Shocking result for Team Essex 

and namely Dean Bass.

The weather was fantastic for sitting on the beach but not so good for the fishing, it was a hard 6 hours sitting down watching the rods for a bite, if only the fish had turned out in the same numbers as those giving their time to raising the money things may have been even better.

Well Done Essex, Winners for 2003

With the teams now much bigger than first expected Essex were a little bit out numbered, so much so that a few defected over to Essex, or should that be "turned traitor" in light of the results.

Well as the mathematically minded people or "bookies best friends" amongst you will know, uneven teams working on average catches to work out totals means the smaller the team the slightly better chances they have of victory as they have less people to blank but only require the same or smaller amount of weight.

Well after all of this had been taken in to account Essex did indeed win the Challenge but I believe this had nothing to do with team sizes, the main reason was because the team caught not only the biggest round fish but also a few others too, whereas Norfolk; and I am ashamed to say this; Suffolk did not come anywhere close to the same form. 

On receiving the shield on behalf of the Essex team, Steve asked for the shield to be displayed in the Last Cast shop of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk as he had "such a disgraceful lack of interest from the Essex tackle shops and that Mark Miller from Last Cast had done us very proud"

Dean Bass, what more can I say...

One name is all you really need to know when it comes to the results for the adults section, Dean Bass, what more can I say, never before has a 1lb 13oz 8dr codling been worth so much, he picked up the heaviest round fish prize of an Abu 6500 CT Sport Mag reel from Last Cast of Bury St Edmunds, the heaviest catch prize and the pools first place, so that is well over £150 per lb, what a day he had, not sure how safe he felt leaving the pub with all of that though, I did see some of the Norfolk folk follow him out, after all they have a thing about possessions, them farmer folk don't have that many you see.

Juniors Section, everyone went home with something.

Even though the 3 juniors did not manage to weigh-in all got a prize, it was decide that as we all need the younger generations to support our sport that the prizes should be drawn for, we are pretty sure that all 3 went home feeling pretty happy.

The wealth of prizes included a Daiwa beachcaster from Saxmundham Angling, an umbrella from Markham's of Ipswich and a beach shelter from Viscount Angling of Ipswich. Saxmundham Angling Centre also provided all the juniors with a fantastic engraved fish trophy and Last Cast of Bury added in a bonus pack of Top Line each.

A quick message from Leader-Lines

Was it a success ?, damn right it was.

With the fishing being a hard game the weigh-in was done in a flash, we headed over to the Ship Inn public house just across the road, once again many thanks to the management and staff for letting us use the function room for the prize giving session, they pull a pretty good pint, tastes even better after sitting in the sun all day.

Nigs did actually weigh-in, he got a share of the pools with an 8oz Dab, about time we had a slightly better photo of him on the the site I would say.

If you would like to post any comments about the day please click on to the message board, you will find the feedback thread listed.

Full Match Results.