We fished our second round tie against Bolton Co-op AC yesterday on the Match canal at Copthorne and managed to make it to our 6th semi final after a few nervous moments.
The day was warmer and sunnier than expected and the fishing took us a bit by surprise and quite a few people (including myself) struggled for bites at some point in the match.
The weight run down was;
St.Anthonys AC ‘A’ Bolton Co-op AC
Neil Cottam 25-0 B Fox 8-8
Jay Brooks 30-9 F Mitchell 9-4
Pete Richmond 19-0 T Birchall 38-8
Ian Brogden 8-12 T Smethurst 12-12
Mick Ogden 38-7 D Pezel 26-12
G Blunt 31-4 D Rabey 34-10
Alan Hodgeon 25-12 R Makin 12-2
David McManus 16-10 A Humphries 9-8
Once we won the 7th section to make it 4-3 we had 30lb+ in hand so we were unlikely to get beat but once our young lad David beat his opposition we had won 5 sections to 3 and on our way to the semi final at Partridge lakes which is only 30 miles away and by far the closest venue we’ve fished at this stage so practise should be easy.
Personally I drew the same end peg as last years corresponding match (confirming my nickname of ‘end peg Ogden’)which I won and struggled for bits and pieces for 8lb after 3.5 hours before the fish turned up under the empty pallet to my right where the ever reliable paste sorted me out 3 lumps and 3 smaller samples to give me second in the match by 1oz.
Thanks to the Bolton lads for a good match.
TF_Johnny Mac.
