There’s not a lot that Andy Bennett hasn’t won on the commercial fishery match scene, but the Maver Match This title is one that has eluded him – until now.
In baking hot conditions on Hayfield Lakes’ Big and Little Adams Lakes, the Guru/Blakes Bait man kept his nerve to weigh in 57-025 of carp from peg 11 on the Big Adams Lake to lift the trophy and pocket the £50,000 prize, finishing seven kilos clear of runner-up Jamie Hughes on 50-500.
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Andy landed 20 of Hayfield’s big carp to do the damage, enjoying a blistering start with 8mm pellet on the deck at 14m. That produced around 70lb of fish after an hour and a bit and allowed Andy to dream of an easy win.
However, with the sun at its highest, the carp came up in the water and the bites died off. A spell fishing shallow allowed Andy to pick off an odd fish, but it wasn’t until the last 90 minutes when his 7m line with pellets kicked off, another half a dozen big carp being landed along with one from the margins.
At the scales, Andy reckoned on having about 110lb, but felt Jamie had beaten him by a couple of carp. With Andy’s guess being someway off and 57 kilos being weighed, the title was within his grasp. Jamie reckoned he’d not got close to Andy and so it proved with 50 kilos for the former Match This champion.
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Result: 1 A Bennett, 57-025; 2 J Hughes, 50-500; 3 M McMillan, 44-700; 4 A Power, 44-575; 5 R Laycock, 44-075; 6 J Brooks, 42-800; 7 S Brown, 40-925; 8 L Smith, 36-250; 9 D Lock, 35-050; 10 M Redman, 33-325; 11 J Arthur, 31-475; 12 W Kearney, 25-575; 13 G Jubb, 24-725; 14 P Stone, 23-900; 15 F O’Reilly, 22-650; 16 K Jones, 22-350; 17 J Palmer, 19-500; 18 J Alexander, 19-400; 19 J Fuller, 18-725; 20 A Bailey, 18-350; 21 A Fulleylove, 18-025; 22 R Evans, 17-000; 23 R Bennett, 11-800; jt24 B Foster and L Abakanowicz, both DNW.
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