LLOYDS, Badger, 9/8/15 ~ After the Lord Mayor's show....

I suppose it was bound to happen, but following last week's remarkable day out, it was back to some sort of normality for this match. As expected on Badger, if you are on a few it can be a nice day's sport, but if you're not it can be a bit of a grueller. Results reflected the total hit and miss nature of the venue.
The car park side of the lake was rock hard to say the least. There were, however, several outstanding performances. John Edwards stayed the distance for once and put together an impressive (on the day) 33lb 03oz, which was far and away the best weight for that side of the lake.
Lots of tomfoolery surrounded the Maver magician. Andy Lawton almost lost a complete pole. Hooking a carp at 16m, 11 metres of his pole detached itself and was floating around on the surface. As is quite likely on these occasions, Steve Cooke came to the rescue, wedging his 13m section into Andy's errant pole and retrieving the situation. Meanwhile, Paul Robb hooked a carp while fishing the tip, and let it career through Sumo's peg and into Andy's, snagging the latter's pole rig. Andy landed the runaway, unhooked it and then sportingly returned the feeder to Paul and the carp back into the lake.
Absolutely brilliant to see the 2 section winners on that side getting the applause they fully deserved. Cookie Monster Steve just edged in front of Mr Jackson to win his section, while Gentleman Jim, the ever jovial Eric Heyes, had an even bigger smile than usual as he picked up a brown envelope with his 17lb 02oz bag. Marvellous efforts from both on a tough day.
All the main action was around on the far side, with the first 3 pegged in a line. Dennis Jones caught steadily from the first whistle, sneaking the odd fish from his 16 metre line. Buck Rogers also had the odd carp and skimmer from the long line but could never quite nail The Ginger one. For the first hour, Yozzer sat stubbornly refusing to go beyond 6 metres. Consequently, he never had a fish. A switch to maggot shallow brought about a few quality ide and 2 surprise carp. Then it went quiet, except for the usual mind games of who was winning and who wasn't.
Despite losing one fish for every one he put in the net, Dennis was the clear leader at halfway.
With 2 hours to go, The Garden Gnome had a quick look in the margins. 30 seconds later he was playing a ghostie! That "quick" look turned into a full blown assault and it was game on.
Both Dennis and Bucko tried their margins and had a couple of fish, while Yozzer was getting a bite a chuck on 4mm pellet, hooking plenty of carp, landing some and losing some.
It was going to be close. Ginger put a superb 48lb 09oz on the scales and probably deserved to win. Bucko was next and his 36lb 06oz fell short but put him into second. Another fine performance.
However, those late margin fish transformed The Gnome from zero to hero as he took the honours with 67lb 13oz.
Can members please note that following recent events regarding "swimming" all matches will now start with the shout of 'commence fishing' as the old 'all in' call seems to encourage certain people into the lake.