Bailiff’s Challenge Shield
Kindly sponsored by: The Trophy Shop, Hythe & Sonic Sports
The 12th – 14th August saw the inaugural Bailiff’s Challenge Shield, held on Lake Christine. Five pairs consisting of management, bailiffs and game-keepers competed against each other over the 36 hours of competition. The rules were simple. The swims were doubled up, the pairs were able to fish with one rod each and the winners would be the pair with the highest combined weight of carp.
The competition kicked off on the first evening with the draw for swims. Rich Skarden and Mitch Cole Bradbury must have thought they were in with a strong chance having drawn peg 2, which has traditionally been a favourite for competitions. But in challenging conditions on what was the warmest weekend of the year to date, first bite went to Paul “Mango” Manderson, fishing with Phill Hambrook, from peg 5. Within minutes of setting up Mango had landed this lovely 19lbs 1oz “leathery” Mirror;
19lbs 1oz and the competition is under way!!
And that was the way the weekend continued with peg 5 continuing to produce whilst everyone else struggled, despite fish aplenty showing on the surface. Friday night also produced the largest fish of the weekend, caught by Phill, weighing 31lbs 4oz and a new pb to boot, propelling their pairing into a lead that left everyone else playing catch-up!!
Phill Hambrook with his 31lbs 4oz Mirror – a new pb!!
The following day and a change of tactics saw Rich land his pair’s first fish weighing in at a mighty 11lbs and barely denting Paul and Phill’s lead. Next to land was Karl Eastley who, fishing from peg 3 with Karl Boden, made a slightly bigger dent into the lead with a 20lbs offering.
But Mango and Phill continued to increase their lead, with yet another offering landed by Phill, a beautiful 17lbs Mirror;
Phill Hambrook with his lovely 17lbs Mirror
But catches were as rare as hens teeth during a scorching saturday afternoon. Saturday evening saw a break in proceedings as everyone wound lines in, for an evening social with food very kindly provided by Kamala, Selena, Abi and Nikki. And what a fantastic spread it was!!
Relaxing in the shade after a tough days fishing!!
Back to the serious competition and Ben Brown and Darren Steed, fishing from peg 4 finally broke their duck with the a mirror landed by Ben and weighing in at 20lbs 8oz.
The final pairing of Steve Andrews and Gary Steed were still without a catch, but all that changed at 4am on the Sunday morning, when a craftily placed line into the reeds next to peg 1 finally paid dividends. However, it was not to be and despite Gary patiently playing the fish in, a yard and half from the net, he lost it!! As a consolation and with only minutes left on the clock, Steve did manage to land …
a bream!! But what a bream!!
Prizes:
The event was sponsored by the Trophy Shop, Hythe (http://www.kenttrophies.co.uk/) who supplied the competition shield and winners trophies and Sonic Sports (http://www.soniksports.com/ ) who also supported the event by kindly donating prizes.
There could be only one winning pair. Paul and Phill led from the off and, with a winning weight of 87lbs, were never in danger of being caught. However, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, their were a number of other prizes being competed for and which are listed below:
Competition Winners – Paul Manderson & Phill Hambrook (sponsors The Trophy Shop)
Largest carp – Phill Hambrook (sponsor Sonic Sports)
Smallest carp – Rich Skarden (sponsor Sonic Sports)
Quickest carp – Paul Manderson (sponsor Sonic Sports)
Largest Non-Carp – Steve Andrews (sponsor Sonic Sports)
Bailiffs Challenge Shield Winners – Phill Hambrook and Paul Manderson
Congratulations to Paul and Phill and a big thank you to everyone who helped make this inaugral event such a success and of course to everyone who took part for a great weekend. We look forward to next years event.
