17th November - Conway WL2

All looked well for another battle of the roach versus the carp heads but after an hour the roach were not playing and it was left to those who had a few carp in front of them to run away with it.

We tried a new peg in the bottom corner and it turned out to be good for Dougie Walsh who as always at Conway on the Winter Leagues starts well. He ran away with the match with a well deserved 49.2lb mainly carp net. Barry Davis our recedent guest at the moment seems to have got to grips with Conway and managed a similar net for second with 43.8lb again from dont the bottom end.

Jeff Grantham took third with 35.4lb from the last peg on the left hand side again mainly carp and the final framer was Billy Gore drawn in the middle of the far end and weighed 31.5lb

Story of the match was Steve Brew deciding to fish Ian S's peg at 17.5m.....they managed 38lb between them sharing a few carp and skimmers but even partners shouldn't have been that close....at times there was 6ft between pole tips............Steve also took the pee fishing 10mm JPZ's and 3x 6mm JPZ's and was still catching carp and F1's whilst Ian had to go down to maggot and 4mm pellet over micros less than 3 yards away!!

Roll on the first frosts for WL3 then its off to Saughall and Blundell for 4 matches before we are back at Conway to round off the series.

Result
1st - Dougie Walsh - 49.2lb
2nd - Barry Davis (G) - 43.8lb
3rd - Jeff Grantham - 35.2lb
4th - Billy Gore - 31.5lb

10th November - Mouldsworth

Can't comment having not been at this one but lets just say it was peggy according to those a spoke to as the backing weights tumbled after the top 4 but that said you still have to get them out having drawn the better pegs.

Result

1st - Jeff Grantham - 79.1lb
2nd - Mick Flanagan - 40.4lb
3rd - Dougie Walsh - 31.8lb
4th - Kenny Stuart - 26.4lb

27th October - Saughall

Saughall was rather full of water for this visit and lots of pegs under water still after recent flooding and a frost overnight it was never going to be easy.

Billy started slowly struggling to get the ide going from the field side but eventually found the smaller brown goldfish, carp and F1's willing to have a go and sneaked a few more in than most realised to take the win. Jeff Grantham took second with 21.8lb off the road side with a mixed bag of ide and carp just ahead of Ian Simpson who was next to Billy but had all ide net for 19.5lb and third.

The story of the match though was our very own chairman Henry Mellor who fished a blinder on the feeder to take his section with 18.3lb of mainly ide. Now to say Henry has a rather unconventional rod handling technique would be fair and despite Ian Lloyd and Rick trying to 'teach an old dog new tricks' Henry ignored them and gammy handed or not doubled the coach's weight. Rick who said you were good on the feeder!!!! Kenny Stuart fished his normal solid match and took the other section from the other side of Billy with 13.5lb.

Despite the weather, frost and cold wind it fished okay although the top end was distinctly tougher.

Result

1st - Billy Gore - 28.5lb
2nd - Jeff Gratham - 21.8lb
3rd - Ian Simpson - 19.5lb
Sec A - Henry Mellor - 18.3lb
Sec B - Kenny Stuart - 13.5lb

13th October - Partridge

After a last minute change to Pine only ten fished Ian Lloyd and Billy ran away with the honours with guest Steve Simpson keeping them looking over their shoulder. I understand it was a tale of both ends fishing okay and middle being tough despite all having plenty of space.

Result

1st - Ian Lloyd - 34.07lb
2nd - Billy Gore - 33.08lb
3rd - Steve Simpson - 26.02lb (guest)
4th - Alec Raich - 21.01lb