Edged out at Acorn 19th June 2010

A 1.30pm draw for a five hour match on the match lake (the little lake) at Acorn, tempted me to venture out on a windy Saturday afternoon. I'd have been better off staying at home, coming down the field and snapping a pole section, all in all not a good afternoon.

Before the draw I looked at the pegging and clocked which pegs I fancied, No2 was high on my list. Myself and Paul Faiers wandered over to Paddock Lake to see what was happening there, when I got back and stuck my hand in the drawbag, what came out..... No2. I think thats the first time I've ever drawn a number I've fancied, then I find out that whilst we were over on Paddock, the pegging had been altered (gawd knows why)so peg 2 was actually permanent peg 4. Peg 1 was in (peg 13 in the match) so I had an angler 7 metres to my right opposite, the only peg in the match that did.

I set up rigs for worm & caster, paste and a margin rig for meat or pellet. I fed a line at 12m with worm and caster and one at 8m with soaked pellet and meat into the RH margin, the LH margin was only about 3m long, so I wasn't confident that I would catch consistently from there.

In the first hour I had a couple of decent skimmers and some perch on worm, but that went quiet, the wind was blustery and cold, I ended up putting on a fleece. The wind also blew the pole out of my v roller, the No4 section was between the box and the leg, so snapped before I could grab it. Great start!!

I had a look down the RH margin and got told that that was the 16m line for peg 13, I could have argued that he shouldn't come more than half way across, but I really couldn't be bothered, as I was pissed off about the pegging.

With 2 hours to go I had 6 or 7lb of silvers and 2 small carp, so I decided to stick to paste until the end, that saw me boost my weight to 40lb of carp and 7lb of silvers for a weight of 47lb. Wasn't going to be enough on the day, as the wind had been blowing down the lake for a week or so, and the fish had followed it.

I'd love to tell you the results, but by the time I got back to the car, everyone except Paul Faiers had buggerd off, in true Clevedon style, in a rush to the pub. I can only assume that meant Paul knew where he'd get a 'lock in' later that night!!

I think Andy Hembrow won, Glen Calvert and Darren 'Noddy' Vowles were up there as well, with weights in the high 60's. I think the lowest weight was 29lb, so all in all, not a bad match, I should have just fished paste for 5 hours.