Matty Barker will surely regain his crown soon and add a 4th to his previous 3 wins. He still has the class to win and a victory for him on Sunday would be no
surprise.
Chris Barker Senior
also known as the master returns after a year out in 2006 and will need all his skills to claim glory at Penvose. Big fish are crucial here and that could be his downfall but if the fish stop feeding for others, he could take advantage.
Rick Barker is the current champion after a good win at Retallack in 2006 and Porth 2005 and goes for the hat trick here. Just the fact that winning three in a row is enough to say his run could be ending on Sunday, but he has been ok in practice and he's the in form match angler at this period in time.
Bear Barker is still trying to end his long barren spell of never being champion. It's his 9th year now but he's been showing good strength in practice and starts as one of the favourites this time.
Jason Hoare on the other hand may struggle as he has had very little practice this season although he is dangerous when big fish are around...just like at Penvose.
Justin Metherell flopped last year and struggled in 2005 despite catching the biggest fish. He will be looking for the lake monsters on
match day but will most likely find one or two anglers too good in his stake for the title.
Sean Haley is in his second match after a tough start last year. He will hope to improve this time and along with his newcomer friend
Richard Tamblin, could get into the thick of the action here on Sunday.
Chris Gilbert is a last minute entry and an unknown quantity. He does have carp catching experience though we understand.
Naomi Gilbert [ Chris's gf ] is not the first female to enter the match. Jemma Girdler entered it in 2005. It
would be a massive surprise to see her beat everyone at Penvose but she could beat some perhaps..
HOURS 1-2
Matty Barker got off to his usual good start and quickly went into a good lead ahead of Rick and Chris Gilbert further down the lake. It was a slow start for Jason and CB Senior and it took Bear over an hour to register a fish but when it came it was big and he moved up with the leaders after 2 hours. Sean and Richard were not getting much as Naomi picked up plenty of smaller fish. Justin got his first fish after quite a wait but when it came it was a good size.
HOURS 3-4
As the match continued it was still Matty who led after hour 4 and was looking good now. Most of the pegs had dried up. Chris Gilbert was still catching though along with the odd fish for Naomi but for Rick, Bear, Jason, Sean and CB Senior, things were becoming a bit grim.
Meanwhile Justin had taken 2 good looking fish in the middle of the match which should see him make a challenge but poor old Richard Tamblin
couldn't seem to find the fish anywhere today.
FINAL HOUR
With the sun still shining bright and the match coming to a close it looked as though the match was over and probably heading Matty's way. However, there were a couple of things yet to happen that would turn the results right around. For Jason, Bear, Sean, Richard, CB Senior and Naomi the last hour
didn't produce a great deal for them. Rick though decided to chance it and stick a bite alarm on and fish ledgered meat on the far bank with 50 minutes left. This produced 4 carp and a lost fish. Matty
desperately looked for any last biters to add to his net as the timer began to run out. Chris Gilbert was still catching well in the margins on his worm bait and must surely be in the shake up at the end.
Incredibly with about 10 minutes to go, Justin hooked a big fish which he landed...was that the killer blow ? Then Rick hooked a good carp with 30 seconds left on the clock and needed 5 minutes after the whistle to land it. Frantic fishing right at the death but an exciting way to end the match. Now for the weigh in...click match review below...
REVIEW
Penvose was the venue for 2007 and the match produced a record 10 entries along with 80lb of fish between everyone by the end. Everyone caught some fish on a day where the sun sat high in the sky. The result ?...a new champion and plenty to look forward to for next seasons big event.
Justin Metherell
- 1st-Didnt think he had enough weight to trouble the leaders but as it turned out, he was one of the front runners for the whole match and needed just 4 good fish to help him to over 18lb. It was enough to win and with the biggest fish prize
as well [ Bear came close ] it was a day to remember for Justin after a couple of lacklustre efforts in previous years. White chocolate boilies did the trick and he'll look forward to his title defence next season. 9/10
Matty Barker - 2nd- Led all the way until the line when Justin pipped him. got his tactics right on the day, mainly on the long pole and outclassed the other anglers around him who seemed to struggle. It must have been agonising seeing the scales lifting Justins net
and just pipping him by 11oz which meant that's 4 years without the title
now. However, Matty does take the team title and a nice runners up trophy home ready for another crack next year. 9/10
Rick Barker - 3rd- Entered as the 05 and 06 champion and was quoted as saying ' i blew it ' after this match. With the end peg drawn and lots of water to fish, he should have possibly done better. Lost a lot of good fish and only started catching better fish when fishing fried meat to the island with about an hour to go. It was too little too late but still gave a good account of himself to beat quite a few of his closest rivals by some margin. 7/10
Chris Gilbert - 4th- A great debut from Chris who was a last minute entry. Did really well fishing the margins with worm, a tactic ignored by nearly everyone else and without the hole in his
keep net [ discovered after the match ] he could have finished a little closer to the front 2. It could be argued that he worked harder than any other angler, constantly on his feet swinging in fish. Should do well in the future.8/10
Bear Barker - 5th - The only highlight of his day was a big 5lb carp which he netted fairly early on but apart from that, once again, Bear struggled. Drawn next to Matty [ who caught plenty of fish all day ] maybe the pressure again told on him and all his good practice form was blown out of the window.
The joint favourite was beaten well and truly out of sight in the end. Where he goes from here is
anybody's guess. 4/10
Chris Barker Senior - 6th- The old master was another angler who maybe should have done slightly better on the day. Reaching double figures in weight was vital to be in the running but he
couldn't find the big fish. Drawn in the middle of the match pegs and the heat probably
didn't help him or the fact that he lost one or two decent fish. May feature better on some of the silver fish waters in future 5/10
Naomi Gilbert - 7th- She drew the hot stream peg where many anglers fancied their chances...if only they could draw it ! She did well to fish for 5 hours and beat some of the better anglers such as Sean and especially Jason. She will relish the chance to battle it out with Jemma Girdler at FM08 for the women's title !!! 6/10
Jason Hoare - 8th- It's hard to say where it went wrong. Perhaps it was his peg or the lack of practice before the day. Well whatever it was, Jason did not have a good day. Only 2 fish in 5 hours meant it was a day of mainly topping up his tan while the net remained mainly empty. He can do better than this and hopefully he will bounce back next season. 3/10
Sean Haley - 9th - Sean would have hoped for some more weight than his
measly 1lb but he seemed to struggle in the hot hot heat. He was clearly in trouble when the long walk to the toilet beckoned and while he was crapping ;) others were panning. Sean can still improve lots and he'll want to look forward now to next year rather than backwards. 3/10
Richard Tamblin - 10th- Another angler who'll maybe want to forget about his poor catch here but he can actually take a lot from this for the future and maybe help himself learn ready for another crack next year. He has had good catches before but on this day it certainly
didn't happen and he had to watch on as the silverware...went elsewhere. 2/10
Page last updated
on 15 / 7 / 2008