Rood Ashton, 29 May (17 pegs)

1. Rich Britton .... peg 6 ..... 69-1
2. Craig Edmunds .... 11 .... 54-7
3. Brian Shanks ....... 2 ..... 49-8
4. Alan Healy .......... 10 .... 45-14
5. Darren North ....... 17 .... 45-6
6. Ron Hardiman ...... 3 ..... 40-7
7. Chris Szakacs ...... 15 .... 40-3
8. Mark Radford ....... 14 .... 35-12
9. Simon Belcham ..... 7 .... 31-8
10. Mike Wilson .......... 4 ..... 27-13
11. Chris Gay ............ 12 .... 27-3
12. Ade Crawley ........ 16 .... 26-6
13. Rich Jones ........... 1 ..... 17-6
14. Bob Warren* ........ 8 ..... 12-15
15. Adam Caswell ....... 5 ..... dnw
16. Mark Britton ......... 9 ..... dnw
17. Steve Wynne ........ 13 ... dnw

*golden peg

Avalon, 22 May (12 pegs)

Unusually for Avalon today the wind was blowing up the lake which was bad news for Ade Crawley in peg 1 as this peg, under normal conditions, can be productive later in the day when the wind pushes the carp into it.
It was better news however for Mark Radford up on peg 22.  Mark, who was for a long time virtually unbeatable, has for a while now been suffering a dip in form but today he was back to his old self.
Fishing (unsurprisingly) paste at 11.5m he caught steadily all day for a total of 100lbs 9oz and also posted the top silvers weight with 18lbs of decent skimmers and a couple of "proper 'uns".
It wasn't all plain sailing though as he managed to break his landing net on one of Avalon's zoo creatures and had to go scrounging for another net.
(Which is why I always carry a spare)!!!
Second place went to Rich Britton on peg 14 who, despite the strong gusts of wind blowing up the lake, was able to fish the pellet waggler along the sheltered left-hand edge of the island to weigh in 79lbs 2oz.
Mike Smith on peg 3 completed the frame with another paste-caught weight of 63lbs 4oz and ,with Bob Warren not in attendance, Derek Lucas took the top silvers (by default) with 14lbs 7oz which paid for my Chinese (nice one partner)!
Unfortunately, the Knowle West pheasant beater could only manage a dismal 19lbs and was even spotted at one point scratching about with maggots for the "razor blades" and "pairs of eyes".  As a result of this shameful performance he was forced to make a big dent in his pound coin collection which won't help pay for the no4 section he broke bullying fish out of peg 1 at Landsend in the week or any more of his gypsy bling.  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as his winning ways are becoming a bit tedious of late.

Full Result:

1. Mark Radford ... peg 22 .. 100-9
2. Rich Britton ......... 14 ... 79-2
3. Mike Smith ........... 3 .... 63-4
4. Adam Caswell ...... 23 ... 59-11
5. Derek Lucas ........ 19 .... 40-9
6. Steve Burgess ..... 16 .... 35-14
7. Ryan Radford ...... 20 ..... 30-0
8. Stuart Riddle ....... 7...... 23-10
9. Alan Healy ........... 5 ..... 19-3
10. Paul Reed* .......... 11 .... 18-7
11. Ade Crawley ........ 1 ...... 15-3
12. Chris Szakacs ..... DNW

Silvers:

1. Mark Radford .... 18-0
2. Derek Lucas ...... 14-7
3. Ryan Radford ..... 9-10
4. Alan Healy ......... 7-12
5. Stuart Riddle ...... 2-9
6. Steve Burgess .... 2-8½
7. Mike Smith ......... 2-8
8. Paul Reed ........... 2-7
9. Ade Crawley ....... 1-2
10. Rich Britton ........ 0-6

*golden peg

Plantations, Horseshoe Lake, 08 May (10 pegs)

With the recent renovation and restocking of the lake only having been completed a few days before this match the rumour mill was in full swing so I had heard everything from there being no fish in the lake to the lake having no water in it and I had also been reliably informed that the owner had removed the sunken bars that can be seen in the photo above.
However, having spoken to the owner in the week it was clear that most / all of the above was a load of crap and that all the work was complete, the fish were back in their home and they even had some water to swim in.
In addition to that, one of the locals had "test fished" it during the week and had over 100lbs out on two different occasions (don't they always say that?) so things were looking good for our match.
In actual fact the owners have now put in corrugated tin sheeting supported by wooden posts on top of the bars, either that or the bars are no longer there and the tin sheets continue for about 8 feet below the surface!
And on arrival at the lake it seemed that the occupants were so pleased with their new surroundings that most of them were celebrating by getting laid in the margins! (not a good sign) And to make matters worse there was a hefty wind blowing down the lake which was going to make things difficult.
As it turned out, the wind got worse as the day progressed which meant that Bob Warren and Mike Smith in pegs 1 & 2 (nearest the car park) were unable to fish out at any length and could only fish down the edge.
In hindsight I would have left these pegs out and just put in the sheltered pegs as there's no point in having a "good" peg if it's unfishable and Bob probably wouldn't have broken his no6 section when his pole blew off the roller but shit happens!
Man of the moment, Alan Healy's luck with the drawbag continued when he pulled out the £72 golden peg, peg 5 which was reasonably sheltered at the back of the "shoe" and an end peg that appeared to be solid with fish. In fact there were so many in his peg that he found it difficult to plumb up!
Sure enough the pheasant beater caught all day long alternating between 13m to the opposite bank reeds and short into open water to weigh in 48lbs 4oz which netted him £132, his second golden peg win of the year.

 

Derek Lucas (above) was close behind on peg 6 which was on the central spit and completely unaffected by the wind.  Derek fished double red maggot on his top4 straight out in front catching mostly small carp around 8 to 12oz with the odd good fish to finish up with 42-13.
Third place went to Chris Szakacs on peg 8 with 41-13 of carp caught on corn.

Full Result:

1. Alan Healy* ..... peg5 .... 48-4
2. Derek Lucas ........ 6 .... 42-13
3. Chris Szakacs ...... 8 .... 41-3
4. Simon Belcham ... 10 ... 35-4
5. Ade Crawley ........ 9 .... 21-0
6. Paul Reed ............ 7 .... 19-8
7. Mike Smith .......... 2 .... 12-8
8. Steve Burgess ...... 3 .... 10-0
9. Bob Warren ......... 1 .... DNW
10. Darren North ....... 4 .... DNW

*golden peg