Holt SAC 2020 Xmas Fayre and Town Team Challenge (Report)

Sunday 20th December 2020 - Kelling

 

 

 

Holt SAC’s Xmas Fayre & Town Team Challenge Open and Bumphrey Shield Club match was held at KELLING via Muckleburgh Collection on SUNDAY 20TH DECEMBER fishing 10:00-3:00 HW 10:39 4.2m.  With Ipswich Sea Anglers’ Xmas Fayre on the same day and Lincolnshire in Tier 3 meant a serious reduction in the number booked in for this one.  With the regular contingents from Lincolnshire and Suffolk away the majority of the field was made up of Holt SAC members plus 4 non-member individuals giving a turn-out of 21.  A higher number than was expected and sufficient number of competitive anglers to make this a very enjoyable and tight session.

 

Draw was via a drive thru at Muckleburgh Collection’s main gate using the Club’s tried and tested Covid-19 procedures which included a temperature check of everyone plus match fees in sealed envelopes placed in a quarantine box.  Many thanks again to Tom Gibbs and Kevin Green for administrating the draw which they are getting pretty efficient at now, thank you!  With everyone arriving in a staggered fashion all were soon scooting off to the parking area and their drawn pegs with little or no gathering, thank you all!

 

Pegging for this one was two Zones with Zone A from the middle of small cliff in front of the parking area west towards the block house near Kelling Hard and Zone B east in front of the remainder of the small cliff towards the wreck but well short of it.  Many thanks to Henry Randell accompanied by Jake Cooper for the pegging and taking that chore away from yours truly.

 

Forecast for the day was no dampness, broken clouds and a light to moderate southerly with a bit of east at the start and for once they had got it spot on.  Almost flat calm with the occasional very small swell rolling in but plenty of colour to entice the Whiting inshore a bit.  Fishing the last throws of the flood and the ebb on a small tide meant no chasing the tide apart from probably the last hour of the match.

 

Once parked everyone was soon on their pegs with very little gathering for banter, many thanks to all for doing this.  With the tide near top there was only one choice for setting up and that was on top of the shingle bank, avoinding the mistakes of the previous Sunday.  At the whistle all were soon in Kelling mode with the expectations of Whiting and Dabs coming fast and the majority opted for the 40 to 60 yards chuck with the odd one clipping down and blasting it.  As expected rods started nodding immediately where bites could be detected and as previous Sunday Kevin Green (Peg 8) was first to record at 10:05, probably got a very accurate timepiece.  A good 27cm Whiting to kick off his card and not too far out and this kicked off a busy exhausting session for him.  Within minutes others were following suit with Whiting and the odd Dab in single and double shots.  For the majority it was the same for that first hour although one or two did take a wee while to get started.

 

A good tide flowing at this stage and it certainly helped to bring the through.  Unfortunately, this brought a little annoying weed to jam up the leader knot but not a major problem.  The next couple of hours saw the fish increase slightly with triple shots of Whiting being record.  Not huge Whiting but most certainly bigger than those the previous Sunday at Cley.  Surprisingly, not many undersize Whiting just the odd one and just a few more miniature Dabs but not bad considering previous recent matches on the shingle.  Pretty hectic at this stage with continuous bait up, cast, retrieve and record.  10-15 minute cast seem to be the norm and it was said you could get away with 4 minute casts and have a treble shot on.

 

We all knew it was not going to last and sure enough as the tide started to ease in the 4th hour of the match fish numbers stated to decrease and so did the quality of the fish.  The Whiting eased off or more than likely the tide was not bringing so many through although they were still being recorded.  This situation gave the Dabs chance to find our bait and generally being permanent fixed to the sea bed they were more resident than the Whiting.  This certainly led to cards being filled up with multiple Dabs and as usually happens at this state of the tide they weren’t very big but most sizeable (18cm) with a few long scrawly buggers but good points.

 

The final hour saw the tide picking up a bit and although we were getting close to bottom the Whiting started to appear again probably enticed in by the setting sun and diminishing bright light.  Although it seems the Dabs were there thick and fast with the back end of the cards full of their entries.  Even so if you hadn’t picked up enough entries on your card in the first 3 hours it was too late to try and do catch up towards the end unless you were onto a bonus fish or two.  Unfortunately there were no such fish in this match so those efforts at the start were going to be rewarded.

 

At the whistle there was only one winner who was tirelessly recording fish all match, repeating his success of previous match and that was England International HENRY RANDELL (Peg 21).  Using his extensive knowledge of this beach to fish close and by doing so increased his casting rate against those around him to record 12lb 1oz (579 points) from 67 fish and the only person to use the continuation card, winning £50 (Super Pool).  These comprised of 46 Dabs, 21 Whiting and 1 Rockling.  Runner-up was again the same as previous Sunday with lucky end peg 24 and that was BEVAN SELF with 10lb 14 1/3oz (523 points) from 45 fish comprising of 30 Whiting and 15 Dabs winning £30 (Super Pool).  In total contrast to Henry he was fishing at distance which helped him pick up some good Whiting with one of 38cm and 40 points on his card although at the end he had to rely almost solely on small Dabs like everyone else.  Final podium position went to KEVIN GREEN (Peg 8) with 9lb 5 2/3oz from 46 fish comprising 24 Whiting and 22 Dabs, winning £20 (Super Pool).  Finding some good Whiting at relatively close range in the first 2 hours left him exhausted but keeping hi bionic legs going in the soft shingle he found a 37cm Whiting worth 37 Points just before halfway and like the rest a raft of 8 smallish Dabs towards the end.

 

The Heaviest Flat was a 30cm (10 2/3oz) Dab shared by CARL EVES (Peg 18) and TONY THOMAS (Peg 11) sharing £20 and Heaviest Round a 38cm (13 1/3oz) Whiting taken by BEVAN SELF (Peg 24) winning £20.  Altogether 807 (424 Dabs, 275 Whiting, 7 Rockling and 1 Flounder) were recorded weighing 162lb 7oz.

 

For this match there no winnings apart from Super Pool for the Overall winners, instead the two zones were treated as two separate matches with pay out down to 4th place in each Zone.  Zone A was taken by KEVIN GREEN (Peg 8) with 449 points from 46 fish and winning £70.  Runner-up was LEON SMITH (Peg 5) with 413 points from 43 fish winning £45.  Third place went to JAKE COOPER (Peg 7) with 393 points from 39 fish winning £35 and fourth in Zone was TONY THOMAS (Peg 11) with 370 points from 38 fish winning £25.

 

Zone B was taken by the Overall winner HENRY RANDELL (Peg 21) with 579 points from 67 fish winning £70, followed by BEVAN SELF (Peg 24) with 523 points from 45 fish winning £45.  Zone third was JOE BETTINSON (Peg 19) with 414 points from 32 fish winning £35 and fourth was RICHARD HIPPERSON (Peg 20) with 393 points from 45 fish winning £25.

 

This match was also the Town Team Challenge which this year because of reduced numbers comprised of just 5 teams.  The team members were selected by Holt SAC committee placing each booked angler in a town team closed to their abode with one or two exceptions.  Each team comprised of 4 members where the total each members Zone position would make up the team’s score.  Any team with five members would have worst score dropped.  The Team with the lowest Zones total would be declared the winners.  No winnings in this one just the Holt SAC Town Team Challenge Shield and of course bragging rights!

 

It was a close contest this year with NORWICH on 17 penalty pointsjust pipping HOLT on 19 points.  The Norwich Team comprised of KEVIN GREEN ( 1 Point), RICHARD HIPPERSON ( 4 points), TOM GIBBS ( 5 points) and ALAN DOY ( 7 points).  Full result below.

 

Another cracking match on the shingle at Kelling with plenty of Whiting and Dabs which made it very competitive with many very close results.  Not a lot of quality fish and no bonus fish so it was the catch rate that was the differentiator in this one,  when the fish are there you just need to keep catching.  Finding fish close in was important as getting that extra cast in to your neighbouring peg man could mean another 3 fish.  Yes! A typical top match at Kelling

 

With Norfolk now in Tier 4 looks like this will be the last Open and Club match for a few weeks.  As soon as these restrictions are lifted it will probably mean that we’ll be again running two North Norfolk NSL rounds on consecutive Sundays to prevent any congestion in the league.

Happy New Year and please Stay Safe!!! … Tony T

 

Top 10 Individuals (on the day) …

1...Henry Randell......12lb.1oz ……….(67 Fish) (Peg 21)

2…Bevan Self…………..10lb 14 1/3oz...(45 Fish) (Peg 24)

3...Kevin Green.………...9lb 5 2/3oz.....(46 Fish) (Peg  8)

4...Joe Bettinson.........8lb.10oz..........(32 Fish) (Peg 19)

5...Leon Smith…..........8lb.9 2/3oz……(43 Fish) (Peg  5)

6=.Richard Hipperson..8lb.3oz………….(45 Fish) (Peg 20)

6=.Jake Cooper...........8lb.3oz….........(39 Fish) (Peg  7)

8...Mark Gooch…………...8lb.0oz……..(41 Fish) (Peg 23)

9=.Carl Eves...............7lb.14 2/3oz..(34 Fish) (Peg 18)

9=.Tony Thomas.........7lb.11 1/3oz…(38 Fish) (Peg 11)

 

Top 5 Zone Individuals (on the day) …

Zone A

1...Kevin Green.………...9lb 5 2/3oz.....(46 Fish) (Peg  8)

2...Leon Smith…..........8lb.9 2/3oz……(43 Fish) (Peg  5)

3...Jake Cooper...........8lb.3oz….........(39 Fish) (Peg  7)

4...Tony Thomas.........7lb.11 1/3oz…..(38 Fish) (Peg 11)

5...Tom Gibbs…...........7lb.5 1/3oz..….(33 Fish) (Peg  1)

 

Zone B

1...Henry Randell.......12lb.1oz ………..(67 Fish) (Peg 21)

2…Bevan Self………..…..10lb 14 1/3oz..(45 Fish) (Peg 24)

3...Joe Bettinson.........8lb.10oz.........(32 Fish) (Peg 19)

4...Richard Hipperson..8lb.3oz……….….(45 Fish) (Peg 20)

5...Mark Gooch…………..8lb.0oz……..…..(41 Fish) (Peg 23)

 

Town Team Challenge result …

1…NORWICH…………………………17 points

………………...KEVIN GREEN (1)

………………...RICHAED HIPPERSON (4)

………………...TOM GIBBS (5)

………………...ALAN DOY (7)

2…HOLT………………………………..19 points

………………...HENRY RANDELL (1)

………………...TONY THOMAS (4)

………………...CARL EVES (6)

………………...BILLY TEMPLE (8)

3…GT. YARMOUTH………………….24 points

………………...BEVAN SELF (2)

………………...MARCH GOOCH (5)

………………...NEIL SMART (8)

………………...GARY MEDLER (9)

4…DISS………………………………..25 points

………………...JOE BETTINSON (3)

………………...MIKE TOPPING (6)

………………...CHARLIE FRARY (7)

………………...JUNE FRARY (9)

…………………JACK TOPPING (10)  dropped score

5…ELY………………………………….26 points

………………...LEON SMITH (2)

………………...JAKE COOPER (3)

………………...JOHN CARTER (10)

………………...PAUL HARVEY (11)

 

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