An excellent report as always on Bideford Angling Clubs Match Season from Martin Turner.

https://www.northdevonanglingnews.co.uk/2020/05/31/bideford-angling-club/

2020 Bideford and District Angling Club Coarse Section Match Secretary Report :

As I sit here another 1500 deaths in the UK has been announced on the news, I can only reflect on how lucky we were to have been able to have fished some of our scheduled events:

Our calendar opened with a trip to Morchard Road , this small venue rarely fails to produce and Keith Copland took the honours on a cold windswept day with an impressive 50lb net. February’s comp was held at Millpark , I almost cancelled as we were in the eye of storm “Ciara” ,the normally prolific water fished very hard in the difficult conditions , John Lisle mastered it on the day with a nice net of chub and carp. The March event went ahead on Wooda Lakes ,although we didn’t know at the time, we were staring down the barrels of a Covid 19 lockdown. My 55lb net was enough for victory , our youngest competitor Thomas Scott came home second.

Our worst fears were confirmed shortly after this and we didnt meet up again until the beginning of June, I tentatively arranged an evening sweepstake on Tarka , 13 turned up and David Bailey showed us how to do it with 20lb in the 3 hours. Aware that it was possible to fish matches in a safe manner I decided to run the Evening Series. Keith Copland led early stages with Tyler Scott close behind , Matt Cross won the second with David Bailey winning the third with 20lb from peg 19. Peg 2 produced the winner in match 4 for Martin Hawker, although Keith Mountjoy’s ,soft pellet approach, second place saw him begin to take command of the league at the halfway stage. Britney Shears won the next 2, almost ‘full house ‘ evening comps . Richard Jefferies , ‘yank and bank’ BDAC pest control officer put 18lb on the scales to win number 7. The final match in the foreshortened series included the pairs match, was fished on July 28th,we almost ran out of daylight but the conclusion was a victory in the pairs for Thomas Scott and Kev Shears with a combined total of 27lb 11oz .

My second overall on the night ensured victory in the overall standings 73 points to Keith Mountjoy 60 ,Kev Shears 56.

The Wednesday Evening Series again proved very popular with an average of 20 members turning up per match, the average catch 6.7 lb compared to 3.1 lb in 2019 , a great improvement , testament to the fantastic efforts of our fishery management team.

Our Monthly matches restarted in June on Tarka, Keith Mountjoy scored a victory with 20lb 10oz , young member Tyler Scott was a close second with 19lb 3oz. The July and August Competition saw veteran Colin Cherrington banished the Tarka jinx with 30lb nets to win both.

John West’s men from Plymouth Club came up for a rescheduled one leg interclub match, It was agreed that ,as we weren’t able to accommodate them on Tarka ,we would challenge them on Stuart Sharpe’s Wooda Lakes .The prolific fishery didn’t disappoint and BDAC ran out convincing winners 407lb to PDCAC 203lb . Bidefords Matt Cross showed us his catch and release technique with an empty 3rdkeepnet allowing winner Brintey to sneak in with 74lb off lake 1 , Captain John was top scorer for Plymouth with 67lb .

September’s comp back on Tarka was attended by 23 anglers , Kev Shears prevented Colin from the hat-trick but Mr Cherrington won the October match which proved to be our last match of 2020, with another 30lb net, this time off peg 12.

The final points in the 8 match series : Martin Turner 74 Steve Bailey and Colin Cherrington 47 Richard Jefferies 46 .

Our thanks must again go to all those people who made it possible for us to enjoy our sport .

I hope you are all staying safe and lets hope we can get together again very soon , wishing you all a Happy New Year.

Martin , Match Secretary.