Commentary by Allan Bayman:

A clear evening on Saturday saw temps drop overnight and the water levels remain low. After a good evening match around 2 weeks ago we hoped the fish might be a bit more evenly spread and good weights would be seen. The forecast was bright and warm so it was bound to be tricky for some.
 
At the draw Paul Bangs had flyer peg 11, Dave McGrath on peg 9, Josh was on rated 7 and Matt on peg 30 all winning pegs as indeed most can at Frogmore depending on where the wandering fish have settled. I pulled out 30 and was confident having caught some big carp there on catmeat to the left reedy margin in pleasure sessions although Dave reckons it was rubbish in matches.
 
At the off I could see much of the lake and not much was going on. I was next to Matt again like the last match. Matt had a couple of decent fish in the first hour, a good hybrid then a bream on 6mm expander fished to the island. I was catching microscopic roach on expanders but had two skimmers that went a whopping 2-3 oz each.  Early on it seemed the crayfish we on the feed with Matt, Colin R and myself getting crustacean bother.
 
On peg 9 Dave McGrath was fishing pellet in open water and found a pair of bream to keep up with Stan, opposite on 25. From what I could see not much was being caught.
 
Matt switched to open water and had a bream quite quickly. I was still waiting for something to happen and had changed to hard pellet and soon was into a carp, a good one that came off and bumped another good fish the next put in.
 
Brian was down on the platform on peg 14. He was confident having won the J,L & S match here the previous week with 24lb. Expander at 9m was picking up the occasional big skimmer. It was certainly not fishing at its best with few signs of fish being caught in any real numbers.
 
I was getting the odd bite and got a better skimmer but around half way time the sun came out and the open water line died totally. Josh on peg 7 was unable to get them going around the island whilst Dave McGrath on the other side of the island had finally landed a large carp after a long battle. Colin fishing to the left of Matt hooked a good carp that he got in close then shot off making a successful bid for freedom.
 
I was now desperate and switched to catmeat to the left hand margin and potted in and went in over the top and as I was making myself comfortable the float buried whilst I was not ready and I missed the bite grr.
 
It was then the normal story of lost fish around the lake and Josh was waiting for his second bite. At the final whistle there had been a late flurry of activity with a few carp landed towards the end but even my desperate switch to single maggot had resulted in one whole roach of an ounce.
 
At the weigh-in it was clear it had fished hard. Josh had had two bites and a dry net one of 3 dnws. Brian had worked well to get into the bream & small carp and put 20lb 2oz on the scales. Peg 11 had not flown today and Paul Bangs had 6lb 2oz of silvers. Dave McGrath had another lump in the final minutes at 6m on 4mm pellet, his two carp going 15lb plus his bream making a winning total of 21lb 9oz just pushing Brian down into second. Frogmore expert Matt had done well to put on the scales 11lb 7oz of mainly bream and small carp which would give him 3rd place overall. Stan was not far behind with 10lb 1oz with his carp and bream based net.
 
Overall a very disappointing result on a difficult day. The bright sun and crayfish certainly did not help. I’m still scratching my head to know what else I could have done to improve on my disappointing weight. Next match is Baggers Lake at Timberlands which I hope fishes much better.
 
That said the results have mixed up the championship big time as I drop out of the podium places being replaced by Brian after his strong showing today and consistent Stan is in the mix just 5 points behind Paul Bangs.