East Midlands Winter League ROUND One of this year s league was fished on the Nene around Peterborough on Sunday. The river has been in tremendous form over the past few weeks and Sunday proved no exception. Our Stanjay Special team, surprise winners of t

East Midlands Winter League

ROUND One of this year's league was fished on the Nene around Peterborough on Sunday. The river has been in tremendous form over the past few weeks and Sunday proved no exception.

Our Stanjay Special team, surprise winners of the league last year, had prepared well but were now one of the teams to beat for the others.

The squad, while essentially the same as last year, has been strengthened by the addition of Anthony Watling, who is still one of the best anglers in the country, although now balancing family and work with his fishing. Rob Lincoln, Trevor Lovell and Ricky Young have been promoted from the second team after a series of good results.

All the teams had at least one angler who had struggled and it was hard to predict the winners but it was home team MAP Peterborough who won on the day, finishing three points ahead of joint second, our VDE Stanjay Special team and Mark One Black. This was our best ever result on the venue and should give confidence as we go to Oundle for match two.

Both Hotrods and Mark One White were disappointed with their positions but as has been proved in the past, it is possible to fight back from a poor first match.

Individually the top weights came from the sections above Orton Lock where Dave Lee caught 25lb 6oz of roach from peg 441 with clubmate Rob Johnson second from the next peg with 22lb. The only weight in the top six not from this area was Bourne's Danny Hardy with 19lb 14oz from peg 490 on Orton Down.

RESULT Individual: 1 Dave Lee Mark One Sensas Black 25lb 6oz, 2 Rob Johnson Mark One Sensas White 22lb, 3 Chris Hardman Wades MG 21lb 3oz, 4 Danny Hardy Bourne 19lb 14oz, 5 Ricky Young VDE Stanjay Special 18lb 5oz, 6 Neil Adcock Browning Hotrods 18lb

Teams: 1 MAP Peterborough 36pts, 2= VDE Stanjay Special/Mark One Sensas Black 39pts, 4= Bourne MG/Wades MG 44pts, 6 Browning Hotrods 45pts, 7 Mark One Sensas White 49pts, 8 VDE Stanjay Turbo 63pts

Cromwell Lake

As always seems the case, the weather changing during the afternoon and torrential rain for a while made catching much harder than of late. Charlie Pratt won the match from peg 3 with 25lb, Stan was second with 19lb 5oz and Terry Allgood third, just ahead of Steve Ashwell. Terry also weighed in a good small fish net of 6lb 14oz but was beaten by Mark Dickerson's 9lb.

RESULT: 1 Charlie Pratt St Neots 25lb, 2 Stan Binge VDE Stanjay MG 19lb 5oz, 3 Terry Allgood 16lb 6oz, 4 Steve Ashwell St Neots 15lb 48lb. Will Hadley was second with 40lb and Chris Saunders third just two ounces behind.

RESULT: 1 Colin Oliver 48lb, 2 Will Hadley 40lb, 3 Chris Saunders 39lb 14oz

Benwick AC

There are two weeks of results to include. Last Sunday the match was fished at Copalder with Dave Porter the winner with 6lb 6oz and K Matthews second. This week's was fished at Floods Ferry with Kevin Gaunt winning with 7lb 2 1/2oz from Dick Denson. Tony Ingram was in third place on both occasions.

RESULT September 24: 1 Dave Porter 6lb 6oz, 2 K Matthews 4lb 13 1/2 oz, 3 Tony Ingram 3lb 3oz

October 1: 1 Kevin Gaunt 7lb 2 1/2 oz, 2 Dick Denson 5lb 8oz, 3 Tony Ingram 5lb 1oz

BRJ Angling Club

The George Gentle Memorial match was fished on the River Ouse in the Regatta Field on Sunday.

Despite an early morning thunderstorm, which for a time threatened to cause the postponement of the match, five brave anglers took to the bank and were rewarded with a very good days fishing as over fifty pounds of roach were caught. Match winner Roger Rowley could have weighed in even more than the 16lb 12oz he was credited with after discovering a large hole in his keepnet! Malcolm Johnston was second and Steve Morgan third.

RESULT: 1 Roger Rowley 16lb 12oz, 2 Malcolm Johnston 11lb 9 1/2 oz, 3 Steve Morgan 10lb 15oz

Lawn Farm

Last week's golden rod match was fished on Crabtree Lake and was won by Dennis Holliday with 20lb 12oz of chub, orfe and small carp. Roger Dickerson was second and Roger Abbott third.

RESULT: 1 Dennis Holliday Biggleswade 20lb 12oz, 2 Roger Dickerson Cambridge 16lb 9oz, 3 Roger Abbott Huntingdon 15lb 10oz

Grahams Pond

Keith Ellington started well in Sunday's match, catching carp and tench but was overtaken by Greg Marsh helped by two good carp to his first match win of the year. John Hurley was third after catching well late in the match.

RESULT: 1 Greg Marsh 12lb 10oz, 2 Keith Ellington 9lb, 3 John Hurley 7lb 8oz.

Brampton AS

Oak lake at Decoy was the venue for the Jack Jones Cup on Sunday. There were seven weights of over 30lb with winner Colin Oliver catching