Mallory Park Fisheries - Snide Rumours & Dirty Lies

The final Match.

Firstly let me apologise if you have been logging on for this late report.

The final winter league was assured to be a close call. Eleven anglers were all in for a shout for the top seven paying places. I was running in joint second place with Gordon Parker with Gary Miller a few points in front. We all needed a good draw and each other to falter to claim the title, it was that close.

Bob Eaton did the business once again for me in the draw bag, pulling me out peg number one. I was soon reminded though that Rob The Eel had allegedly poisoned the peg with his many bait concoctions the week before. Gordon had also had a good draw, peg 84 on the wide end of pool 5. Gary drew one of the absolute fliers down on pool 6 and was expected to do well from peg 88.

It was getting quite warm as we began the match with a south easterly wind blowing up into my peg, it looked spot on. Knowing this section well, most of my best results have come from this bit of the lake, I realised it was going to take a bit of a gamble to win the section from the peg. A start on the feeder produced a carp first cast and then 2 small buddy carp. Most of the rest of the section had a fish or two in the first half hour. Before the start I had decided to have a look on the long margin line early. I saw this as the best gamble for a good weigh and hopefully a win. My first look produced a carp after a few minutes and I was confident of a few more once the first one was in the net. As the match progressed I continued to add to my weight with carp caught at 14m on maggot. Most of the section was catching, but fairly early on it looked like OAP Brian Envis was out in front taking lots of fish on the feeder cast across to the concrete slab on peg 5. In the early afternoon the inside peg went quiet and fish could be seen cruising around just below the surface in the warm sunshine.

Paul Bolsover soon scared me on to the shallow waggler as he caught two carp on the pellet waggler at the next peg. I caught a quick fish but felt I had spent too long on the method as after 1½ hours I had caught only two carp on it. The fish were there but difficult to catch. In the afternoon I had a phone call from Roy. He assured me that the inside line would produce later in the match. I decided to put another net in and get my head down and see how many carp I could catch in the last two hours to add to the ten I already had. There was much banter in these final hours with lots of reports of what was happening around the fishery. If you have ever fished with us then you will know it is best not to believe any of them!

As I was in the peg allocated the scales it was a walk up to peg 30 to begin the weigh in. Stu O'Donnell had bagged up on peg 30, this gave him the win in this section. Pete Marlow had joined us for the final match and finished in second place. Jim Chessman was one of the eleven in with a shout of the top seven but his third in section was just not enough to get him in.

The middle section was won by Jeff Reast on peg 19 but very close behind in second was Angling Legend Bob Eaton. This ensured that Bob finished in 6th place in the final standings. Dom Lanni had a real bad match on peg 11, failing to weigh-in, but he had done enough over the other matches to be assured forth place overall. By the time we had got to the final section on pool 1 a few anglers had joined us from the other pools. Gordon had won his section on pool 5, but Gary suffered a terrible match down on pool 6, finishing in fourth place. Some had already done the sums and this had put Gordon and Gary on the same points but Gary had the advantage with a higher overall weight. Chris Hall had won pool 6 and taken the highest weight on the day of 95lbs this was good enough to put Chris into 5th place overall.

Brian Envis had put the highest weight on the scales in my section so far, I had 72lbs to beat and I was told that if I won the section I would beat Gary to be the winter league champion. I had estimated that I had a similar weight and there was a good crowd at the peg as I lifted out my first net of small carp and a few skimmers, this weighed around 11lbs. My first carp net weighed 39lbs with ten fish. It was getting quite tense as Gary and Gordon had both joined us as I pulled out my second carp net. The ten fish in this net weighed 43lbs for a total of 93lbs. I feared I was going to get thrown in at one stage for underestimating a little bit. But it was a great feeling to win the league at the last gasp. I had many congratulations and was glad that once again the league had proved to be a great success and fun for all involved. The only bad report we had on the final match was from pool 4 where Mr Ward had also received an encouraging phone call from Robber Roy. Apparently Mr Ward had sent the airwaves blue with his bad language, so much so that Roy had been cut off by his provider.

Well done to all the anglers that finished in the top seven and to all the anglers that made the league a great success and everyone that has stayed in the fun spirit along the way, Mr Ward and Rob The Eel for handling the draw, and of course Roy for giving us the best fishery - a big thank you. (Ed: And thanks to Kev for keeping us all entertained with these reports!).

The final match placings are listed below along with the top seven overall.

Pool 1
Section 1
Peg 1 - Kev Russell (Team ABU) - 93lbs
Peg 5 - Brian Envis - 72lbs
Peg 4 - Chris Needham (Team ABU) - 55lbs

Section 2
Peg 19 - Jeff Reast - 69lbs
Peg 15 - Bob Eaton - 61lbs
Peg 17 - Trev Slater - 46lbs

Section 3
Peg 30 - Stu O'Donnell - 70lbs
Peg 24 - Pete Marlow (Team ABU) - 63lbs
Peg 28 - Jim Chessman - 53lbs

Pool 4
Peg 70 - Mark Davis - 74lbs
Peg 68 - Gary Saddler (Team ABU) - 65lbs
Peg 72 - Rich Wells - 49lbs

Pool 5
Peg 84 - Gordon Parker (Team ABU) - 82lbs
Peg 76 - Bill Pryce - 69lbs
Peg 80 - Dave Hunter - 64lbs

Pool 6
Peg 90 - Chris Hall - 95lbs
Peg 86 - Brian Hill - 77lbs
Peg 94 - Chris Allen (Team ABU) - 68lbs

Pool 7
Peg 101 - Chris Downs (Team ABU) - 66lbs
Peg 105 - Andy Kind - 56lbs
Peg 109 - Pete Wooton - 53lbs

Top seven:

Kev Russell (Team ABU)- 145 points - 1055lbs
Gary Miller - 144 points - 960lbs
Gordon Parker (Team ABU) - 144lbs - 815lbs
Dom Lanni (Team ABU) - 136 points - 901lbs
Chris Hall - 130 points - 696lbs
Bob Eaton - 130 points - 682lbs
Kerry Dyson - 127lbs - 775lbs

Russelli.

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