UK Champs First Round: Arthur Pips Rich

Coventry rod Jon Arthur was crowned the King of Colemans Cottage in a dramatic sprint finish during round one of the Preston Innovations sponsored UK Angling Championships.

Pegged on the prolific Copse Pool at the Essex match venue he pipped Keiron Rich and Grant Albutt to the honours in a very close match to take maximum points and £1000 in hard cash.

Run over 4 lakes on the complex, it was Copse that produced the three biggest weights of the event with Rich, Albutt and Arthur all banking in excess of 91 kg (200lbs).

In the end it was the last hour that proved crucial to the result. Albutt opted for shallow tactics fishing pellet tight to an island at 14 metres taking the majority of his fish through the early part of the match, but his swim dried up with an hour left on the clock.

A move into the edge produced four extra carp but it proved to be not quite enough to maintain his early lead.

Rich romped off to an early start bagging a ton of carp in a very short period on chopped worm and caster, once again tight to an island and at the weigh in it was clear it would be a very close run thing. In the end it was Arthur who took the honours by the narrowest of margins.

A little under 5kg separated the top three, just 2kg 200 between Rich and Arthur, and with fish averaging 1 – 2kg it literally came down to just one fish between the top two.

Arthur fished a blinder not putting a foot wrong all day on a line tight to an island using chopped worm, caster and peat as a cloud. It put’s him at the top of the league for the 2010 tournament and gives him a great start to a campaign where is aiming to win the tournament for an impressive 3rd time.
Overall Results
Jon Arthur 96.250
Kieron Rich 94.050
Grant Albutt 91.500

Section Winners
Trevor Robinson 63.700
Jon Arthur 96.250
Pate Baily 59.400
John Hall 36.900
Darren Cox 46.100
Paul Yates 54.450
Steve Baraclough 55.500
Nick Speed 64.450