Title holders in early warning
Reigning champions of the Shropshire Winter League, Maver Tipton, made it clear at the start of this campaign that the are all out to retain their title. The first round was staged at Springlea on Sunday, where heavy rain on Saturday lowered water temperatures and made for some patchy sport.
Four section wins and three second placings put Tipton on the road to victory with a very good score of 23 points, but new team Rod & Gun showed that they could trouble the champions, with a consistent performance which saw only one of the ten men finishing below third in the section points.
They were only four behind the leaders on 27. Phoenix Match Group did well too, taking third with 31. Mosella Strike were surprisingly some way behind on 41 in fourth, Phoenix Tackle were fifth on 44, Dorset AC were sixth on their first foray into the league, with 55, and Hodnet completed the line up with 59.
Individually, Steve Roberts (R&G) made the most of an isolated draw on the point on the Horseshoe Pool, to get the fish going with corn over maggot, close in, and put a top class 127-2-0 on the scales to head the individual card.
Martin Harrell (Tipton) put together another ton weight, 105-1-0 for a comfortable second.
Ray Lamb (Strike) was best on the Mallard, netting 72-5-0 for third at peg 34. Nathan Spain (Phoenix MG) was way ahead of the rest on the Orfe Pool with 52-7-12 at peg 40,f or fourth overall.
Best on the Trevors Pool was Ian Lockley (Tipton) with 41-3-0. Round two is at Boldings this Sunday, draw 8.00am to 8.30.
The day before the match some of the anglers involved were practicing at Boldings and some at Springlea.
At Boldings, Martin Harrell was to finish second, as he did in the league match, but this time it was behind Tipton team mate Pete Plant.
They were both pegged on the Larch Pool, and Pete employed his beloved caster method, to take carp in the lb to 7lb bracket at 12 metres to build a weight of 120-11-0 at peg six.
Martin was next door on peg four, and caught close in on maggot, with carp to 8lbs making up his 112-6-0. Steve Conway (Lichfield) led the way on the Ash Pool with 94-6-0 for third.
Dave Barnard (Maver Wolves) collected the pool prize for the Willows and finished fourth on 83-8-0 at Willows five, then came two more Tipton men - Miles Day on 81-2-0 and Dave Brown on 77-7-0.
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