28/03/26 - DDAS Juniors Senior/Junior Pairs Match, Hillview Lake, Todber Manor.

Graham Howard
Mar 29
7 min read

Unlike the Christmas match last year, the Senior/Junior Pairs Match which marked the official end of events with DDAS, didn’t really pull on the emotions too much. It was kind of nice that I was the last angler to be weighed in at a DDAS Juniors event and, do you know what? I flippin’ deserved it too… All the hours, all the stress, the conflict, disagreements, the joy, anguish and sleepless nights, all came to an end with a mediocre performance by a once good angler. I say that in truth because, with the juniors, I have always promoted the fact that it doesn’t matter where you finish. As long as you have tried your best and no one can argue with that. I tried hard for my teammate today and found a few fish at the end. Although I felt happy, 40lb in the last hour left me with a head full of ‘what if’s’?

The car said 3°C as I drove through the country lanes to Todber. It was going to be a cold one for sure, but it was the wind I was most concerned about. Hillview lake on a windy day is not the place to be if you don’t like the discomfort of being cold. There is nowhere to hide and despite having the ‘warmer pegs’, it was still very cold by the end.

This was a fair way removed from the flat calm millpond that greeted Nice Bloke Tim and I when we set out the peg numbers. With two dropping out for the start, we had plenty of room to spread the pegs around the lake.

Because of the spaces, I was asked if ‘a bloke’ could occupy one of those that we were not using. The Bloke was Roy Worth, an angling supremo at many waters and hardcore wind-up merchant of the midweek anglers at Revels. It would be Roy that offered some mid-match entertainment which was not of his choosing…

I arrived early to set up our brand-new Jurassic Juniors flags and banners so everyone would see them as they drove to the lake. They looked resplendent in the spring sunshine, and I am very pleased with them. The wind had other thoughts however and decided that the banners looked better folded facedown on the ground. The flags would later join them in a laydown protest as the wind reached ‘Gale Force Holy Mother of God!’… I hope it was the wind and not just because I’ve purchased lazy flags…

Being a competitor in the match, I can only give you my viewpoint from my peg. So here goes…

Peg 1 & 2: Team Quietly Sponsored, Jack & Dave Copp.

Peg 3 & 4: Team Wind Swept, Seth & Ollie Hopkins.

Peg 5 & 6: Team Tinned Soup, Freddie & Aaron Campbell

Peg 7 & 8: Team Abacus Haircut, Kenzie Toulson & Tim Broughton.

Peg 9 & 10: Team Pink Pony Club, Mia & John Evans.

Peg 11 & 12: Team Lunchbreak, Alexander Adey & Lloyd Richards.

Peg 13 & 14: Vacant.

Peg 15 & 16: Team Woodland Redneck, Austin Scott-Kennedy & Neil Haine.

Peg 17 & 18: Team NHS Helpline, George Ellis & Graham Howard.

Your fine brace of coaching manhood today was, a full-time Si Wagner and halftime substitute, Jon Bass. Last minute substitution Chris Ward was brought on in the 98th minute with his delightful granddaughter, Harriet. More about her later.

The wind was starting to make itself felt by the time we all got to our positions. The wind had already taken care of the banners, and I feared for the flags. I need not have worried for long. The wind took care of those too.

The wind also took care of my pole on a number of occasions and even blew my rollers over at one point. This can be fatal for poles which is why V-rollers are virtually extinct now-a-days. I thought about weighing the rollers down with something heavy. But, Neil wouldn't lend me his wallet so I had to make do.

I nailed everything down as best I could and walked up to George to give him a last-minute team encouragement. I filled him with good thoughts and encouragement. Apparently, Neil filled Austin with threats to his future chances of being able to provide his parents with grandchildren. Each to their own…

I blew the starty whistle at 10.25 and with in minutes, my tip hooped round with an angry 3oz skimmer. Not what I wanted. I caught a second, then a third. No, No, NO! The fish hadn’t read the script! They knew we had practiced in the week. Why didn’t they get the memo?

20-minutes in a few people had caught Mud-Pigs and Skimbobs, then my tip whacked round with a 3lb Carp… Here we go…

Then nothing…

As I have stated, I couldn’t see all the lake. But I did see poor Seth on the point getting a right kicking from the wind. He had to be on the most exposed peg, surely…

He wasn’t…

Unbeknown to me, Lloyd and Alexander were in the teeth of it. So much so that I wondered at the end if Alexander had suffered the same fate as the flags? Had they just laid him down for his own safety? As you will see by the pictures, it was so windy that it blew Alexanders face clean off his head! Now that's windy!

Alexander had employed the same match strategy as the Christmas match and simply cleared off to the restaurant!

By now I had resorted to catching silvers thinking I needed to do something to contribute to our combined score. My mood wasn’t helped by dropping off two ‘Good Roach’ through being hasty and impatient with the swinging. I switched to ‘Mr Canal Angler’ and netted everything I hooked until my confidence was regained.

I regained enough to snare a second small Carp on meat at 4-metres out. Any further than that and I risked turning into a windmill, or at least there would be the bone shudderingly awful sound of expensive splintering carbon.

At around halfway, I hooked my best fish of the day, a 12lb+ fish that spat the hook at the net. I may have mumbled some terrible oaths to that fish, but I want it to know that it was in the heat of the moment, and no one should endure that kind of abuse! Man, or fish…

George was having a great time, and I heard lots of laughter coming from both he and Ed. I relaxed more when I heard that because it wasn’t about the winning anymore. I’d told George to have fun and enjoy his day, and he was. What more could one need?

I refocused and, after a little chat with coach Wagner, decided to rethink my strategy. Apparently, Mia was hoofing in fistfuls of ground bait and getting bites. I would do the same without the fistfuls bit.

An overly wetted ground bait went in the margin with a meat bait fished over the top.

I waited…

Chris and Harriet arrived, and we had a quick chat during which I asked/begged Harriet for some luck.

It worked as a big old lump slid over my landing net rim. I wouldn’t need too many of those to catch up. I had 65-minutes left…

Harriet was instructed to 'Stay!' as I went back in. I had another! 18lbs in two fish.

Sadly they had to go with 10-minutes left, and I only caught one more afterwards.

Even Ed tried to stop them from leaving!!!

The entertainment of the day was Roy on the spare peg. During a chat with Jon Bass, a shout went up and we were confused as to why? Roy, being absent from his box, had removed the stabilising weight holding it down. Like a Lemming, it decided that it was all too much and hurled itself into the lake with the help of a particularly strong gust of wind. I don’t think anything was lost other than the prevention of Roy’s blushes to the roar of laughter from the guys on the match lake behind us.

By the end we had all taken a battering. The wind was in the north-west and travelling at 40-mph. It was brutal. At one point I was shaking so much I thought I dancing! I packed away as quickly as I could and wandered round to follow the scales. There were some good weights on the spit. I made lots of friends by remarking that it ‘wasn’t as windy over here as it looked from over there’…

Several scowling faces looked away in disgust as Tim went over in his net by just 9ozs.

Sadly for Tim and Kenzie, the penalty was 10lbs. It would cost them a win by a poultry 3lbs, but rules is rules…

The weights varied as we went around the lake. Tim was the first senior to go over the limit in his net, but he would not be the last. Tim had miss judged by 9ozs. Lloyd muffed it up by 26lbs! And he’s a teacher!!!

Naughty Lloyd….

Neil and Austin had done enough to secure another win for Austin and more trophies, but it was Neil’s first ever match and the first time he’d ever used keep nets!

Well done both…