HAMPTON, LONG ISLAND, 5/7/15 ~ Steve makes a splash as Yozzer limps home.

It was a pleasant enough day when we arrived at Hampton, with several members wearing shorts to match the summery climate. Eventually everyone ended up soaking wet, some earlier than others.
In a scene reminiscent of a certain Mr. Lucas, this time, in midmatch, Steve Coleman momentarily took his eye off the ball.... well, rod actually. Steve had been fishing the lead and reached down for his catapult when the unattended rod was pulled off the rest and into the lake. Instinctively, Steve followed, head first! Having failed to grab the rod, it did a quick tour of the area before Lee Pickup managed to rescue it. Meanwhile, Steve got out of the water to a great deal of sympathy. " It's Raheem Sterling, doing a dive like that", "Tom Daley's on the phone", and "Steve's making a splash" were among the enquiries as to Steve's well-being.
The rest of us got soaked as heavy rain moved in with an hour of the contest left.
Having slipped just before the all-in, The Gnome had pulled his bicep muscles, and was in some pain. A slow catch rate of mainly small fish had him in a dilemma. He wanted some better carp but would the arm stand up to the pressure?
With the rain came the carp, and decent ones at that, straight into Yozzer's margin. 50lb in the last hour made sure of a comfortable victory in one sense, but the pain increased with every fish so he felt very uncomfortable at the end. 72lb 04oz was the total to bring victory to the venue regular.
At the other end of the lake, as well as the diving scandal, Neil Paterson was in fine fettle. Following an unplaced effort in a dodgers match on the Friday, when his exceptional 107lb 14oz got him absolutely nowhere, the Jolly one carried on the bagging, and was as jovial as we have ever seen him. Fishing the tip for the day, Neil brought 38lb 14oz to the scales, which was more than enough to grab the runner-up berth. Brilliant!
Last week's runner-up, Gary Brislen, slipped a place to third this time round, but was equally as happy with the level of sport as he was last week.
The other sections were closely fought, with Ray Jackson's 22lb 06oz proving enough to see off Spadger, while Ginger Jones AKA Dennis did the business with his 17lb 08oz just holding Sumo's challenge by under 2lb.
Well done to both, on a generally hard day.