Grand Union Canal,
Milton Keynes
Following an overnight drop in temperature most anglers found their pegs frozen, but luckily most had thawed an hour into the match which led to a slow start at the Angling Trust Winter League Southern semi-final held on Sunday 3rd March 2013 on the Grand Union canal, Milton Keynes.
Despite the conditions the canal fished quite well with only one blank on the day. Topping the day with five huge perch to 3lb was Garbolino Blackhorse cut expert Graham West. Fishing worm for the perch and topping up with roach on joker from H section at Cosgrove gave Graham a total of 11-1-0. Second placed Cam Hughes of Kamasan Starlets took 12 skimmers on bread punch before switching to joker and worm to top up with four perch and roach for 8-8-0. Sean Ashby, Kamasan Starlets made the most of his end peg on J section, just missing out on the earlier excitement, and took third place with 7-3-8. Kamasan Starlets and Garbolino Blackhorse tied on points, both gaining 69 points, with Kamasan Starlets taking first place on weight count back 47-2-8 to 43-2-8. The last qualifying place went to another canal side Drennan Banbury Gunsmiths with 64 points.
The Angling Trust would like to offer their special thanks to Mark Downes for staving off certain disaster early in the week when the nations joker supply partly failed, Mark ensured that everyone had ample supply for this match.
Individual Results;
1st Graham West, Garbolino Blackhorse – 11-1-0
2nd Cam Hughes, Kamasan Starlets – 8-8-0
3rd Sean Ashby, Kamasan Starlets – 7-3-8
4th Andy Britt, Maver Bathampton – 6-12-0
5th Darren Cox, Kamasan Starlets – 6-11-8
6th Daniel Webb, Garbolino Blackhorse – 5-14-0
7th Darren Bickerton, Kamasan Starlets – 5-13-8
8th Matt Derry, Kamasan Starlets – 5-11-0
Team Results;
1st Kamasan Starlets – 69 points (47-2-8)
2nd Garbolino Blackhorse – 69 points (43-2-8)
3rd Drennan Banbury Gunsmiths – 64 points
4th Browning Crowsports – 51 points
5th Milo Bordon Angling Centre – 50 points
6th Maver Bathampton – 48 points
7th Daiwa Gordon League – 44 points
8th Sensas South East – 36 points
9th MAP Blean Angling – 20 points
