After some terrific weights in practice in the run-up to this match, anglers at the annual Barston Xmas match struggled after the coldest night the year saw the lake frozen over.
In fact owner Nigel Harrhy had to hold back the draw and re-peg when it became clear some anglers had decided to stay indoors and that it was going to take longer than expected to break the ice. I spoke to Nigel the day before the match and he’d just blanked with pinkie – you basically needed bloodworm and joker to have any chance.

In the event the match was also shortened to four hours with only every other peg put in, but still no-one mustered double figures.
Top of the pile was Simon Willsmore who drew peg 63 and fished pole, bloodworm and joker to a level 8lb, with Rich Offler second on 6-8-0 and Andy Johnstone third with 4-12-0.

Section winners were Darren Davies, Sean Gold, Luke Downing, Paul Holland and Matt Hall.