Harescombe Match lake  15 pegs   

Mr Burgess is having a week off so its guest blogger time ,so another trip up the M5 to deepest Gloucestershire today , originally there were 19 booked in but unfortunately with the gales on Saturday and the promise of blustery weather for sunday a couple cried off leaving 17. At the draw there was some very sad news as Darren North received a phone call informing him his father had passed away, understandably he needed to get home so travelling partner Si Belcham kindly took him, which left fifteen numbers in the draw bag.

So on behalf of all of PSV Angling club i'd like to offer our sincere condolences to Darren and his family.

Back to the match and at the draw it was decided by acting match secretary Mr Healy that there would be three sections of five paying top two in each section , Alan incedently was looking rather glum as his pound coin collection wasn't going to swell today with the absence of Adam Caswell and Steve Burgess.

Anyone who knows Harescombe will know it can be abit of a fish race which means a bad start can be very tricky to claw back but one thing you always get is a very close fishing match and today was no different. As venues go its one of the more fairer fisherys we fish with most pegs being capable of a weight ,but in contradiction to that our matches up here always seem to be won around peg 2!

Keith Ray taking parking behind your peg to a whole new meaning! note the local parking attendant.

The match started slow for most with no one really setting a pace, I myself drew peg 9 which is the middle of the carpark bank and for company had Rich Britton to my left on 7 and mad Mike Welling on 11 ,down on flyer 29 was Alan Healy and he had Rich Jones and rocket Ron Hardiman on 1-3 respectively which is usually a good area ,also 'mugger' shanks on 13 and 'the slayer' Matt Taynton on 16 would be big threats.

The view from peg 9 and the angler in the background is Lionel Legge on peg 22.

After the slow start a few people started to put a weight together with Alan catching a few along with rich on 1,up on 16 Matt was taking fish regular and even had time for some reason to lose six sections of pole attached to a large F1 which lucky for matt towed the pole across the lake into the waiting hands of Keith Ray on peg 15! The main battle thou ended up being between myself and Rich Briton ,the middle of the match went great for Rich who fished down his margins fishing maggot taking f1s on a regular basis building up a good lead. I started on worm and caster short on the back of finishing second doing the same on my last visit but as is typical of match fishing it didn't work! so going nowhere fast a rethink was in order and after id been pinging pellets across to the boards and far shelf with three hours to go went over with a banded 6mm ,luckly for me it was solid and I mananged to claw my way back catching f1s and small carp most put ins to the all out.

At the all out there was no clear winner and so it was proved at the weighin with one good F1 separating the top three anglers ,winner on the day and winner of section 29-7 was Rich Briton pictured below with 60lb 8oz lucky for him peg 7 was the golden peg which earnt him an extra £100 so well done Rich!!

second was myself with 59lb 6oz so very close although I did win section 9-16 ,the third section 17-24 was won by Lionel Legge with 28lb 15oz followed by Collin Butler with 25lb 12oz

Alan Healy second in section 29-7 with 57lb

Matt Taynton second in section 9-16 with 47lb 4oz

FULL RESUILT

1ST            RICH BRITON             60LB 8OZ         PEG 7   **
2ND           CHRIS SZAKACS       59LB 6OZ         PEG 9
3RD           ALAN HEALY             57LB                 PEG 29
4TH           MATT TAYNTON       47LB 4OZ         PEG 16
5TH           RICH JONES                45LB 3OZ         PEG 1
6TH           BRIAN SHANKS         40LB 8OZ         PEG 13
7TH           RON HARDIMAN        32LB                PEG 3
8TH           LIONEL LEGGE          28LB 15OZ       PEG 22
9TH           WILL DEARLOVE      27LB 4OZ         PEG 5
10TH         COLIN BUTLER          25LB 12OZ       PEG 20 ***
11TH         STEVE WYNNE           22LB                 PEG 18
12TH         MIKE WELLING          15LB 13OZ       PEG 11
13TH         KEITH RAY                  15LB 8OZ         PEG 15

AND TWO DNWS
** GOLDEN PEG *** SILVER PEG

Also this week was the start of the club knockout with the winner getting a free membership ,each round is over a set of four matches each month giving everyone a chance to fish against their respective opponent

todays pair ups

ALAN HEALY                 V               WILL DEARLOVE
RON HARDIMAN           V               MIKE WELLING
BRIAN SHANKS             V               MATT TAYNTON
LIONEL LEGGE              V               KEITH RAY

Next week were at trinity waters which is pencilled in as a blind pairs match so should be interesting!!