How to Enter Rules Venues/Results Semi Finals The Final Team Event

Brooklands The complex has been under DDAPS control since the early 1930s and was one of the early pioneering waters of modern carp fishing. Carp have been there from the early days! For those who have not visited this 17 acre gravel pit complex for a while there have been some dramatic changes to the landscape. This venue could turn out to be a busy one for the anglers and the marshals and the BCAC are proud to be visiting a piece of carp anglings history. www.ddaps.org   CURRENT MOON moon phases Pre-Match 2008 sees the BCACs second visit to one of the historic waters of carp fishing. Many a carp angler cut their teeth here in the 70s and Brooklands recently has undergone a bit of a transformation. Virtually all of the snags have been removed and loads of work has been carried out by the local council and DDAPs to “renovate” the lake and it has a really nice park like atmosphere. There are plenty of upper doubles and loads of twenties in the water and to be fair it’s a really difficult one to call from a match point of view as there are decent swims all over and fish everywhere. This 17 acre gravel pit is a traditional carp anglers dream with gravel bars, bays overhanging trees and plenty of underwater features and it is run by one of the longest standing clubs in the country, Dartford and District Angling and Piscatorial Society with day tickets available on the bank Match Report For the second year the BCAC returned to one of the birthplaces of carp fishing, the DDAPS controlled Brooklands Lake in Dartford, Kent. The last two years has seen loads of work being done at Brooklands, and the lake looked perfect for the competition as the competitors started to arrive on the Thursday evening. After last year a few of the guys had an idea of swim choices, but with a lot of the snags removed and lots of the fish milling around after spawning, it was anyones guess where they would end up after the pressure of the match started. The draw was the usual tense affair, and first out of the bag came Dale Smith and Frank Wheeler, who opted for last years winning peg, number 2. Second out were Crundwell and Davies, who went for most peoples number one choice, peg 13 in the Texas/ Homebase bay. There were loads of fish in there, but would they stay for long? As the hooter signaled the start of the match, the surface baits were many team’s first choice of method, and sure enough after only 18 minutes Waite and Barham were off the mark with a freelined mixer in peg 11. At 11lb 14oz it wasn’t the biggest fish in the lake, but the game was on. The afternoon proved a frustrating one for many of the pairs, as the fish continued to mill about, taking the odd floater here and there, but not with any real confidence, would the night change it all? 6amon Saturday  and it was all to play for, Waite and Barham continued to dominate, and had pushed the bar up to 54lb 8oz. Closely behind them were Tough and Dunlop next door to them in peg 12, who had 50lb exactly after their 3 fish during Friday afternoon and evening. Another of the favoured swims was also only just behind them, with Simkin and Robberts in the back point weighing in with 45lb 8oz. The Texas bay had Crundwell and Davies pulling their hair out as they persevered with the floaters but the fish just wouldn’t oblige, meanwhile as the Saturday morning sun started to warm up the lake again a string of fish were landed in pegs 11 and 12. The rest of the field could only sit on their hands and hope that the fish spread out as soon as possible. There were hopeful faces all around the lake as the evening approached, but by morning it was clear that the leaderboard was going to stay the same, and as the match finished Tough and Dunlop had extended their lead to an impressive 162lb 4oz, with Waite and Barham in second on 105lb 10oz. The final qualifying place went to Bailey and Betteridge who managed to bank 3 fish off the top in 5 minutes on the Saturday afternoon taking their total to 88lb 4oz. Place Pairing Weight lb:oz Team   1 Rob Tough/Tom Dunlop 162.04 Mainline Fox 2 Chris Kirrage/Dave Waite 105.1 Tony's tackle 3 Ed Betteridge/Nathan Bailey 88.04 4 Lee Simkin/tba 63.08 5 John Crundwell/Lea Davies 33.08 Golden B / Carp Bible 6 Bill Lovett/James Chalk 20.01 12 Nick Norton/Frank Wheeler dns 12 Mark Smith/Martin Earey dns 12 Frazer Gascoigne/Graham Wright dns 12 Vincent Barton/Ricky Heating dns 12 Mark Williams/Gary Gaynor dns 12 Clint Kirby/Wayne Crosby dns Rigmarole 2