Sedges, Brick Lake, 17 July (11 pegs)

Fortunately, the torrential rain we had on the way down to Bridgwater eased off by 10ish and pretty much stayed off for the rest of the day but it was replaced by a strong wind that blew straight at the right-hand bank and meant that everyone on pegs 11 to 19 struggled to present a bait anywhere other than in the margins.
Quickest off the mark, on peg 13, was Psv's newest member Big Mike (who is so new I don't know his surname so for now he will be referred to as "Big Mike"). Mike had 2 good sized carp early on but Match Secretary  Steve Burgess in peg 8 (pictured above), after a brief spell on the pole fishing for skimmers that only produced two of them, took advantage of the favourable wind and switched over to the pellet waggler line.
Fishing 2 feet deep with 8mm pellet produced a carp first chuck and was followed by another nine fish which together with three slimy things made a total of 86lbs 8oz for top spot with almost 34lbs to spare!
Second on the day (and second in the silvers) was Paul Reed (yes , you read that correctly) on peg 15.  Paul fished 8mm cubes of meat mainly against the margin reeds for a near 50:50 split of skimmers and carp to over 12lbs for a total weight of 52lbs 4oz.
Mugger Shanks made up the frame with 40lbs 4oz from peg 3  edging Big Mike out of the money on his first Psv match by just one ounce!
With Dave Tippet unsurprisingly unable to drag himself out of bed, Alan Healy managed to make the most of a very poor performance at his jinx venue by taking the silvers pool from peg 6 with 33lbs 8oz of slimy things.
Interestingly (or not) Steve Burgess has a unique way of fishing the pellet waggler which involves feeding to one point and casting his rig to various points well away from the area being fed.
The thinking behind it is that the carp are attracted to the feed but are wised up to the usual method which produces only very cagey bites and foulhookers. However, the fish remain in the area and will confidently take a pellet ten or fifteen feet away from the fed area as they are tricked into thinking it's a stray pellet  that's safe to eat.  This method produces much more confident sailaway bites and properly hooked fish.
To the untrained eye this may appear to be wayward casting but is in fact a special technique that has been finely tuned over several seasons and which, on the right day (like today) can prove to be devastating.
As a match venue Sedges is one of the best around, Jamie and Denise are always very welcoming with tea and coffee provided before and after, the lakes are well looked after and comfortable to fish, all nets are supplied and Jamie (usually) does the weigh-in himself. In addition Brick and Tile lakes are due to receive stocks of tench in the near future which will add to the already excellent  silvers fishing.

Overall:

1. Steve Burgess ... peg 8 ... 86-8
2. Paul Reed ........ 15 ... 52-4
3. Mugger Shanks .. 3 ... 40-4
4. Big Mike ........... 13 ... 40-3
5. Ron Hardiman ... 11 ... 34-5
6. Alan Healy ......... 6 ... 33-8
7. Simon Belcham .. 5 ... 33-0
8. Mark Britton ..... 17 ... 26-11
9. Bob Warren ....... 2 ... 22-10
10. Darren North .... 19 ... 21-11
11. Mike Wilson* ..... 2 .... 19-1

*golden peg (worth £82)

Silvers:

1. Alan Healy .... 33-8
2. Paul Reed ..... 25-5
3. Mugger Shanks .. 24-0
4. Bob Warren ... 22-10
5. Mark Britton ... 21-11
6. Darren North ... 17-7
7. Simon Belcham .. 16-8
8. Mike Wilson ..... 14-1
9. Big Mike ......... 12-1
10. Ron Hardiman .. 10-7
11. Steve Burgess .. 4-0