The draw was at Marlborough F C again and I made my own way there as Chris wanted a bit of a lie in after being out the night before so would get there by 8:00 on his own (with my squats).
As I travelled up the M5/M4 it was pissing down but a better journey than last Wednesday as little or no traffic. I arrived in good time, 07:15 for the bacon and egg roll. We were fishing for pride today as DGL and Thatchers had already qualified for the National Final.
Team today was...
Mark Williams (c)
Rich Whitmarsh
Brian Melksam
Paul Rigby
Mike Withey
Chris Hook
Steve Saunders
Me
Gary Etheridge had pegged the Canal on the Friday and when I spoke to him he said he had given everyone plenty of room but there may be a few long walks. All the Sections were posted up on Flip Chart paper but it might as well have been in Chinese as we did not know the area.
I was given peg C1 at ''Churches'', it was every man for himself in order to find how to get to the pegs. Fortunately as I walked out to the car park the first angler I asked was going to the same Section! I followed him out of the lane and onto the main road and after that I think we broke all the speed limits by a country mile, I had a job to keep up with him, CommunitySpeed Watch would have had a field day. Do not understand it.
It was a fair old drive to Great Bedwyn and i just about managed to park as some B Section anglers were also parked up, not sure if they were supposed to and there were a few moans.
I had a short walk to my peg C1 and it did look nice.
It was about 13 metres across but the furthest across I went was around 11 metres where I had about 2.5 foot, I had an even depth at 10, 12 and 2 o'clock so set up a 0.3 and 0.4 rig, one with a 20 to 0.09 and the other 0.10 fluro. Down the track it was 4 foot plus and I had two 4x14 rigs one with a 18 to 0.10 and the other a 20 to 0.08. I also set up a 0.5 gram pencil float with a 16 to 0.12 fluro to fish for perch in the track over worm.
On the ''all in'' I fed my 10 and 2 o'clock far lines with caster and chopped worm, one ball each which was a mix of noire and molehill. Down the track at 10 o'clock I fed a big boy of neat choppy in soil. at 12 o'clock down the track I fed squat in noire and black lake.
We were no more than 5 minutes in when I saw the angler to my right Ruben Guerra (DGL) net a decent fish, I didn't think he could believe it himself as he was looking around to see if we had seen him lol.
I started off down the track in front of me with fluro pinkie and it didn't take long to get a bite. Lots of small roach followed in the next 30 minutes, about an ounce each if that. I re-fed both my 10 and 12 o'clock lines before going across to my 2 o'clock 11 metre line with a worm head. I had a perch of around 5 ounces straight away and plundered a few more including one of around a 1lb. I re-fed after 20 minutes before trying my other far bank lines and didn't have a touch.
It was time to try the heavier rig down the track to my left. The rig had no sooner settled when the float slid away and the red 10 hollow came out. I thought it was a perch ..... but no a decent 1lb roach. Next put in i had a perch of around 12 ounces and then went quiet so I left it and put in more worm. A look on my middle track line with red worm, pinkie or maggot produced the same sized mini roach so rest that again and got a few more perch across.
Looking down the Canal as far as I could see (3 anglers) suggested that there was not a lot going on. I kept busy on all my lines and took fish fairly regularly. Pike moved in where I was catching the decent perch across, I hooked two of them on the worm and got bit off, my far perch line died due to this. I did have a good perch, about 1.5lb down the track along with a couple of skimmers and thought I had done OK.
My 6lb 2ozs was only good enough for 3 points, the Section had fished pretty good.
C Section
Heres how the rest of the Canal fished
So a great match really, the mild weather and spacious pegging must have helped.
Individuals:
1st Andy Price Sensas Lobbys 19-4
2nd Mark Brush Diawa Gordon League 17-0
3rd Jack Jones P I Thatchers 14-0
2nd place Mark Brush, lovely net from a canal
Top 3 Teams on the day:
1st Matrix Talisman
2nd Diawa Gordon League
3rd Garbolino Blackmore Vale
Top 2 overall to qualify for the National Final
1st Diawa Gordon League
2nd P I Thatchers
So well done to them.
Here they are then League winners, I have digitally enhanced them as much as I could, apologies!
Thank you to Simon Hebditch and all his helpers for a well run league, its appreciated.
Some facts...
Round 1, Thames Radcot, 150 min round trip, 4th in Section 8-14, Team mate Mark Whippet 2nd in match.
Round 2, Bristol Avon Melksham and Chippenham, 90 mile round trip 3rd in Section 5-2.
Round 3, Bristol Avon Melksham and Chippenham, 90 mile round trip, 2nd in Section 4-7 and a pick up. Team mate Mike Withey also 2nd in Section and a pick up.
Round 4, K & A Seend, 100 mile round trip, 1st in Section 3-14 and a pick up. Team mates Mike Withey and Steve Saunders also 2nd in Sections and pick ups.
Round 5, K & A Marlborough, 130 mile round trip, 6th in Section 2-09. Team mate Rich Whitmarsh 2nd in match.
Round 6, K & A Great and Little Bedwyn, round trip 140 miles, 6 in Section 6-02.
So although we finished bottom in our first year there have been some good individual results, looking forward to next year.
The previous day (Saturday 1st Dec) it was the Melksham Christmas Match. Team mate Steve Saunders won it, Rich Whitmarsh was 3rd and Section win for Mike Withey.
Steve aka ''Stretch'' with his 14lb winning bag
Next Sunday its the Commercial House Christmas Match on the K & A around Bath so looking forward to that.
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