Filling in the gaps!

A few technical issues (my 12 year-old iMac has gone off to Apple heaven)  and a canalboat holiday have lead to a slight backlog of postings on here so I'll sum up the highs and lows of the last few weeks in one go.

Trinity, Woodlands, 19 August (19 pegs)

It's refreshing to know that when I'm not there it's still possible for the draw to go badly wrong resulting in tears and tantrums (mostly from Adam Caswell who wasn't happy about putting his flier back in the draw-bag).
And it was nice to see, after much abuse from his staff at Fairview Engineering, Brian Shanks finally making it into the elite Psv 200+ club with 228lbs 8oz which is a new record weight for Trinity.
Brian (I'll hazard a guess) fished pellet shallow at 13m or in the margins (or both) from peg 17 although he did have the choice of four empty pegs around him with the wind blowing in.
As I was on Sunday roast duty I never fished this one hence the results were a bit sketchy.

1. Mugger Shanks (17) ... 228-8
2. Darren North (peg ?) ... 94-10
3. Chris Gay (peg 7) ...... 65-2
4. Matt Tainton (peg 2) .... 60-13
5. Mike Smith  (peg ?) ..... 57-15

Silvers: Simon Belcham  (peg ?) .... 25-0


Staunton Court, 26 August (11 pegs)

Most of the members of the elite Psv 200+ club have gained their claim to stardom at Staunton Court but the ranks of the 200+ club weren't swelled today as it was a bit of an off-day by Staunton standards.
With eleven fishing there were three pegs on the concrete, two on the top bank which had the wind blowing in and were the most fancied pegs, five on the long grass bank and one in nomansland on the bottom bank.
Alan Healy made the best of it with 95-2 from peg 2 which was in the middle of the concrete bank.
Alan caught strongly down the edge for the latter half of the match on a large helping of bullshit (as usual)!  Lionel Legge was a close second with 89-14 from peg 3 on the concrete.  Lionel is usually seen thrashing shallow pole rigs about but today caught mainly on paste in close. A man of many talents!
Will Dearlove was third from peg 1 with 88-7 making it a clean sweep from the pegs on the concrete bank.  Will caught close in with corn (I think) or maybe paste!
Fourth place went to Simon Belcham with 79-11 from peg 7 catching mostly on tares on the deck at 8m.
Strangely, the pegs on the top bank didn't fish as well as expected and neither did the legendary "bin" peg (10) occupied by Adam Caswell although, in fairness, it was the golden peg which usually spells the kiss of death!
No tremendous weights today but a close match.  Next year's Staunton matches are winter matches which means the huge weights of carp should give way to the big skimmers that don't get a look-in on the summer matches but are present in good numbers, should be interesting.

Full Result:

1. Alan Healy (peg 2) ....... 95-2
2. Lionel Legge (peg 3) .... 89-14
3. Will Dearlove  (peg 1) ... 88-7
4. Simon Belcham (peg 7) .... 79-11
5. Mugger Shanks (peg 4) .... 64-12
6. Adam Caswell (peg 10) .... 62-2
7. Richard Britton (peg 9) .... 61-0
8. Steve Burgess (peg 8) ..... 52-0
9. Darren North (5) ........... 47-10
10. Ron Hardiman (11) ....... 47-8
11. Chris Gay (6) ................ 45-10

Landsend Match Lake, 2 September (11 pegs)

Another day and another venue that didn't want to fish to it's full potential.
Rich Jones cruised through this one though with 96-9 from peg 17 fishing corn.  Next best was one of psv's new superstars, in-form Will Dearlove with 58-5 from peg 1.  Will caught long down the edge and to his right margin into the tackle-smashing bush on paste.
Chris Gay was third from peg 15 with 49-4.  Chris had an eventful day getting bitten by red ants and snapping his pole resulting in a trip out in HMS Duckett to retrieve it.  Maybe not a wise idea to play an angry foul-hooked Wedmore carp with six sections up in the air!

Chris Gay flexing his pecs on the way to third place .........

.... and retrieving his top set aboard HMS Duckett!

 Full Result:

1. Rich Jones (peg 17) ....... 96-9
2. Will Dearlove  (1) ........... 58-5
3. Chris Gay (15) ................ 49-4
4. Alan Healy (13) .............. 44-8
5. Simon Belcham (21) ....... 37-11
6. Ed (corner peg) Wynne (24) .... 37-11
7. Adam (foul-hooker) Caswell (5) .. 33-7
8. Keith Ray (9) ................... 26-14
9. Bob Warren (19) .............. 24-7
10. Lionel Legge (7) & Steve Burgess (11) ... dnw

Silvers: Simon Belcham ....  23-6


As you've probably worked out, today wasn't one of my most memorable matches with my two skimmers and one perch going an estimated 14oz had they made it to the scales which they never!
Perhaps I should stick to canal fishing.