AMFC Round 6

The final AMFC match of the season brought high drama on what felt like the high seas. The wind was picking up as we tackled up and by the time everyone raced off to the main basin the sound of the Ride of The Vakuries must have been playing in their heads. There was a swell of up to three feet and the wind gusted to speeds approaching 40 knots. There were fish to be had in the Main Basin but only the most hardy stayed for long. It had been announced at the brief that stocking had taken place at the sailing club the day before so quite a few anglers went to the sailing club and East Creek, where there was some shelter, much less swell and best of all some fish. No matter where you fished the day consisted of battling against strong winds and everyone was exhausted by the end. Fish came to nearly all tactics but the only common denominator seemed to be that they were high in the water. Tony Wilkinson had the best bag in the RN&RM team with six fish and the best fish of the day overall. Our new recruit, Charlie Bowers was close behind with another bag of six, followed by Ron Tutt with two and the Team Captain for the day, Chris Anderson, with a frustrating one fish after a day of constant taps but no real contact.

Tony Wilkinson went from hope to despair as the smaller bags appeared at the weigh in and the post match meal was punctuated by rumor and speculation. We heard the Army had two full bags and that our chief rivals, Invicta A, had done very well. One poor soul from Crawley had Bagged Up and on the way back in his whole bag was washed over the side; putting Crawley out of the running. Invicta B had only two fish from two anglers so we knew who was last and we eventually established that our Soldier Palmers competition only had 12 fish between them. We only had a two point lead over Invicta A at the start of the match but we also had a 29lb weight lead so Invicta had to do better than come two places above us, they also had to catch 29lb more fish than us. Every member of Invicta A would have had to bag Up to stop us winning promotion. In the end Invicta A only had 22 fish, which was good enough to put us into second place for the match but we topped group 3 by one point and Tony and Ron couldn't conceal their glee at having won through after so many last minute disappointments and frustrations or botched weigh ins during previous seasons.

The Trophy, which we will hand back next year, a more permanent plaque and winner's medals for all those that have fished for the team during the season were collected at the prize giving. The trophies and medals will be brought to the Secretaries cup for those that wish see them and the (not very impressive) medals will be presented to those that are due.

Well done to all those that have put so much effort over the last few seasons into getting into Group 2 again. Next thing is to stay there!