East Anglian Wednesday League Match Secretary's Report 2004/05

MATCH SECRETARY REPORT 2004/2005

As far as the actual fishing has gone the year hasn’t been too bad with us casting off on the Carp Puddles. With Decoy proving to be the best with a combined weight of 1,663 Lb from both matches, averaging out at 21 Lb per angler. Railway lakes produced 578 Lb and an average of 20 Lb per angler Dents Farm not so good with a total weight of 195 Lb and a low average for a carp water of 6 Lb per angler.

On to the rivers and we started on the North Bank on a day where the Nene was almost bursting its banks and rafts of reeds were being carried on the current. The only method that could be used to any great effect was the pole feeder at 3 to 4 meters out which produced a few Bream and a total weight of 137 Lb on what would otherwise be classed as unfishable venue at first sight.

The Yare, Old Nene at Benwick and March produced average results with an average of 5 Lb per angler over the 3 matches. 1 section at Benwick producing a meagre 5 Lb for the whole section of 11 Anglers, where even Graham found it hard weighing in only 10 ½ Ozs for second in the section.

The next match was on the Wensum in Norwich, which produced over 250 Lb of fish. The rest of the season it was the normal thing with all the fish disappearing on a Weds or conditions were never good to say the least.

Early matches in the year indicated that Lee Bishop was the angler to beat with a 65 Lb from Railway followed by 124 Lb from Decoy. He appeared unstoppable until the RAF posted him to Aldergrove. His 124 Lb weight from decoy winning him the Highest Match weight trophy for 2004/2005

The Team Champions for the summer league were Brampton A with a faultless 7 wins from 10 and runners up were Coltishall A with 21 points just piping Brampton B with a superior weight advantage of over 200 Lb thanks to Lee. The Knockout cup has been won by Brampton A, and the Plate goes to Brampton C who won it after round 2 because the 3 other teams in the plate were unable to field a team.

Now onto the Individual league Champion, and this has gone right to the final match with Graham and Craig both on 13 pts and both having 2 points to drop. This has kept them both on their toes with the winner being Graham.

The 4 Counties Cup has been won by, Graham who commanded the competition by winning 6 matches out of the 13 that he has fished earning himself
127 points.

The Eastern Counties goes to the highest placed non-representative angler and this year it also went to the last match with 3 possible winners Ray Torrington, Mick Dixon and Bill Sinclair, with the winner being Ray.

With only 3 fish put forward for the specimen fish trophy, a 15 oz perch from Ramsey St Mary’s by Graham and a 1 Lb 11 Oz Perch from River Wensum by Bill and a last ditch very hopeful 2 Lb 1 Oz Rudd by John Higginson from Raveley Drain on the last match so the trophy goes to John and his huge Rudd.

It is obvious that getting time off to represent their units at Coarse Angling is become more difficult in this shrinking Air Force with the total amount of anglers on the bank this year declining to 75 different anglers turning out, with 2 of these being guests from the East Midlands League and some of the Old Lags turning up to fish on the odd occasion. Only 1 Angler has managed to turn out for all the matches something he never managed when he was in the Forces and that’s Chris Saunders.

Lets hope that next year as the strongest League within the Air Force we keep encouraging the Anglers to attend the matches. Even though it is difficult to frame with the experience and knowledge of anglers we have in this league you can learn from the anglers and hopefully narrow that experience gap so that you can produce a result on the day. It can be done as Keith Gilchrist found out on match 10 at Ramsey St Mary’s, beating Graham on the next peg by nearly 5 Lb thanks to the Tench feeding in his swim.

I thank you all for your commitment throughout the year especially the unit match secretary’s who without their hard work it would be impossible to arrange pegging and with their help make the draw as uncomplicated as possible, However please let your Match Secretary know that you will be there as I can only go on the numbers that they give me for getting the match pegged.

A thank you also goes to the anglers who have throughout the season arrived early at the venue to help peg the match allowing us all to get on with the draw as soon as possible.

Tight Lines for the forth coming season, and hopefully I will see you all on the bank again soon.

Bill Sinclair
East Anglian Wednesday League Match Secretary
95951 7453