The second round of the Winter League was fished on the river on a cold, dank 21 November. Ten of the 15 anglers in the league turned out on a river which was carrying about a metre of extra water. This, coupled with an east wind, made for hard going, with four of the field blanking. Winner was Ken Arnold from peg 18 with a barbel for 3 Lbs dead, caught on a ledgered worm. Second, from next door peg 16, was Tony Randall with 13 Ozs, made up of about 80 small dace, roach and minnows taken on a whip close to the bank, using a pinkie on the hook under a 1 gram rig. It was really good to see these "silvers" again. Third equal were Gordon Bradley and Gary Stinton who each had 1½ Ozs from pegs 13 and 1 respectively. So, after two of the six rounds fished, jointly in the lead are Dave Upton and Ken Arnold on 6 penalty points, but Dave has more weight. Third is Tony Randall with 8 penalty points. Fourth equal are Keith Williams and Bernie Jones on 10 points, but again, Keith is ahead on weight. The next round, on 5 December, will be fished on Bayliss Pools (if the water is not frozen over or it will be back on the river). It is hoped that the larger carp pool will be bookable, to enable the large head of bream there to figure in the result. Watch this website for an update!

The LAS vs. DARLACH challenge match was fished on 14 November, but had to be switched to Bayliss Pools because the river was very high and coloured. Steve Senior led the five man team, that included Steve Everton as only four DARLACH anglers made the trip down from the Wirral. The LAS team were Dave Upton, Reg Ford, Nick Bastock and Bernie Jones. The other members of the DARLACH team were Terry Thompson, Gary Stinton and Eric Rimmer. There had been an overnight frost and those anglers pegged on the shallow side of the pool found bites hard to come by in the first two hours of the match, whereas those on the deeper side caught roach and odd rudd from the off. But then the bream started to feed for Bernie Jones three hours in and he had seven of them for a top weight of 16 Lbs 4 Ozs. Reg Ford managed to catch a couple of good perch (amongst the crayfish!) for 4 Lbs 13 Ozs and second place and Dave Upton had one good bream and some bits for 3 Lbs 11 Ozs and third place. The team event went LAS's way with a total of 28 Lbs 3 Ozs to DARLACH's 6 Lbs 12 Ozs. Maybe next year lads?