Commentary by Allan Bayman:

There was a decent turn out for this match, our first evening match at Marsworth, on the Grand Union Canal. The idea was to fish late when the boat traffic and walkers should be less and the fish should be more. It also gave us a nice lie in too !

Draw next to Steve Burfoot, Marsworth master I was expecting to get an absolute battering from the next peg but not long after the whistle had a small carp and lost another on meat fished on a method feeder tight to the far bank. I could see Paul Bangs knocking out silvers but not much else happening. The first hour was frustrating as feeding had drawn fish out but they remained tight to the far bank. Were they chub or carp ? Couldn’t quite tell but I could see the odd swirl inches from the far bank. I’d also had 2 more bites that nearly dragged the rod in yet when I lifted into them there was nothing there, liners ? Not sure. Frustrated, err yes ! The start of the second hour saw reports coming in of something quite incredible. Nick Darke had caught a big fish, a very big fish. A big ugly fish, a damn big catfish and on the pole ! Nick had caught it on 4mm pellet over Got Green grub groundbait and micros!! It had given him quite a battle on black hydro ! He’d caught in it the deeper channel at around 13m

16lb 15oz on the pole!

I’d now got fish moving about tight to the far bank in inches of water but maggot didn’t get a touch so a flicked out a few mixers and they got taken as they got tight to the trees and bramble on the far bank.  I stuck it out on the tip for while but no more bites. I could see Paul still catching silvers and Stan was having some luck hooking carp but less getting them out from the snags. Steve Burfoot had had a couple of bites but the carp and big bream were not showing yet.
 
Nick had worked out the chub and carp were tight to the far bank and extended his pole to 17.5M to reach them on maggot and was rewarded with two chub, 2.5lb and 1.5lb and lost another. Stan got done by another carp leaving his elastic stuck to the far bank so had to run round to the other side to free his top kit.
 
I now had carp and chub taking mixers under the trees and had to cast tight to the trees. I few missed takes left me very frustrated but stuck with it to get a decent chub about 2.5lb. Stan’s hard pellet approach was paying off with some better sized roach as maggot was attracting gudgeon. Paul Bangs was still knocking out small silvers.
 
A couple more missed takes from carp now left me even more frustrated so I gave up fishing on the top to see if I could get another carp on the method. It was clearly fishing ultra tough, Steve was catching the odd tiny silver and Alan T struggling for anything of any size although he bumped something substantial on the pole to the far bank.
 
At the final hour came to a close I was confident of a carp as I’d managed to get my hair rigged meat inches form the far bank. With 10 minutes left the heavens opened and I had to put my waterproof trousers on. As I was pulling them up my rod hooped round and an angry carp surged toward the snags and as I got to the rod a second late it got off in the snags  leaving my playing a stick, great !! Josh suffered a similar fate losing a big carp in the snags pegged next to Nick who had winkled out another carp on maggot at 17.5M to decimate his opposition even without the catfish to finish on 25.08.

Stan’s better roach took 2nd with 5lb 13oz. Paul Bangs silverfish attack gave him 3rd with 4lb 12oz. I weighed in 4lb 3oz for 4th, knowing I should have had more but it often a similar story for everyone with the fish hiding in the snags. 2lb plus would prove to be a decent weight on the day Andy K , Allan Sprake and Brian all managed over 2lb with 2lb 3oz, 2lb 10z and 2lb 14oz respectively. Phil Rule took 5th with 3lb 10oz Unfortunately it had not fished as hoped, with a third of us not weighing in, but it was clear there were quite a number of decent fish there but getting them to come out an play was a trick only Nick seemed to work out. If the fish won’t come out go to them ! A well deserved win for Nick.

Roger even tried prayer to get a bite