2010 Angling Times Winter League - Round 1, Saracen's Head

It was more like 'Indian Summer' than Winter on the cut yesterday for round one of the 2010 AT Winter League.  The practising was well & truly over and this was the real deal.  At least, I thought it was at 5:45 in the dark, walking up the cut towards the piggery - checking peg tickets with a wind-up torch.  Yes, a wind-up torch - have you never seen one?  This lump of far-eastern wizardry has two beam settings, a panic alarm AND an FM radio.  It would have to be as I walked past the only boat on the length that I pressed the panic alarm by mistake, wouldn't it?  In my blind attempts to shut it up, I pressed another button and hey presto - Dave and Umberto on Real Radio was blasting out instead...  You couldn't really make it up, could you?  The poor boaters must've got the shock of their lives when they heard that...

Pegs all present & correct from the previous evening's endeavours, it was off to the Slipway for a good breakfast and the jollies that usually accompany the draw.  We were fishing from the end of the boats at Saracen's Head (Summerwood Lane, Halsall) to the Piggery (Martin Lane, Burscough) which is a fair old stretch but somewhat stilted in it's arrangement due to boats, busted banks, a 'dead-zone' where a local land-owner throws his toys out of the pram if he sniffs an angler within 100yds of 'his' bank and the many bridges along the way.  While I was out checking, I noticed that there were loads of fish topping (some of large dimensions) so the prospects appeared to be cautiously optimistic.

While finishing off the breakfast in the pub, much fun was had with Jean Claude Van Den Eynde (the cheese-eating surrender monkey) after word had got round about his last minute pre-wedding wardrobe disaster the previous week.  All I need to add is that it's a good job he hadn't lost his Matalan card.  Word to the wise, my Brie-loving pal:  take the 'c' off 'chips' and what have you got?  probably the reason your keks didn't fit...

The customary words of advice from Mr Smith over with, the draw was done and we were off.  I'd drawn the scales in J section, so I was off (at break-neck speed) up Crabtree to get to Gorst Lane before the rest of the Wacky Races.  I was first car up there, so made my way down the straight from the piggery towards the S bends.  Having walked that length twice already, I knew where my peg was - just the other side of the trees at the end of the straight.  I was soon followed by the rest of the field and some time later the lad with the book for our section came down the bank with another set of scales.  Why they'd been sent to me I wasn't sure as I already had some - which must've meant a section somewhere else went without.

Anyway, as I was on the end peg in our section I had Danny from Sams to my left on peg 2 and Keith 'Warrior' Anders fishing for Sensas North West on peg 14 in 'I' section to my right.  We were getting stuff setup & having a bit of a chat about this & that when I noticed Keith stop and stare past me.  I looked round and the reason for the stare became clear - Porky was making his way towards us.  Keith has this natural aversion to Porky in matches, yet always seems to attract him to the same section.  I was made up as he got to Danny, because that meant he wasn't in my section - Keith was looking worried.  As the Porkster made his way past me, Keith asked where he was drawn and the colour came back to his complexion as Porky told him he was in the next section down - jinx averted for another match!!

Onto the actual fishing which, to be honest was pretty poor.  I had a few roach at the start which were only small, then got much better results when I went after the billies - managing to get a few netters.  Both Keith and I were dogged by Pike throughout the match, including a jack which Keith played and landed.  It's a shame they don't count, but he made up for that with a cracking sniggery a bit later; old Standish habits die hard, he he...

At the all out there were some dissenting voices heard in Keith's section arguing about the shout being a few minutes early, but for me it couldn't come soon enough.  I went up t'other end with the scales and it was clear that it would be a tight section.  Dave Marsh (Sensas) secured 1 point with 2-9-8 off J10 and 2 points went to both Lawrence Clayton (Hindley) on J5 and Danny Martin (Sams) on J2 who both had 2-4-10.  Ian Lathom (Tricast Rochdale) bagged 4 points from J8 with 2-2-7.  I weighed 1-12-0 of mainly perch, which only gave me 9 points - proving how tight the section actually was.

Overall, the match was won on the day by Sams, with a cracking return of 46 points, closely followed by Sensas North West with 49 points (including three section wins).  Third on the day were Maver North West with 51 points - Blurty claiming 48 of them were his when he got back to the pub - happy days, even after what was apparently a poor return by his standards :))

Individual honours on the day went to Glyn Jones (LAS) who apparently had a slab over 3lb first dob-in as part of his 4-7-3 winning weight from C section near Northmoor Lane.  Second was Ditch (Ted Carter Preston) with 4-3-5 from peg 7 in G section, which was in the bridge-hole opposite the Heaton's Bridge pub.  Third was claimed by Andy Shirtcliffe (Tricast Rochdale) with 3-6-10 from peg 6 in H section which was on the Heaton's Bridge side of the S-bends.

Despite it turning out to be harder than anticipated, I suspect we'll all look back on round one with rose-tints;  the records will no doubt prove it was a better match than the one anticipated at Appley Bridge next week.  Rhino's bugles, goat's knees and granite worktops are nowt compared to the way that length is fishing at present.

No doubt I'll be back with the tale of woe this time next week, but then again...

If anyone wants a copy of the individual table, squeak up as a comment on here.  I'll do it from Trevor's weekly results and it'll only list anglers who fish each match, so will probably get shorter as squads rotate, etc as the weeks go by.

Adieu mes amies...