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Well it kicked off with back on April 5th with an early season visit to Monk Lakes in Kent, It was definately the promise of a good days fishing with plenty of bites that encouraged a pretty decent turn out of 17 (including 2 guests) given the weather and the distance some members traveled. Grey skies and a stiff breeze did it's best to make life hard for us meaning that Match Lake 2 developed a really strong tow and played into the hands of those that drew the favoured end pegs ;). Despite the conditions making it hard going, everyone got amongst the fish by the end of the day. We ended up weighing 662lbs 04ozs of fish in total with an average of just over 38lbs per angler, with the top 3 on the day as follows.
1st Colin Sharrard 87lbs 00ozs
2nd Dave Collier 62lbs 08ozs
3rd Jim Boase 55lbs 12ozs Read the Full Report
It wasn't till May 31st that 17 of us assembled again for the 2nd match of the season on the Top Lake at Rayne Lodge in Essex. Amazingly the weather was decent with the sun beaming down from a bright blue sky. Sobbing was heard at the draw however as Dave realised that his favorite peg (14A) had been left in the bag undrawn . Unfortunately the lake didn't fish up to its full potential for some, and the hard luck story for the day belonged to Roger Noakes, who having landed his biggest ever Carp (a certain Double), missed his keepnet with it depriving him of finding out it's true weight and the chance of a photo :'(. However by the end of the match everyone had got amongst the fish and we weighed in a total of 739lbs 04ozs for an average of just over 43lbs per angler, and with Colin winning his 2nd match on the trot the top 3 were.......
1st Colin Sharrard 114lbs 00ozs
2nd Tony Roberts 85lbs 04ozs
3rd Peter Morton 79lbs 08ozs Read the Full Report
July 19th saw 20 (including 1 guest) anglers assembled in the car park of Churchgate Lakes for the 3rd match on the Bottom Lake of the Essex fishery. Sun, Wind and a torrential rain storm added to a day where many of us struggled. Much to some members delight the Mugger got mugged by Dave's wife Gladys, along with a dozen others , while Martin Hucker won his 1st ever match after 5 years of trying , and John Holdsworth took 2nd and included a PB Carp of 13½lb and a PB Bream of 5lbs in his catch :). A total of just 233lbs 08ozs was weighed in for a modest average of just over 11½lbs per angler on the day.
1st Martin Hucker 35lbs 08ozs
2nd John Holdsworth 31lbs 04ozs
3rd Kevin Loveland 21lbs 08ozs Read the Full Report
A month on and August 17th saw 18 members (including 1 guest) at Rockell's Farm, Essex. Despite rain on arrival, the weather improved throughout the day and so did the fishing. Being a noted big weight venue the match was split into two 3 hour sessions with a midway weigh-in. With 2 ton+ weights recorded by midway it was all to play for in the afternoon, with every angler improving on his morning weight during the 2nd session. Tony Roberts finished the day with his 1st ever 200lb+ match weight and didn't even make the Top3 , while 4 other anglers recorded 100lb+ results. A new Club Match Record was set and the final total of 1991lbs of fish weighed in was 300lb higher than the club had ever weighed in and represented an average of 110lb per angler .
1st Peter Morton 293lbs 08ozs
2nd Colin Sharrard 251lbs 00ozs
3rd Martin Hucker 232lbs 12ozs Read the Full Report
September 13th saw 19 anglers (including 4 guests) assemble at Colemans Cottage, Essex, for the penultimate match on Pathfield Lake. Another noted Baggin Water, unfortunately it didn't fish that well on the day with many struggling to put a decent bag of fish together, though it did start to fish better in the afternoon. However this proved to be the day when the club's guests led the way taking the top 3 spots :o. A total of 628lbs 04ozs was put on the scales for an average of just over 33lbs per angler.
1st Alan Loader (Guest) 88lbs 00ozs
2nd Clive Pritchard (Guest) 70lbs 00ozs
3rd Jim Etherington (Guest) 66lbs 08ozs Read the Full Report
October 11th saw 17 of us (including 5 guests) at Hawkhurst in Kent for the final match od the Club calender on the venue's Match Lake. This venue has been predicted to break the World Match Record, so it was sods law that it didn't really produce for the club on the day :(. Having said that, there were 2 Ton+ weights on the day and what would be considered some decent backing weights on most fisheries. A total of 684lbs was weighed in for an average of just over 40lbs per angler.
1st Peter Morton 118lbs 00ozs
2nd Bill Gibbins (Guest) 106lbs 08ozs
3rd Keith Ashby (Guest) 81lbs 08ozs Read the Full Report
So to sum up, over the course of 6 matches the club weighed in a total of 4938lbs 8ozs of fish which represents an average of 45lbs+ per angler over the course of the 6 matches :). A new Club Match Record was set at 293lbs 08ozs along with a new record for the total weight weighed in on a single match at 1991lbs. With a number of PB match weights set by the members and a few PB fish landed, overall it's been a pretty successful series of matches, all of which have been enjoyable and fished in the right spirit by all that attended ;), and I'm sure that there are plenty of clubs out there that would be more than happy to match our results. Hopefully we can improve on these in 2009 :).
Good review Peter. I was considering doing something like that but as usual didnt get round to it. :(
Considering that we only have 21 members and the matches in Kent mean that 2 cant travel the distance to fish them, an average turn out of 16 plus 2 guests per match is something a lot of clubs would envy. Also as we fish mainly summer I know that we have lost 2 members per match due to holidays.
All the members should be proud that some of our guests want to travel a 200 to 300 mile round trip just to fish with us for the day with the chance to win a life changing sum of £10.
Enjoyable read as usual Peter and can only echo the thoughts of supremo Dave.
Fishing as a guest over the last few years has been a pleasure. Its a shame I cannot fish more. As Dave has said the money is not the important thing in these matches, just having fun is paramount.
Once Dave has sorted out next years venues and dates I hope to be invited along on a couple more.
Cheers Keith.
The nice thing about the club as you know, is that the "Matches" are so relaxed, no pressure at all, unless it's self inflicted. Really just a days pleasure fishing with mates with a weigh-in at the end.
As for next year, I'm sure we'll be able to squeeze you in somewhere.
Keith it all started out with the company we all worked for allowing us a budget for the club to fish the Insurance Brokers championships which we were instrumental in starting and a couple of other intercompany matches.. When there was a little money left over we booked a lake for a pleasure day out.
The only way to do it fairly was to draw pegs and treat it like a match. We then managed to get the budget increased every year and slowly built up to 4 or 5 days out a year all paid for by the company. Members then brought friends to use up spare pegs.
After the company moved offices and most of us took redundancy we decided to keep the club running funding it ourselves but the ethos of it being just a days pleasure fishing for ex workmates and friends in a match format has continued. Some of us worked together for over 20 years and its the only chance most of us get to meet up and its preferable to having an annual reunion at a pub in the city.
a big thanks to dave for inviting me to a couple of your matches this year ,i think i fished the first and the last ones of your season .
hopefully i might get an invite to the one in the middle next year as well[you reading this dave ].
really enjoyed the days out and the company was great .
have a happy xmas people and im sure i will see you again next year
Well it kicked off with back on April 5th with an early season visit to Monk Lakes in Kent, It was definately the promise of a good days fishing with plenty of bites that encouraged a pretty decent turn out of 17 (including 2 guests) given the weather and the distance some members traveled. Grey skies and a stiff breeze did it's best to make life hard for us meaning that Match Lake 2 developed a really strong tow and played into the hands of those that drew the favoured end pegs ;). Despite the conditions making it hard going, everyone got amongst the fish by the end of the day. We ended up weighing 662lbs 04ozs of fish in total with an average of just over 38lbs per angler, with the top 3 on the day as follows.
. Unfortunately the lake didn't fish up to its full potential for some, and the hard luck story for the day belonged to Roger Noakes, who having landed his biggest ever Carp (a certain Double), missed his keepnet with it depriving him of finding out it's true weight and the chance of a photo :'(. However by the end of the match everyone had got amongst the fish and we weighed in a total of 739lbs 04ozs for an average of just over 43lbs per angler, and with Colin winning his 2nd match on the trot the top 3 were.......
, and John Holdsworth took 2nd and included a PB Carp of 13½lb and a PB Bream of 5lbs in his catch :). A total of just 233lbs 08ozs was weighed in for a modest average of just over 11½lbs per angler on the day.
, while 4 other anglers recorded 100lb+ results. A new Club Match Record was set and the final total of 1991lbs of fish weighed in was 300lb higher than the club had ever weighed in and represented an average of 110lb per angler 
Really just a days pleasure fishing with mates with a weigh-in at the end.
- hoping to persuade his nibs to add 1 or 2 more for 2009 
a big thanks to dave for inviting me to a couple of your matches this year ,i think i fished the first and the last ones of your season .
