mid section blues: Pewsey Canal Championship Bowdens Bridge.

Why do we do it? I woke this morning feeling like crap. I suppose it was the expected horrendous weather, coupled with the dark morning. I plain didn't want to go. Not wanting to let the lads down especially Leo (Match Secretary), he would have been up early in bad weather pegging and had no doubt taken many a booking for today's match. Its good of him , as he is not fishing due to a back injury. Shows what a good bloke he is and the efforts he puts in for the club.

Second reason was having got one over on Spanners mid week, I had become really brave and gone a pound and didn't want him to think I had bottled out.

So we gathered in the worsening rain for the draw at the old swing bridge. Only 11 of the expected 20 (letting Leos work down) turned up. Banter was high and thoughts were of better days to come and a bit of sunshine. The Championship is all but over for this season with only extraordinary results going to pull it away from Ian "Spanners" Spanswick. Fair play to him, hes been Mr Consistent this year.

My targets today were to close the gap on Chris Rushton and Paul Giddings (both on 116 points compared to me on 106 points), and take a quid from Ian. As I looked around the 11 that had turned out would be tough to get points against.. Miracle I draw my first end peg this year, and race of avoiding the damage on the towpath from the overnight storm.

The match started and once again I was 5 minutes of being ready. The persistent rain and very cold wind was making it hard to keep the fingers dexterous. The canal had about 10 inches to a foot of extra water so I was glad to have some longer rigs on board. Rumour had it I was in skimmer country so I went for slightly heavier elastics than the normal 2 and 3. Plan was to find some deep water and fish punch. Separate ground bait and pinkie swim. A choppy line and a shallow line across fishing squat over hemp and a few caster.

The next 5 hours was tortuous had a couple of bites before a trio of Kayaks came through, destroying inside and far lines and not exactly helping the track line. The fish were so tiny that on some occasions I'll be honest I was only lifting in to check bait, when I noticed a fish on. The 6 elastic was bumping fish so I got up and went to my kit for lighter elastics and changed over. Despite my covered bait tray the bread was soaked , the pinkie was frothing and crawling every where and it was shambles. My cold soaking hands fumbled at the pinkie tray, and then knocked it over. Would have been nice to be under a brolly with a tip rod and some hand warmers (Christmas present from bruv), but couldn't today

It wasn't just me though Danny was struggling on the next peg, or though Danny had lost a Carp which was on for around 15 minutes. News from Leo who was pacing the bank, frustrated not to be fishing was everyone except Paul on peg one was struggling. So to the weigh in and a 6 ounce perch "helped"! me to 20 fish and 1 lb 7 and half ounces.

Leo did the weigh in quickly as the clouds were building again.

My Net.

I am midsectionblues, but 6th in match and 10 valuable match points. Managed to scrape back 3 points from Chris, but PG pulls away. Pleasing to be half an ounce of Kevin Chubb, to beat Danny and Ian twice in one week, and nice to take the scalp of Garbolino Blackmore Vales Mike Buzzer Bernstein.

With great pleasure I take the pound!!