The day started of with a bitter cold wind as us early worms waited in the car park for the cafe to open, once inside and a hot brew in our hands the sales of raffle tickets started thanks to Caroline, Lisa and Karen. The guess the winning weight game also seemed very popular, not sure if it was due to the fact the ladies were running it or the chance to win a beach shelter.

The booking in took no time at all, much of this is due to the preparations handled by our sites registration system, once everyone was booked in and full of breakfast the beach soon filled up with anglers stretching as far a you could see in either direction. Fishing was hard work with many crossed lines mainly down to the strong winds and rough sea. The ICCM has now become more of a meeting of friends from the site rather than a fishing match so the mood was relaxed and the only time the hearts starting racing was either when someone caught a fish or a rumour of a big fish made its way along the line of anglers. 

It would seem the weather was just taking the pee out of us, no sooner had the sun come out and the wind dropped, the heavens opened, it was funny to watch as all the anglers dived into their shelters and then re-appear as soon as the rain stopped, I bet even if a 10lb Cod had bit they would have stayed in the dry, as would I if my wife had not took my seat in the shelter leaving me out in the rain. One of the many highlights of the day came about 11am when the RNLI did a pass-by with a Lifeboat and Inshore boat.

The fishing was good throughout the match, towards the end it seemed to heat up a bit, shame the match was ending, but the rain came back just as everyone was packing up, nice. The main difference about this LL match was the fact so many people had something to weigh-in, maybe moving the event from the spring to the winter was the right thing to do after all.

After the weigh-in was done we held the presentations at the Ship Inn public house, many thanks to all the staff for their service and the landlord for giving a the use of the restaurant once again this year.

The ladies managed to sell more raffle tickets whilst the winners were worked out, Kev did a great job of getting the raffle draw underway and keeping the crowd entertained. With the raffle completed the Guess the Weight game result was announced, Mark Alsop won this with his guess of 3lb 13oz, he was a very disserving winner as he was the one that took the time and effort the make the game board and seemed very happy with his new beach shelter.

Then came the winners of the pools and the match, one by one they came up to collect their prizes, even I won a prize with my outstanding weight of 14½oz. All the team captains managed to catch a fish, well all except the Essex captain, Jake Smith that is, sorry Jake just had to have one last laugh at you.

We finally got to the the most important part of the rivalry, which county had won the title of the ICCM 2006, and for the third year running it was announced that Suffolk had done it again but only just with Norfolk about ½lb behind us.

We raised over £1000 on the day and once all other possible donations were added the final total was an outstanding £1402 for the RNLI, many many thanks people, you have done a stunning job, from those that fished the match to those that donated prizes and of course not forgetting those that went around shops and businesses asking for prizes.

WELL DONE, A JOB DONE WITH OUTSTANDING RESULTS AND VERY WORTHWHILE.

Regards Dan Silverwood - LL Devco