viaduct, Match Lake, 9 Jan (7 pegs)!!

First Off..... Happy New Year to all and I hope you are all looking forward to another twelve months of fishing with the "cream" of the South West match fishing circuit!
Following a month of Arctic hell and, for many of us, no fishing since the end of November it only seemed fair that after a week of reasonable(ish) temperatures Saturday night saw the return of the gritters and sure enough Sunday morning greeted us with a substantial frost and part-frozen lakes.
Although 10 booked in for the match that number was reduced to only seven as the Spitfire Pilot was waylaid with manflu, the Pheasant Beater was out with torn ligaments (can someone please tell Alan Healy that football is not for grown men in their forties) and Mark Radford had to ferry young Ryan to his football match (never have children with a women that can't drive)!
Fortunately though this was a bonus as with half the lake frozen it meant there was plenty of room for the remaining seven to spread out on the ice-free pegs.
But, being a bit rusty from the long lay-off and Saturday night alcohol consumption, our Match Secretary still managed to peg the wrong half which resulted in the first "redraw" of 2011.
Anyway, after that small hiccup , the match was underway by 10:30 and by 11:30 nobody had even had a sniff of a bite! That was until, predictably, Steve Burgess on peg 49 managed to convince Viaduct's most stupid skimmer to eat his maggot and caster cocktail bait (sorry Bob) which signalled the start of an impressive run of two fish (an equally stupid perch taken on maggot at 14m followed 45 minutes later).
After a quiet spell of an hour or so, Paul Reed (yes, you read that correctly) on peg 47 managed to snare a skimmer on caster to his miscast feeder setup and finally over on peg 40, Ade "creepy" Crawley (yes, you read that correctly too)  finally managed to convert one of his many bites into something solid in the shape of a skimmer on the groundbait feeder with pinkie on the hook.
And that was it, four fish .... but still four more fish than at the last match on Spring lake, although it later turned out that there had been a knock-up on the lake the day before and nobody had weighed under 20lbs but I will blame that on the overnight frost and calm, bright conditions and not the fact that we are all completely crap anglers!
It may be of value to note that apart from Steve Burgess' 2 fish haul the only pegs to produce anything were the end pegs which makes me think that any fish with sense backed off to the safety of the iced over side of the lake to escape capture.
And also, Tony Rixon, there's no such thing as a "healthy options" fry-up so there was no need to have a hissy fit in the cafe at Shipham!

Full Result:

1. Steve Burgess ..... peg 49 .... 2lbs 4oz
2. Ade Crawley ........ peg 40 .... 1lb 7oz
3. Paul Reed ............ peg 47 .... 1lb 5oz

Total Match Weight = 5lbs
Average Weight = 11.4oz