There is now a new stile that has been erected over the fragile iron railing fence at the bottom of "Cardiac Hill." There is now no reason for any angler to climb over this fence, so anyone found doing so will be suspended from the Society. You have been warned.

After such a long dry and calm few weeks, Sunday 30th April dawned with mixed cloud and sun, but very strong winds gusting to over 30 mph. This made fishing the Birches Pool at Melverley extremely difficult, mainly because the crucian carp and F1s here are so shy biting that detecting these bites was next to impossible. However, the 12 members that turned up (which included Pat Nolan coming out of still water angling retirement especially for this match!) all weathered the battering and Bob Smith somehow managed to fish the long pole to put 33 Lbs 4 Ozs on the scales to take the win. Runner-up (for a change!) was Ken Arnold with 27 Lbs 14 Ozs taken on the method feeder against the island and on the margin pole. Third was Clive Biddulph with 19 Lbs dead, taken on the margin pole as the wind was so bad he couldn't fish anything else! I hope you managed to either retrieve your car keys from the lake, or got the spare set from home Clive! Brian Tinman only managed 8th place with 7 Lbs 14 Ozs despite all the practice with his pole on the preceding Friday! Ken, who had 20 Lbs more, was very gracious and did not rub this in at all!!!!!

Despite the wind, we all had a good day out and thanks go to our Match Secretary, Will Carr, for organising this one-off match.