Bob Atton Trophy Match returns to the club after over twenty years away….

Today saw this impressive trophy, return from the dark and be fished for, in what use to be one of the biggest events in our clubs match calendar.

I was blown away by the support shown for this event, for me personally it was heart warming to see people that had fished for it all those years ago, coming back and trying to get their names on the trophy. Many of the older lads were talking about their past memories of the event and we even had the likes of John Harper, who won it three times (he likes to make sure you all know that lol) showing his old newspaper clippings of him holding the trophy.

As expected unfortunately Manor fished very very hard. Out of the 34 Angers present, only three people caught fish. (it did make my weigh in nice and easy though).

The night before the match Nigel Kuhn helped me with the pegging. It is worth mentioning that this venue is a wild, natural water. The job Nigel does in keeping this place looking amazing is unbelievable. He is defiantly one of the unsung heroes of the club and the work he does behind the scenes, is priceless.

It would not feel right to do this write up without telling you a quick story about Nigel.

On the day, after the match having weighed in 30 of the 34 Anglers and up to this point, first place was currently 3 oz with one fish. I bumped into Nigel on my way to weigh his section in. I said ” How have you got on mate” to which Nigel replied ” Rubbish mate just had a couple of roach”. Noticing that Nigel had got all his tackle with him and was on his way back to the car i said ” For the love of god, please tell me you did not tip them back” to which he confirmed he had, as he didn’t think it would be anywhere near enough. In reality by tipping back those few fish Nigel would have won £250……. I will leave you all to figure out the moral of the story here.

The overall match was won my my good mate Terrence Gough, who managed to find a few nice perch and roach from the deeper nursing home side. He ended up putting just over 5lb on the scales and won himself the £500 first place but more importantly got his name forever on the trophy.

Second place went to David Bailey who had a lovely 1lb plus roach and a few other fish for just over 2lb picking up £350

Third place and probably most remarkable was Ben speak, whos one lone 3oz roach bagged him the £250 third place.

After the match we all headed back to Branston Cricket club, who again were amazingly kind and accommodating for the presentation where our Chairman Mr Dave Fern, did another amazing job presenting the winners with there money and and trophy.

A very hard but still very enjoyable day at the office…

BMAA says:

Wow, when will the weather just settle and decide what it is doing one way or another. It seems like no matter where we fish at the minute, the fishing is just generally very poor. Hopefully when we get some consistent frost, things will settle back down and we can return to a form of normality, in regards to the fishing.

When we decided to put these matches on this year, we were already half way through the year. In this time as a club we have achieved a hell of a lot. in under a year we have held the Renwick Rose Bowl, we have started the Cuttlebrook winter league which is currently half way through, we have the Dawes Tankard being fished for on our canal next month and then we have this Trophy the Bob Atton. Yes, i think it is fair to say that it was too late in the year for Manor to fish well, obviously i dont think any of us expected it to be quite as hard as it was. But that was not the reason for putting it on. We decided to push the event through this year just so we could get this grand trophy back out.

It was some what disappointing that out of the original 44 anglers who were down to fish only 34 fished on the day. Many had valid excuses, however some of you did not and it did not go unnoticed and in the future there will be more stringent rules in regards to paying for matches in respect to these individuals.

Enough of the doom and gloom. The event is back along with all the others mentioned above. Next year we can grow on the matches as a club and do even more. This can not be achieved however, without your on going support. I do not just mean pay paying on and joining in with these matches. I also mean by getting involved and helping out on work parties, spreading the posts and news of our club. Sharing our videos from you tube and more importantly having an input. If you think there are things we can do better when it comes to the matches, or if you would like to see a particular trophy come back  or have an idea about a new match concept, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

As a club and committee we should stand united, work alongside each other, what ever your fishing discipline is. To make beneficial changes that benefit us all as members.

Thanks Folks and tight lines…..