2010 W&DAA Ted Carter Spring League R1 - Appley Bridge

Not sure whether the action during the match lived up to the drama before it when the duck got it's head stuck in the fence and nearly strangled itself (well done to the rescuer, btw), but the team I'm in had a fairly good start.

The original intention was that our team was going to be called BAS-Standish, but that got changed to BAS Red at the draw - it suits me rather than BAS Blue and the result saw BAS Red finish ahead of BAS Black, so we had a good start to the campaign.

We had two section winners - Dave Marsh was down in the basin below the locks and bagged a 2lb Bream on his first dob-in, which virtually guaranteed a good result and so it proved.  Paul Porter was the star of the team with 6-14-0 from A1, through the bone-hole swing bridge.  That weight gave him second on the day, a brown envelope and he even found time to wipe the bream snot all over his expensive Daiwa gore-tex; just to prove he'd been baggin'.

Raymondo of the Wright-stuff was pegged at the opposite end of the match on F20, below Hand Lane bridge, where the wind was wild and it was (according to George) apparently still winter.  He was blowing for tucks when he came back past me (we were still waiting for scales as there were none in our section.......) and it had been a struggle by all accounts.   I've asked Steve for the full result, so I'll add a bit more detail when it arrives.

We finished 5th on the day with 29 points, so there were smiles all round (OK, mainly from Messrs Marsh and Porter) but we're happy with that for the first week.

My match was supposed to have gone a lot better than it actually did, as I was within a peg or so of where Billy (it's solid here at 9m) Flynn pogged the last Teams of 4 match the other week with a big 6lb.  The lads from BAS Black had been for a chuck a few weeks ago and really struggled, so I kept that in my mind rather than Billy's good return.  Sure enough, I had a skimmer early doors down the track, which wasn't as good as it could've been after the boat which went through on that line 5 minutes before the all-in.  A couple of little flirters followed soon after but nowt on the big butty -which was a bit of a let-down.

Mark Wilson was a couple of pegs to my right and had a string of decent skimmers early on.  It seemed like he was netting one everytime I looked to my right - which tends to concentrate the mind on the task at hand...  A couple of pegs to my left Steve Doolan was doing similarly and to his left Kev (the legend) Stothers was doing even better.

I'd fed a 13m line and after having no joy down the track I went across and was rewarded with a couple of skimmers almost straight away.  Another lull followed and another couple of flirters down the track, then another skimmer at 13m followed by the first gonk of the year.  I can remember when that stretch used to be black with gonks, but there's no chance of building a weight with them these days...

I then got a cracking lift bite off a branch (!!) and then hooked something that decided it wanted more elastic that I had to offer.  It sat still, then gave a thump and lurched off towards the middle.  I shipped back and it decided to go back across - taking my hooklength with it - more than likely a chub (thanks to Wrighty for reminding me they were there).  A serious points-loser was that one.

There wasn't much going on on the worm line I'd fed - in fact nowt at all, so it was back across to 13m with a brief foray under the tree - still nothing.  Down to the last 10 minutes and another solitary skimmer was the last fish in the keepnet.  I finished with 2-4-5 which left me a bit disappointed in mid-section, but not the worst finish I'ver ever had.

No Spring League next week, but there's an SDAA flyer at Sollom and a WDAA flyer at Heatons Bridge. As previously mentioned, if that awfully nice chap Mr. Powley emails the results, I'll add them later.

[EDIT]  That awfully nice chap Mr Powley has sent the details and the team and individual standings are o'er yon ont reet: