Our 2006 Annual Outing match, for the RS Kirkland Memorial Cup, was held at Woodland View (near Droitwich), and once again it proved to be an excellent day out, both for food, sport, amusement and competition.

The 24 anglers (numbers were down due to work commitments, holidays and sickness)started the day with an excellent breakfast at Woodlands excellent site restaurant, before making the draw for match pegs on Hay and Barley Lakes at the top end of the complex.  Pairs were drawn so that each pair had an angler fishing each lake, and as each lake had a capacity for 20 anglers, the pegging was arranged so that every angler had an adjacent spare peg.

Except when Martin Wheilden fell in  whilst retrieving his 'top two' (taken to the far bank by a fish which took his bait at his feet when he had his umbrella in one hand and the remainder of his pole in the other hand), the match went without a hitch (except for three sharp rain showers), and every angler caught plenty of fish from the well stocked lakes.  Although the top weights were dominated by carp in the 3 to 4 lb size range, there were also smaller carp, rudd, roach, bream and perch in abundance.

Three of the top four sat quite close together on 'Barley', and enjoyed a fish for fish battle throughout the match, with the lead changing several times.  All three caught mainly from the margins with sweet corn bait, and on the final whistle Gary Humphries (Barley 14) was a clear winner with 83 lb 9 oz.  Dave Kent (Barley 12) took second place with 73 lb 8 oz, with Paul Richardson fourth (Barley 18) with 64 lb 4 oz.

Meanwhile on the other lake, Hay, the difference between the top anglers was very tight, and at the end Ron Stacey (Hay 18) took third overall in the match with 65 lb 4 oz after a final hour run of bigger fish on corn down his left margin.  Malc Chamberlain  (Hay 12) managed 61 lb 11 oz of mainly a smaller stamp of fish for fifth overall, and Ray Ketcher (Hay 18) took sixth with 59 lb 3 oz.

With the top four making the 'main money', section winners were on Hay Brian Leafe 55 lb 4 oz and Malc Chamberlain 61 lb 11 oz, and on Barley, Neil Stephenson 57 lb 3 oz and Nigel Brailsford  (in a golden run of form) 53 lb 10 oz.

The winning pair was Gary Humphries and Tony Billington with a total of 131 lb 10 oz.

The after-match meal was an excellent 'finger buffet' again served at the on site restaurant, when Martin Wheildon (christened on the bank Mark Spitsz) and dried out, was warned by the fishery owner that he should havce purchased a swimming ticket in advance.......