Eric Rimmer Memorial Match 2009

The long awaited inaugural Eric Rimmer Memorial Match was held on the Match Lake on Sunday 8th Feb. Such was Eric's popularity that the match was a sell out with 30 anglers booked in to fish, anglers travelling from as far afield as Yorkshire and the midlands to pay their respects, unfortunately due to one no show it left 29 of us to compete for the new trophy. Everybody hoped that Eric would provide us with some good weather to fish the match but being the joker he was, he decided that drizzle, rain, precipitation and sub zero temperatures would be the order of the day. Nice one Eric!! Eric's favourite peg on the Match Lake was always peg 23 and it is on that peg that his memorial bench has been placed. There was a shocked silence when peg 23 was drawn as the Golden Peg for the day and when Llew Spink drew the very same peg you could hear the wind whistling eerily through the trees. Llew was one of Eric's best mates and he was visibly shaken at the coincidence. Being a silver fish match light lines and tackle were the order of the day, but with some good weights of roach reported in practise sessions hopes were high of a good competition.. Within an hour of the start of the match it was obvious that this was going to be a hard match with bites being as rare as hens' teeth. With both members of the Heaps' family on pegs 6 and 7 and catching fairly regularly it seemed at this stage that Scott on peg 6 was going to run away with the match, fishing fluoro pinkies over a bed of hemp he seemed to have found the method on the day catching 1oz roach at regular intervals. All good things come to an end however and he struggled along with the rest of us as the day progressed. The dam wall end which has produced some good weights recently was not the place to be today, Neil Morgan who can normally catch 30lb from a damp sponge was having his wings clipped on peg 15. Gadger, on peg 4 was having a whale of a time catching carp, his final tally was six, pity they didn't count Graham but at least you had a bit of sport! Paul French was having a bit of a busmans' holiday on peg 9, he spends his whole working week watching paint dry and then had to pay for the privilege today. Thankfully the end of the match was looming and with Scott's swim dying rapidly, it became obvious that the winners were coming from the canal bank and road bank, with Dark Horse (Keith Moore), Jonathan Davis and Ritchie Hogan all catching small roach at regular intervals. The weigh in began as usual with the low numbered pegs, with ten dry nets reported it wasn't going to take long. Scott on peg 6, after a promising start managed to bring 2lb12oz to the scales, surprisingly this weight was in the lead until Ritch Hogan weighed in 3lb 14oz on peg 19. Three pegs away Andy Phyillis accumulated 3lb of small roach . All eyes were on Llew Spink on peg 23, could he win the match from Eric's peg? Unfortunately he weighed in 2lb 3oz robbing him of a perfect result and the Golden Peg jackpot. By now it was obvious that the winner was coming from the road bank when Jonathan Davis weighed 4lb7oz from peg 24, a catch of small roach caught on bread punch followed by pinkies later in the match. Jonathan was certain he had been pipped for the win by Dark Horse two pegs away on peg 26, this proved to be the case when Keith weighed in a net of roach, all caught on pinkies for a winning weight of 5lb1oz to take the Eric Rimmer Memorial Trophy and £100 in pools money. All in all, not the best days fishing but a list of excuses are listed below, take your pick: - Full Moon the previous night - Road salt entering the lakes - Low temperatures - Northerly wind It was a pleasure to see Eric's two sons, John and Andrew in attendance, not the best days fishing for you both but hope to see you back in the future. Final Results: 1st Keith Moore peg 26 5lb1oz £100 2nd Jonathan Davis peg 24 4lb 7oz £70 3rd Ritch Hogan peg 19 3lb 14oz £60 4th Bob Marsh peg 27 3lb 2oz £50 5th Andy Phyllis peg 22 3lb0oz £40 6th Scott Heaps peg 6 2lb12oz £20 My apologies to Ritch for accidentally cropping him out of the photo. Keith's apology for holding the trophy the wrong way round. Thankfully Keith is back from his globetrotting adventures in New Zealand and Hong Kong so normal service will be resumed from next weekend. He asked me not to mention that he has been "fluff chucking" on the other side of the world so I won't. Welcome back Keith, over to you.

 

< Prev