Hillview, Canals 3 & 4, 04 May (18 pegs)

It's been a few years since we've made the trip up the M5 to Hillview and since then the canals have been stocked with a load of small (hungry) F1's so with that in mind plus the promise of a pleasant spring day expectations were high for a decent day's fishing.

With eighteen fishing and two canals at our disposal pegging was quite simple with nine on each canal spread out so that everyone had an empty peg on one side.

Payouts were first overall, one overall Silvers / F1's and first & second on each canal.

I won't bother this week with any long-winded, self-indulgent rubbish about what I did and didn't do as the highlights of my day were the breakfast and a pork pie I found in my bag so no more on that one other than that I didn't have to look too far for this week's "Hero to Zero" award!

As it turned out Canal 3 fished much better than 4 and out of the nine anglers on Canal 3, eight of them weighed in more than the best weight from Canal 4, which incidentally was Chris Szakacs who winkled out 33-11 from peg 86 on worm over worm and floating caster.

Overall winner was Brian Shanks on 76 with 80-10 of carp and F1's all caught on his topkit with pellet.

Rich Britton took second place fishing almost identically to the winner weighing in 73-12 which also included the top Silvers / F1's weight of 53-1

Ryan Radford was 3rd from peg 74 with 63-8.

Derek Lucas deserves a special mention this week as not only did he come 18th in the match but he also had to suffer a considerable amount of piss-taking from the Psv Bristol City supporters club who were celebrating Rovers' relegation.

At one point Stevie Wynne was sat behind him playing a recording of the last 10 minutes of the match!

Full Result:

1. Brian Shanks (peg 76) ..... 80-10
2. Rich Britton (80) .................. 73-12
3. Ryan Radford**(74) .............. 63-8
4. Rich Jones (70) ................... 57-8
5. Steve O Toole (79) .............. 50-2
6. Chris Gay (82) ................... 43-9
7. Lee Waller* (77) ................ 41-2
8. Darren North (73) .............. 39-15
9. Chris Szakacs (86) ............. 33-11
10. Adam Caswell (71) ............ 31-15
11. Alan Healey (83) ............... 26-1
12. Ron Hardiman (95) ........... 20-10
13. Andy Gay (88) ................. 18-4
14. Mark Radford (91) ............ 17-11
15. Simon Belcham (85) ......... 17-0
16. Steve Wynne (89) ............. 15-14
17. Steve Burgess (94) .............. 11-2
18. Derek Lucas (92) ............... 6-3

*golden peg
**silver peg

Silvers / F1's:

1. Rich Britton ....... 53-1
2. Brian Shanks ...... 25-2
3. Rich Jones .......... 24-6
4. Ryan Radford ...... 17-6
5. Steve O Toole & Lee Waller..... 15-10
6. Darren North ...... 13-8
7. Chris Gay ........... 11-2
8. Andy Gay ........... 9-4
9. Simon Belcham .... 8-0 (of fry)
10. Steve Burgess ...... 5-13
11. Mark Radford ....... 5-8
12. Adam Caswell ...... 4-12
13. Ron Hardiman ...... 3-1
14. Chris Szakacs ....... 1-12
15. Steve Wynne ........ 1-2
    
    
    

Don't forget Tuesday night is this month's meeting at The Horseshoe.
Matches to book in to are Harescombe (next week), Trinity 18 May, Landsend 25 May and Shiplate Canals 1 June.
As always people who come to the meeting will get first choice.

Also there are now two £100 golden pegs on the go and a third one will start next week so somebody will be getting a healthy payout before too long.

In the meantime I'm going to drown my sorrows with a box of Stella's and Amanda Holden on the recording of last night's Britains Got Talent!
May the 4th be with you!!

Hillview, 03 Oct, Canal Lakes 3 & 4 (9 pegs)

There was a slight controversy at this one as the match ran over by 15 minutes because, due to the inclement weather, the official timekeeping phone was in my box and I never thought to check it.
Rumour has it that I caught my last fish during the period of "extra time" and as a result, robbed Alan of a(nother) pound ...... oh well, shit happens as they say!

Result:

1. Rich Jones ..... peg 72 ...... 43-15 (meat on top 4)
2. Simon Belcham .... 89 ...... 40-4 (maggot at close range)
3. Darren North* ...... 76 ..... 31-5 (pellet)
4. Ade Crawley ......... 74 ..... 24-8 (meat)
5. Steve Burgess ...... 95 ...... 21-4
6. Derek Lucas ......... 86 ...... 19-7
7. Alan Healy ........... 78 ...... 18-0
8. Steve Wynne ........ 92 ...... 15-7
9. Bob Warren .......... 70 ...... 9-3

Total Match Weight = 223lbs 5oz
Average Weight = 24lbs 8oz

Hillview, 11 April (12 pegs)

Not a big weight match by any stretch of the imagination but a close result all the same!
It seemed that the carp were not going to settle in any particular area but were happy to cruise just below the surface up and down the matchlength instead. Using this to his advantage Alan Healy fished meat at half depth to the far bank of peg 91 picking off enough fish to take the top spot with 22lbs 4oz.
Second place with 20-9 went to Stuart Riddle on end peg 95. Stuart caught to begin with tight to the far bank reeds on pellet but was suffering from foul-hookers and lost fish before switching to his right hand margin where he managed a late run of carp on paste.
At the other end of lake 4, Bob Warren managed 3rd and the lake 4 section (by default) with 18-7.
Top weight on lake 3 and 4th place went to Derek Lucas with 16-4.

Overall Result:

1. Alan Healy ..... peg 91 ........ 22-4
2. Stuart Riddle .... 95 ........... 20-9
3. Bob Warren ...... 86 .......... 18-7
4. Derek Lucas ...... 79 .......... 16-4
5. Chris Zaks ......... 84 .......... 14-11
6. Stuart Ashton* .. 74 .......... 11-13
7. Yan (Colin) ........ 72 .......... 9-8
8. Steve Burgess .... 70 .......... 9-7
9. Simon Belcham . 88 .......... 9-6
10. Adam Caswell .... 93 .......... 9-5
11. Mark Radford .... 81 .......... 6-15
12. Adam Woodland . 77 ......... 5-9

*golden peg

League Totals (after 5 matches):

1. Alan Healy ....... 72pts .... 176-12
2. Steve Burgess ... 54 ....... 127-13
3. Stuart Riddle .... 53 ....... 133-11
4. Chris Szakacs .... 53 ....... 109-15
5. Bob Warren ....... 46 ...... 146-5
6. Adam Woodland . 42 .... 94-10
7. Adam Caswell .... 40 ...... 103-9
8. Mark Radford .... 38 ...... 163-4
9. Derek Lucas ....... 38 ...... 57-0
10. Neil Mercer ........ 37 ...... 275-3
11. Paul Reed ........... 35 ...... 77-15
12. Steve Wynne ...... 31 ....... 55-3
13. Mike Smith ......... 25 ...... 71-5
14. Rich Jones .......... 22 ...... 63-4
15. Stuart Ashton ..... 21 ...... 20-13
16. Paul Elmes ......... 20 ..... 186-11
17. Simon Belcham .. 19 ..... 43-10
18. Yan (Colin) ......... 17 ...... 20-1
19. Mike Wilson ....... 15 ...... 53-7
20. Craig Edmunds .. 13 ...... 64-9
21. Ryan Jordan ....... 13 ...... 37-8