Shiplate Farm, Hawthorn. 22 January 2012 (15 pegs)

There is a vicious rumour circulating the match angling fraternity that this blog only ever gets updated when the Match Secretary has a good day .... so this should well and truly put that to rest with absolutely no bitterness involved whatsoever!
And so with all fifteen pegs filled it meant the pegging wouldn't be too much of a problem and having counted out the pegs twice over, there was little chance of there being a redraw, and there wasn't fortunately, which meant that the biggest problem would be down to the blustery wind.  And fortunately again that was straight off our backs so there was no real problem there either .... so far so good!

Chris Gay with "25lbs" which miraculously turned into 54lbs!

As far as the match itself went it was pretty much business as usual with Chris  Gay (left) being closest on hand to draw the golden peg (peg 1) and then proceeding to "innocently" draw it for himself (strangely) and then win it!
And with Alan spawny bollox Healy using some kind of Jedi powers to cement second place ahead of up-and-coming superstar, Will Dearlove, closely followed by the "gruesome twosome" of Simon Belcham and Darren North in fourth and fifth respectively.

Will doing his best impression of Freddie Mercury!

For the record, Chris Gay spent half the first half of the match fishing up to the rope barrier on the left bank of peg one fishing maggot over micro with a few maggots catapulted over the top and caught just off the deck by regularly lifting and dropping.  He spent the remaining part of the match at 13m across to the far bank using the exact same tactics as before and cruised to victory with 54lbs 11oz.
Alan, on peg 11, fished on top of the far shelf at 13m with maggot for 28lbs exactly and Will (pictured above) had one carp across and the rest down the inside edge from a slight depression in the bottom, again on maggot / micro for 20lbs 4oz.

Stevie Wynne contemplating life after 5hrs pegged next to Mike Wilson

It was a first visit for many of us to Shiplate and it must be said that this looks like rapidly becoming one of the top venues locally thanks to the top quality facilities and warm welcome from owners Steve and Carol.
More info for Shiplate can be found here or alternatively look for the Shiplate Farm page on Facebook.

Overall result:

1. Chris Gay* .... peg 1 ... 54-11
2. Alan Healy ...........11 ... 28-0
3. Will Dearlove ....... 4 .... 20-4
4. Simon Belcham ... 10 ... 17-4
5. Darren North ....... 12 ... 14-15
6. Keith Ray ............ 13 ... 14-8
7. Mike Welling ........ 8 ..... 12-5
8. Bob Warren ......... 9 ..... 8-4
9. Mike Wilson ......... 6 ..... 7-12
10. Rich Britton ......... 3 ..... 7-2
11. Paul Reed ............ 15 .... 6-4
12. Kev Jefferies ........ 14 .... 6-4
13. Stevie Wynne ....... 5 ..... 5-1
14. Derek Lucas ......... 2 ... dnw
15. Steve Burgess ...... 7 ... dnw

*yep, golden peg!

Boyd Valley, 08 January 2012 (12 pegs)

For the first match of the new year it was a return to Boyd Valley and after a week of gale force winds and rain it was a welcome relief to be greeted with mild temperatures, sunshine and a light breeze.  It was hoped that as a result of this  the lakes' larger inhabitants would be spurred into feeding, or at least the skimmers would show as they had been noticeable by their absence in the previous two matches (perhaps something to do with the cormorants that have been paying regular visits)
Unfortunately though, as before, the skimmers turned out to be few and far between and the carp rarer still which meant it was roach all the way for most with the few carp that were caught (three of them) deciding the framing weights.


For the second time running peg 4 produced the goods with a (marginally) tidier-looking Simon Belcham being the fortunate soul to draw it.
The bearded wonder fished at 3m with single maggot on the hook for a total of 13lbs 6oz of roach boosted by a decent skimmer and the biggest carp of the day.

Mark Radford, having managed a reserve place at the last minute, took second spot from peg 9 with 12lbs 11oz.  Fortunately for him 5lbs of that came "Alan Healy style" in the last five minutes of the match when, after moaning that the roach were too cold for five hours, he decided to chuck the lead across to the gap between the islands (where the carp were swirling and boshing about) and snare one at the death which comfortably knocked match secretary, Steve Burgess on peg 10 back into third place. (no bitterness there whatsoever)!
Steve spent half the match in a comfortable second spot courtesy of a 4lb carp and four skimmers caught on white maggot over micro at 13m which accompanied the obligatory roach caught on caster at 4m for a well-earned total of 11lbs 5oz.

Rich Britton, having yet again pulled out the golden peg, completed the frame with an all roach weight of 8lbs 8oz from peg 11 caught on single maggot at 3m.

*pictures courtesy of Roy Garland @ BEP

Overall Result:

1. Simon Belcham .... peg 4 .... 13-6    special hat for the cameras
2. Mark Radford ....... 9 ........ 12-11   braved the cold
3. Steve Burgess ..... 10 ....... 11-5   providing the takeaways
4. Rich Britton* ....... 11 ........ 8-8   f**ked up a flier
5. Bob Warren ......... 8 ......... 8-0   as above
6. Kev Jefferies ........ 2 ......... 7-1   beat Chris Gay
7. Chris Gay ............ 5 ......... 5-9   beaten by Kev
8. Derek Lucas ........ 12 ....... 5-8   not last
9. Keith Ray ............ 1 ......... 5-7   playing Grandad
10. Darren North ....... 6 ......... 5-4   what happened there???
11. Steve Wynne ....... 7 ......... 4-8   back to usual form
12. Paul Reed ............ 3 ......... 3-2   see above

*golden peg again

Footnote:

If you've ever wondered what a guinea pig would look like on a lead .....