Sunday 15th October - Bristol Commercial House League Round 3, Bristol Avon, Swineford to Frys.

Leigh Wakefield sent me a text early Friday morning to say he wouldn't be able to fish as he had dislocated his shoulder playing football. He fell just as the ref was about to blow the whistle!
So a man down and only a couple of days to go.
I just happened to go on Facebook and saw that Craig Fletcher had posted that Gary Cross (this year Evesham Champ) was looking for a match. Craig kindly sent me Gary's number and it took a while but he gave in to my Irish charm.
The draw was at the Crown again in Keynsham and a hearty breakfast was laid on.

Team today was......
Chris Hook (capt.)
Sam Johnson
Gary Cross
Jack Jones
Steve Hutchinson
Me

Chris came back after doing the draw and we had drawn peg 1 and the scales (think my middle name is Avery as I have had the scales time and time again this year).
I found myself on E1 which is the first peg at Jack Whites...shortest walk...no breaking down the trolley...armchair peg...so there is a God.

Shawn Kittridge taking a break from Commercials and guesting for one of the Bathampton Teams followed me to the parking area as he was unsure were to go. Shawn was in my Section and was in the Cattle Drink.

Arriving at the peg it did look good, just below the Lock and plenty of flow due to the Wear just upstream.
The platform was put in the water and it was just so comfortable compared to some recent pegs I have been on.
I set up a Feeder (not used), 6BB Crowquill (not used), Waggler (not used) and a 6 metre whip which was used all day.

A 0.8 gram float with a number 8 dropper on the whip went through lovely and I held it back towards the end of the trot as it shallowed up a bit. I had about 5 foot of water.

4 small balls of gros gardons, black lake and noire laced with caster and hemp were thrown in a third the way across at the start.

First trot down about 5 metres out to my right downstream the float disappeared and a small roach was swung in. This was repeated for the next few put in's before it dried up.

I had been flicking hemp and caster in at mid river and as soon as I tried this line I had a decent dace followed by a 6oz roach. 

For the rest of the day I stuck it on the whip feeding two lines and putting in a nugget of ground bait every 5 minutes or so and in-between loose feeding. Loads of bites all day and the busiest I have been in a match for a while.

That was it ... no more complicated than that.

I walked down to Shawn who had the board and he wanted to get weighed in first even though there were pegs below him due to Cattle trouble. I think they damaged some of his kit while he was fishing.

Shawn nervously trying to retrieve his keep net

Paul Purchase was on end peg and had a nice net of roach for 12lb 15oz. The weights in our Section were pretty good, 7 double figure weights and 2 at 7lb plus.

Glen Bailey who was below me had a great net of mainly dace for a great 27lb 2oz prior to that Ian Paulley was top with 18lb 3oz but he was in A Div. I knew I had double figures but was thinking 15lbs ish. I was really pleased that my bag went 21lb dead.

Young Andrew Cranston took a photo for me but the lense must have been greasy.

So as Glen was also in B Div I got 3 points from 4 but second best weight in the whole Section.

Here's how the Section looked.

Back at the Crown everyone started to arrive back and we added up our points in the team and felt fairly confident that we had done enough in B Div with 17 points.

Gary and Sam had won their Sections and it looked like I might be in main frame for a payout.

Here are the results......

Top 4 on the day

1st   Glen Bailey 27lb 2oz

2nd  Paul Issacs 26lb 10oz

3rd  Ivan Currie 21lb

4th  Ian Paulley 18lb 3oz

Teams on the day

A Div

1st   P I Thatchers B

2nd  P I Thatchers A

3rd  Mosella Bathampton B

4th  Mosella Bathampton A

5th  D W Builders

B Div

1st  Maver Cadbury Angling

2nd Stand and Deliver Promotions

3rd  Sensas Nomads

4th  M and N Elect

Team positions after 3 Rounds

A Div

1st  P I Thatchers B

2nd P I Thatchers A

3rd  Mosella Bathampton A

4th  Mossella Bathampton B

5th  D W Builders

B Div

1st  Maver Cadbury Angling

2nd Stand and Deliver Promotions

3rd  Sensas Nomads

4th  M and N Elect

So that 3 wins for us out of 3.

Rich Lacey was selling Poppy Match tickets so picked mine up.

Back on the Avon next week in the Winter League guesting for Sensas Nomads.