Winter League Round 8, - Sunday 24th February:
It was a close run thing in the Lower Basin with Len Hancock bagging the skimmers on pole and tip whilst Steve Whitehouse was consistently catching redfins on the short pole. At the whistle Steve's 12lb 5oz bag of roach was enough to pip Len by a single ounce. The pain for Len did not stop there as he also missed out on a £100 bonus as he was on the golden peg (I hope Len didn't lose any at the net!). Matt Sampson completed the expected Lower Basin podium shut out with albs of bits from peg 20 for 3rd place. The section win went to Adrian Hill with a 7lb 11oz bag of roach and Jack Crystal took the Junior victory with a creditable 2lbs 2ozs of silvers.
A section in the Dead Elms was trialed for the first time and Ady Larkins, returning after a winter break, won the Bird Hide/Elms section with 3lbs 14ozs of small rudd and roach taken on the long pole, beating Rob Fuller by 5ozs who also gave the bits a hammering off peg 42.
As a bonus everyone enjoyed an unusually warm February day with no blanks!
| Pos: | Angler | Lbs | ozs | Peg No. | Pts | |
| 1 | Steve Whitehouse | 12lbs | 5oz | 12 | 17 | |
| 2 | Len Hancock | 12lbs | 4oz | 18 | 16 | |
| 3 | Matt Sampson | 8lbs | 15oz | 20 | 15 | |
| 4 | Adrian Hill | 7lbs | 11oz | 13 | 14 | |
| 5 | Mark Gratton | 6lbs | 17 | 13 | ||
| 6 | Paul Drissell | 4lbs | 4oz | 14 | 12 | |
| 7 | Ady Larkins | 3lbs | 13oz | 51 | 11 | |
| 8 | Rob Fuller | 3lbs | 8oz | 42 | 10 | |
| 9 | Kevin Hill | 3lb | 5oz | 15 | 9 | |
| 10 | Simon Allen | 2lb | 13oz | 43 | 8 | |
| 1st (J) | Jack Crystal | 2lb | 2oz | 16 | 7 | |
| 11 | Paul Braund | 1lb | 9oz | 47 | 7 | |
| 12 | Dave Allen | 1lb 8oz | 52 | 6 | ||
| 13 | Mike Bowden | 1lb | 46 | 5 | ||
| 14 | Simon Hockaday | 13ozs | 53 | 4 | ||
| 15 | Tony Johns | 1oz | 45 | 3 | ||
| 16 | Jean Bowden | 0.5oz | 19 | 2 | ||
| Winter League Table | ||||||
| Pos: | Angler | No. Matches Fished | Pts | |||
| 1 | Adrian Hill | 8 | 98 | |||
| 2 | Paul Braund | 7 | 85.5 | |||
| 3 | Dave Allen | 8 | 84 | |||
| 4 | Steve Whitehouse | 8 | 83 | |||
| 5 | Rob Fuller | 7 | 79.5 | |||
| 6 | Len Hancock | 7 | 66.5 | |||
| 7 | Mark Gratton | 5 | 62.5 | |||
| 8 | Simon Hockaday | 8 | 62 | |||
| 9 | Mike Bowden | 8 | 61.5 | |||
| 10 | Jean Bowden | 8 | 51 | |||
| 11 | Simon Allen | 6 | 46 | |||
| 12 | Matt Sampson | 6 | 42.5 | |||
| 13 | Kevin Hill | 8 | 42 | |||
| 14 | Tony Hillas | 6 | 41 | |||
| 15 | Ady Larkins | 4 | 28 | |||
| 16 | Paul Drissell | 2 | 19 | |||
| 17 | Dick Turner | 1 | 16 | |||
| 18 | Trevor Vernalls | 1 | 14 | |||
| 1st | Jack Crystal (J) | 5 | 11 | |||
| 19 | Derek Foster | 3 | 5 | |||
| 20 | Wayne Burnard | 2 | 4 | |||
| 21 | Tony Johns | 1 | 3 | |||
| =22 | Peter Giles | 1 | 1 | |||
| =22 | Nathan Underwood | 1 | 1 | |||
| =22 | Colin Abbott | 1 | 1 |