WALSALL West Midland¹s based Wayne Mellings
clinched the £2000 cheque and his place in the Skol Masters
12-man final with a 35 point return in the five day White Acres Skol
Masters Festival. In a week when many star names dropped points left
right and centre Wayne was alone in achieving one point short of a
maximum and his efforts also earned him Bill Knott's Man of The Match
prize of Preston Innovations gear. Wayne kicked off his charge with
a section win at Bolingey with 24-12-0 of carp from peg 7 after adopting
a crumb feeder approach.
Pollawyn's peg 22 saw a second day lake win for the 35-year-old constable
who has been with the West Midland's force 12-years stationed at Wednesbury,
after he poled meat at 16 metres to the island for 64-13-0 of carp
to 9lb. After struggling for three hours on canal lake's peg 11 Wayne's
belief that the fish would come late proved correct and he put together
eight pastie carp for 20-0-0 worth a section second.
Gwinear's peg 57 on the penultimate day proved tough slipping to a
section fourth with three carp for 15-3-0 forming his dropped result.
Wayne went to Porth on the final day knowing he needed to be in the
top three of his section to make the Grand Final and he pulled it
off with 14-9-0 of skimmers on the tip to claim another section win
his week's efforts adding another £300 in pools monies to his
main cheque. "I have had a brilliant week," said Wayne,
"I don't think I could have done any more than I did in the final
even though I lost two big carp that might have proved decisive they
just tore off round the island before I could release the line clip,"
he reflected.
Preston Innovations star Des Shipp nicked the runner-up slot and £900
cheque with 34 points edging Kieron Rich into third with a superior
weight of 254-15-0 to 216-3-0. Bottles of champagne were provided
in addition to the cash prizes for the top 15 anglers in the festival
and another six lucky recipients received cheques for £100 in
the mystery weight draw.
BEN'S BLAST OFF
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Ben Leach who broke
the Gwinear match record with a whopping 294lb |
FORMER White Acres match record holder Ben Leach, the first man to
surpass the 200 lb barrier on the Pollawyn pool, nearly became the
first man to break the 300 lb barrier when he blasted away the Gwinear
match record with 294-0-0 worth £100 as the biggest winning
weight of the week. Bagger Ben from Bath, drew fancied peg 31 on the
end of the island and hooked carp from start to finish in the 5-hour
contest on day three of the Festival.
"I had the first bite after about ten seconds then it was an
8-pounder a chuck thereafter," said Ben who made the most of
the massive head of the venues fat mirrors gathered over his chopped
worm, caster and corn feed. "It was easy fishing really but I
lost four or five at the net and I know I could and should have had
that 300 lb," reflected 21-year-old Daiwa Dorking grouped Ben.
A Daiwa Spectron pole fitted with black Hydrolastic, 0.19 mm Preston
Innovations Powerline direct, a 4x14 PI series C float and size 14
Kamasan B911 hook comprised Ben's record breaking gear.
BIGGEST FISH
Keith Vaughan claimed the £50 cheque for the biggest fish of
the festival with a 13 lb 7 oz Bolingey beast.
