Fish4Wales Match Review 2008

Club Fish4Wales Series Results and Review.

Overview:

This was a good year for Fish4Wales matches in general although match attendances fluctuated from match to match but the good will and banter continued throughout our club matches as usual. This year we had a second weekend festival event in September as well as our normal May festival, both held at Rolfs Lake this year. Then there was the return of the open champion event and the addition of the Fast Forward Celtic Cup.

Fish4Wales Winter League 2008.

This years series was fished over nine matches, the venues used where Celtic Lakes, Whitesprings Specimen Lake, Whitesprings Match Lake, Spring water Lake, The Wye and Sylen. The series was well contested and one of the closest for a few years. Both John Charlesworth and Nick Williams ending up with the same points and almost identical weights, but John just pinched it for his first F4W series win. Third place went to Keith Fellowes.

Fish4Wales Spring League 2008.

For the Spring Series we returned to the normal 6 match format fished over three months on local waters. The venues we fished were Port Talbot Dock, Sylen, Celtic, Whitesprings and Suez Lake. The series was won by Keith Fellowes with the ever consistent Nick Williams second and Gary Mitchell taking third place.

Fish4Wales Summer League 2008.

The Summer League was won for the second year on the trot by Nick Williams who managed to get out of second place at last and also take the lead in the championship a position he would hold all the way to the end of the season. Brian Bevan at last showed some form and took second place with Winter League winner John Charlesworth securing third place. The venues fished this year were Sylen, Whitesprings and Springwater Lake.

Fish4Wales Autumn League 2008.

The Autumn Series suffered from a few matches having to be re-arranged and pushed into the winter, which saw attendances tumbling, and eventually cancellations of two of the matches. Nick Williams once again won this series for the second year on the trot. With Ryan Hughes, last years Junior Champion taking second place and Geoff Walker ever consistent third place. The venues used were Whitesprings and Sylen.

Fish4Wales Open Champion 2008.

The Fish4Wales Open Championship was fished this year on the Whitesprings Match Lake in August. Martin, Kev and a few of our Northern members joined us for this match. Brian Bevan won the match with 84lb off peg 14 of the match lake with Adam Mitchell second from peg 11 with 66lb with Kev Williams a close third with 65lb from peg 9. Nick Williams coming 4th from peg 19 with 48lb.

Fast Forward Celtic Cup 2008.

This series of matches was sponsored by Mark Henness of Fast Forward Distribution at Celtic Lakes Resort in Lampeter. Mark has now moved to New Zealand to live but we intend to keep this Trophy as a single match event at Celtic Lakes in 2009. A junior dominated this year’s event, Ryan Hughes was the best angler overall winning the series with Nick Williams yet again second in a series and John Charlesworth was third. The Matches were fished on Lakes 4 & 5 and were well attended by the members.

Fish4Wales Wednesday & Evening Series 2008.

This year’s series was fished at Sylen and Whitesprings. Nick Williams dominated the series finishing in the top 3 in every match and winning most of them. Second overall was Tony Wale where third on Wednesdays was Keith Fellowes and in the Evening series 3rd was Ryan Hughes.

Fish4Wales May Festival 2008 Rolfs Lake

This year the May festival was held at Rolfs Lake in Oxford and was closely contested between Martin and Tony who both fished well on all three days averaging over 100lbs per day. Martin Churchill was the series champion with Tony Wale a very close second and Brian Bevan was third overall. A most enjoyable series with plenty of banter. Well done to Martin fishing a blinder on each day to secure victory. Many personal best were set at this series Tony set a new F4W match record weight at 163lb, and a few others also joined the exclusive F4W 100’s club.

Fish4Wales September Festival 2008 Rolfs Lake

The September Festival was well attended by both members from North and South Wales and even more records fell. Nick Williams broke the F4W match record set by Tony in may on day two with 165lb all caught in the last 90mins of the match from peg 40, but that was not the winning weight. Martin Churchill set the new match record at 180lb with a haul of carp off peg 38 on his way to another series victory, well done Martin. Ryan Hughes was second in the series that also set his personal best match weight of 149lb. Gary Mitchell was third in the series and also joined the F4W 100’s club along with brother Adam Mitchell who set his personal best match weight on the final day with 107lb off peg 13.

Fish4Wales Club Champion 2008.

This years event was hard fought out affair for second, third and fourth, although last years winner Nick Williams seemed to have an even better season ending up winning the series by almost 60 points clear of any other angler and setting a new F4W record total of 322pts. Second place was last years Junior Champion Ryan Hughes fishing his first year as a senior and showing most how it’s done ending on 276pts. Brian Bevan the 2006 champion and 2007 runner up was third this year ending on 270 pts.

Now all the events are over for 2008 that leaves a level playing field for 2009, the F4W events will start again with the 2009 Winter League on January 11th at Sylen Lakes.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.