Viaduct, Campbell, 08 April (22 pegs)

Some would say that chucking out a lead and firing pellets until the tip wraps round is not "proper" fishing however the whole idea behind match fishing is to catch more than the people around you and, ideally, everyone else on the venue.
And to achieve this you need to make the best choices of bait, methods and tactics on the day (and draw on some fish of course).
So despite the mutterings from the "tip knockers" all four top weights were caught on the straight lead and pellet.
Top honours went to Rich Britton on peg 117 with an impressive weight of 166lbs 3oz followed by Will Dearlove with 138-1 from 118 and Mark Radford with 100-5 from form peg 119.  Away from the top right corner Steve Burgess on 113 took fourth place with 99-7 despite not fancying his chances at the start.  And top of the "proper" anglers, in 132, was Adam Caswell with 79-11.  Adam did admit to losing 20 fish so in reality a good angler in his peg  may well have won the match using "proper" tactics!
Top silvers went the way of Brian Shanks on 125 with 43-1 of skimmers caught on pellet at 4m followed by newcomer Colin Ellaway on 131 with 26-10 caught on maggot.

Full Result:

1. Rich Britton ... peg 117 ... 166-3
2. Will Dearlove .... 118 ... 138-1
3. Mark Radford .... 119 ... 100-5
4. Steve Burgess ... 113 ... 99-7
5. Adam Caswell ... 132 ... 79-11
6. Kev Jefferies ..... 126 ... 71-14
7. Paul Reed ......... 110 ... 71-5
8. Simon Belcham .. 124 ... 68-11
9. Matt Williams .... 127 ... 68-1
10. Chris Szakacs .... 130 ... 65-14
11. Ron Hardiman .... 123 ... 65-7
12. Keith Ray ........... 128 ... 64-10
13. Brian Shanks ...... 125 ... 59-5
14. Neil Mercer ........ 129 ... 55-3
15. Chris Gay .......... 115 ... 38-0
16. Alan Healy ......... 114 ... 34-15
17. Darren North ...... 116 ... 32-13
18. Pete Uzzell ......... 112 ... 31-2
19. Colin Ellaway ...... 131 ... 26-10
20. Mike Welling ....... 111 ... 25-3

Silvers:

1. Brian Shanks ... 43-1
2. Colin Ellaway ... 26-10
3. Simon Belcham ... 19-2
4. Alan Healy ...... 17-13 (after a reluctant trip to the shop for maggots)
5. Neil Mercer ....  14-5
6. Adam Caswell ... 10-10