David Hall Memorial

I am now the proud recipient of one of the most impressive (and heavy) trophies after winning the David Hall Memorial at the Glebe yesterday.

David Hall was a real character with so many adjectives you could use to describe him. Reading his amazing magazines really got me into match fishing and I have so much to thank him for after he offered me a job at DHP to work for him. Wow, that was 20 years ago! Seems like only yesterday at times.

It was a crazy place to work at and David was pretty bonkers, but also shrewd and insightful and very entertaining to listen to. I suppose him having a joint and a whisky every day had a lot to answer for!

I think I was one of the few employees to leave on good terms as I went from one crazy septuagenarian to another… and David did warn me! I certainly learnt a lot of life lessons from Hally and he’s left a big impression on my life. That’s why it meant a lot to win this trophy. It’s actually a bronze sculpture of the late, great Billy Lane. It used to have pride of place in his office. I often stared at it while he retold one of his many long stories!

So, yesterday I finally won it. Not the best of starts arriving late as my satnav must’ve also had a whisky with the closed roads it kept trying to persuade me down! I finally got there, anxiety levels maxed out, and drew peg 4 on Lake 1, which is always a decent area for a day’s sport.

Fully medded up, I really fancied it, even though there were surprisingly few carp on top as I surveyed the swim. It was nice and sunny but the wind was blowing much harder than I expected, but thankfully our way.

I kicked off short for one quick 7lb carp on pellet but that was it on that line. I’d set up two 12ft Horizon Waggler rods as I knew that had been working and with the strong wind and width I needed a 10g Matrix Pellet Waggler to get tight across. I managed eight decent carp over there with an 8mm Fluoro Bandum Wafter best on the hook.

I had mostly white water in front of me but every now and again the wind would drop and an occasional carp would pop up. I managed to mug a couple of big ghosties early on the pole and with not a lot else being caught I decided to stay on this most of the day. Nowhere near as many carp cruising about as I hoped or expected, but by being really patient I’d eventually spot one or two and managed to mug 15 or so by the end. I also pinged pellets at 14m but never had a single fish in the feed.

Very late on I managed four down the edge on corn and worm over 2mm Fin Perfect micros, but in the heat you could tell they weren’t coming in with any conviction and only one of them was a proper lad.

I thought I’d very generously clicked 183 so was fully expecting to be nearer 160lb when I weighed in… I was way way out when I totalled 204lb! Well it was sunny and my first proper shallow session of the year and perhaps explains why my 14-16 Slik was nearly reaching the far bank at times! Great fun with my MTX5 coping with the gusts and hard-fighting fish admirably. I used a 0.2g Matrix Dibber with a size 16 X8 Power Carp to 0.18mm Soft Steel for shallow fishing with a 6mm pellet.

It was a really nice and friendly match with some lovely people in my section. Even took a £1 off my mate Craig on peg 2. Back at the results it was nice to catch up with people and even nicer to be handed such a special trophy. Only problem now is knowing where to put it as it’s 2ft high, weighs a ton and I’ve got a crazy 7 year-old daughter who thinks it’s an action figure she can play with!

Well done David Haynes and David Hall Publishing for such a nice, friendly and well-run event, which also raised a lot of important money for MacMillan. All in memory of a really influential and important man. I can just imagine him looking down at us all, sat in his comfy chair with a little grin on his face, smoking and sipping another whisky. Probably swearing at us all a bit too!

Results

Top 20:

• 1st Jon Arthur 204-08
• 2nd Lee Newson 184-04
• 3rd Alex Bones 160-08
• 4th Andrew Williams 154-10
• 5th Rob Henrick 150-01
• 6th Paul Whitfield 139-09
• 7th Trevor Price 137-00
• 8th Jake Fowles 130-00
• 9th Joe Carass 127-12
• 10th Rich Bedder 127-00
• 11th Alex Dockerty 119-08
• 12th Andy Findlay 110-08
• 13th Andrew Timothy 107-08
• 14th Tony Curd 104-00
• 15th Brandon George 103-05
• 16th John Burchell 98-13
• 17th David McAuley 96-04
• 18th John Essex 94-00
• 19th Rob Perkins 91-10
• 20th Tom Scholey 91-08

Pro Am:

• 1st Brandon George & Rob Henrick 253-04
• 2nd Lee Newson & Martin Ford 228-12

Silvers:

• 1st Dan Webb 54-04
• 2nd Trevor Price 52-04

Top Am:

Andrew Williams