It was a high class field who qualified for this New Great Match sponsored by Maver, the winner received £1700 pound and a £2000 pole.
All 3 lakes were used and instead of the end pegs on match lake dominating all the the prize list it was nice to see that the top 4 all came off the specimen lake, it was a very close fought battle with 6kgs separating the top 6 anglers, there was no room for error.
I drew peg 13 on the speci lake and was happy with that draw, its an area of the lake that has produced in the past. Travelling and sharing partners Steve Mayo drew 62 on the match lake and Des drew peg 14 on the Arena lake, arena has been out of form recently and was the worst lake to draw on, so nobody fancied Des's draw, mayos draw was ok and he had a great match catching 49kgs to win his lake, nice to see him smiling again.
My match started fine by catching skimmers long and shallow on chopped worm and caster, whilst I fed a 5m line for carp later in the match, after 2 and a half hours I had about 50lb of skimmers and things were starting to slow on this line, there was an odd carp starting to show on the short line, so I picked up my 5m line and first drop in I caught a carp, the rest of the match was now sorted, I had to concentrate on this line.
I finished with about 12 carp for about 60lb, during the match I lost a 10lb carp which I got to the net and could see that it was hooked in the cheek, little did I know at the time how much that was going to cost me.
I finished with 52kilo 700g for third, the winner and second netting 54kgs plus, very close, as you would expect in such a high standard.
With Steve winning his lake we all had a nice few bob to share out, heres hoping Des does the big one next weekend.