Ashford Cup 2007.

Attendance : 19
Venue : Weybread Club Pit
Total weight : 150lb 9oz
Average weight : 7lb 15oz
D.N.W : 0

The sun was kind to Harleston Junior Angling Club keeping the rain at bay and helping boost the attendance for its annual summer open, The Ashford Cup, a superb turnout of nineteen of the areas best young anglers lined the banks of the Club Pit at Weybread, the biggest turnout of the season rewarding the clubs hard work. Angling pressure in conjunction with the bright flat calm conditions killed off any hopes of big weights ensuring this five-hour match was a hard but even and fiercely fought out affair ending with a nail biting finish for the competitors with just one Carp separating the top six.

After a tense weigh in it was Harleston youngster Oliver Elton who finished top with a superb weight of 18lb 8oz. Oliver one of the youngest competitors held his nerve and stuck rigidly to his plan to beat off a strong Challenge from Travis Woodward and Caden Spooner to win his first open. Oliver drew peg 5 a noted hotspot and produced a superb performance keeping things simple and neat fishing five metres of pole up tight against the marginal lilies to steadily catch carp, skimmers and some quality roach on expander pellet hookbaits loose feeding lightly over top with micro pellet. After a good start which saw him land three carp in quick succession to put pressure on runaway leader Caden Spooner the peg slowed, Oliver kept his nerve and stayed focused, with a little patience and some light feeding he soon attracted some fish back into his swim, roach at first but all welcome feeding the keepnet during hard times, these were soon followed by skimmers and in a good last hour his plan come to fruit as the carp moved back, landing four more smaller specimens to fend of a late challenge from Travis Woodward to complete a memorable and well deserved win.

Travis Woodward pushed Oliver right to the wire with a superb performance considering he only fished for three hours. Travis turned up declaring he was not fishing, after a couple of hours wandering around he decided he could do better if he had some tackle a bold statement. Tackle was supplied and bait scrounged, a late draw saw him pull peg 7 a good start, plum draw on the end of the bar. Armed with his begged and borrowed bait and tackle tactics were always going to be simple choice, pole fishing at nine metres towards the island and fishing with worm presented over mashed bread an odd but effective cocktail on the day as Travis was soon into fish, small roach and gudgeon at first but soon followed by a run of carp, landing four carp and losing three match winning carp to snags. Travis added two big bonus perch weighing 2lb 3oz and 1lb 15oz to his catch to come within a whisker of victory weighing 16lb 11oz.

Caden Spooner had a good start steaming off in front with three carp on the candle rig before the fish moved off, leaving him to watch as his lead was slowly eaten away, another carp late on boosted his weight to 15lb 13oz and third place.

A thrilling peg to peg battle between Edward Howman and Philip Shulver completed the frame with Philip taking fourth with a mainly skimmers net weighing 13lb 9oz with Edward just behind with 12lb 15oz.

Full Result.

1. Peg 5 Oliver Elton 18lb 8oz
2. Peg 7 Travis Woodward 16lb 11oz
3. Peg 12 Caden Spooner 15lb 13oz
4. Peg 14 Philip Shulver 13lb 9oz
5. Peg 13 Edward Howman 12lb 15oz
6. Peg 27 Charlie Elton 12lb 1oz
7. Peg 10 Jake Morton 9lb 7oz
8. Peg 15 Ben Aldridge 9lb 4oz
9. Peg 18 Shane Riches 8lb 7oz
10. Peg 29 Louis Allen 6lb 7oz
11. Peg 17 Jake Mcdowell 5lb 8oz
12. Peg 10 Luke Corbyn 4lb 10oz
13. Peg 26 Soren Bryds 4lb 5oz
14. Peg 9 Ryan Corbyn 3lb 9oz
15. Peg 32 Matthew Middleton 3lb 8oz
16. Peg 8 Nathan English 3lb 7oz
17. Peg 30 Lewis Riches 1lb 7oz
18. Peg 4 Scott Allen 9oz
    Peg 2 Dexter 9oz