With the sun shining and the wind blowing a gale, our intrepid team of fishermen drew their pegs and headed for the bank ready for the starting whistle.

The wives wished them luck and then abandoned camp, heading out to Melton Mowbray for a spot of ‘retail therapy’.

All was quiet by the lakeside with our jolly fishermen working hard to try and catch the elusive fish.  You see, fish are quite intelligent and know just what to do and where to hide to avoid being lured to the fisherman’s net by a succulent, exotic flavoured red maggot.  Maybe that’s the reason one of our members decided to take a closer look to see where all the fish were hiding!  Yes, Dave (whilst assisting Ashley) ‘took the plunge’ fully clothed – wearing someone else’s jacket – complete with mobile phone and stopwatch in pocket.  I think his message to Ashley was – “next time, do it yourself!”

However, this little incident did get the guys on the opposite side of the lake panicking.  Due to the landscaping, they were unaware of Dave’s ‘dip’ and thought someone had landed a very large fish – certainly made them try harder!

The wind was still blowing a gale and unfortunately for two of the Derbyshire guys, their fishing poles snapped – was it really the weight of the fish or just the wind playing havoc?  Luckily this happened near the end of the match and whilst costly in monetary terms, didn’t cost them the match.

Finally, the whistle blew to denote the end of the match and now came the time everyone was waiting for – the weigh-in.

Our guys did a fantastic job and the Overall Winner with the heaviest weight of over 15lb was Notts member, Paul Tomkinson.  Paul was also placed 1st in his section.  Adrian Newcombe and Paul Wright were also Section Winners whilst Richard Hitch and John Shipley each achieved very commendable 2nd place in their section.

The Nottinghamshire Centre won the competition, beating Derbyshire by a clear 5 points.  Hard luck to them, and also to Leicester and N&R.  This is the first time Notts have won the shield since the competition started back in 2000, so well done to our Notts lads!

Thank you to John Shipley for encouraging the fishing team to persevere and eventually achieve this well-deserved victory.  And thanks also to Chris, Anne and Adrian who marshalled the rally with John

P.S.  Dave’s mobile phone dried out OK and is working perfectly fine (much to Gill’s annoyance as her phone hasn’t worked too well since dropping it down the caravan loo the week prior – ‘crap’ signal apparently!); the stopwatch also dried out and works fine; Paul Wright’s coat needed a good wash, as did all of Dave’s clothes and luckily, Paul’s tooth was still in his coat pocket!

Amanda & Dave