I know it is not in the right order but just wanted to add a quick write up about my recent Charity match.
Since leaving BT in April, I have been doing two days voluntary work a week at the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity just a short bike ride from my house. The Charity supports families who have children with terminal or life threatening illnesses and I have been helping out the people in the fund raising section. Having organised fund raising events for them in the past for both my club Leatherhead DAS and from work, I decided I'd run a fishing match at Willinghurst and hopefully raise about £2,000 for them.
My idea was to run a teams of 5 event for the "Rainbow Cup" and charge each angler a minimum of £20 to enter. I then gave them all Sponsor / Donation forms which meant that they could either pay the entry themselves or ask friends, family and colleagues to make a donation towards their entry. Whenever I run events like this I am always amazed how generous anglers are and some of them came back with £100+ on their forms. Thanks chaps, you know who you are and your support is greatly appreciated, as is the support I received from anglers who donated tackle for the Raffle, namely Got Baits, Scone and Hillbilly for some floats, Carp Vader, Jeff Moors, Ross Nursey, Fox Tackle, Preston Innovations, Bag Up Tackle in Sheffield and Kev Allen for some of his superb feeders.
Match day arrived and although the fishing was not brilliant I think a great day was had by all.
I drew Peg 6 on New Lake which I quite fancied and although the lake fished hard, I managed to catch 8 carp - although Mark Harrington at the next peg will no doubt complain that 5 of them were foul hooked ! It was a very strange day as the fish came into the peg and settled over the feed but wouldn't eat anything. The odd thing was that all the bites I had from foul hookers looked like proper bites and none of the usual indications where the float slides sideways.
Looking round the lake I thought I might have won it but Jeff Simmons on Peg 2 had 10 carp on the paste I gave him (that's the last time I'm giving him any bait) to win with 65-2-0 to my 50-8-0. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, Fordy was next peg to me and proved once again that his match reporting is much better than his match fishing as he weighed in 0-8-0 of mainly small fish !
I rushed back to the Cabin at the end of the match to sort out the money and as the boards drifted back it was clear that none of the lakes had fished particularly well and Ben Emery took top spot from Top 12 with 78-0-0. Terry Molloy filled second spot with 73-0-0 from Horseshoe 2 and Andy Neil (Bodge), TF star and this years Fisho runner up made the long journey from Wales to take third place from Top 22 with 71-8-0. Teamwise, Don Garnish's Foxy Five team were well clear of the field with 17 points, followed by Willinghurst Cabin on 24 points with my team finishing in a well deserved third place on 25.5 points.
However, the day wasn't all about the fishing but getting a load of mates together and raising money for charity. Another big Thanks goes to Hathers, Mick Seymour and Mrs Pikey for running the Raffle. Unfortunately I missed most of it as I was sorting out the results but from what I could hear, everyone was enjoying themselves. I still laugh at the sight of Ged Cooper chasing Mick through the cabin cos he thought he'd won a raffle prize and this was even before the draw had started !
Arriving home at 7.30pmit had been a long and very rewarding day, Mrs Pikey and I then sat on the lounge floor surrounded by money and calculators and when all the adding up was finally done discovered that we had raised an amazing £4,000 for Rainbow Trust.
I couldn't wait to go in a tell them on Monday morning and to say that they were grateful would be an under statement. I'm already planning next years match and hope to make it a national "Rainbow Trust Day" with other matches being run around the country. So, if you live outside the Surrey area and would be prepared to run a match for me next season to help raise money for what is a brilliant cause then don't hesitate to contact me - I think you can just comment on here if need be and I will get back to you. Otherwise, I can be contacted via the Total Fishing.com website.
Since leaving BT in April, I have been doing two days voluntary work a week at the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity just a short bike ride from my house. The Charity supports families who have children with terminal or life threatening illnesses and I have been helping out the people in the fund raising section. Having organised fund raising events for them in the past for both my club Leatherhead DAS and from work, I decided I'd run a fishing match at Willinghurst and hopefully raise about £2,000 for them.
My idea was to run a teams of 5 event for the "Rainbow Cup" and charge each angler a minimum of £20 to enter. I then gave them all Sponsor / Donation forms which meant that they could either pay the entry themselves or ask friends, family and colleagues to make a donation towards their entry. Whenever I run events like this I am always amazed how generous anglers are and some of them came back with £100+ on their forms. Thanks chaps, you know who you are and your support is greatly appreciated, as is the support I received from anglers who donated tackle for the Raffle, namely Got Baits, Scone and Hillbilly for some floats, Carp Vader, Jeff Moors, Ross Nursey, Fox Tackle, Preston Innovations, Bag Up Tackle in Sheffield and Kev Allen for some of his superb feeders.
Match day arrived and although the fishing was not brilliant I think a great day was had by all.
I drew Peg 6 on New Lake which I quite fancied and although the lake fished hard, I managed to catch 8 carp - although Mark Harrington at the next peg will no doubt complain that 5 of them were foul hooked ! It was a very strange day as the fish came into the peg and settled over the feed but wouldn't eat anything. The odd thing was that all the bites I had from foul hookers looked like proper bites and none of the usual indications where the float slides sideways.
Looking round the lake I thought I might have won it but Jeff Simmons on Peg 2 had 10 carp on the paste I gave him (that's the last time I'm giving him any bait) to win with 65-2-0 to my 50-8-0. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, Fordy was next peg to me and proved once again that his match reporting is much better than his match fishing as he weighed in 0-8-0 of mainly small fish !
I rushed back to the Cabin at the end of the match to sort out the money and as the boards drifted back it was clear that none of the lakes had fished particularly well and Ben Emery took top spot from Top 12 with 78-0-0. Terry Molloy filled second spot with 73-0-0 from Horseshoe 2 and Andy Neil (Bodge), TF star and this years Fisho runner up made the long journey from Wales to take third place from Top 22 with 71-8-0. Teamwise, Don Garnish's Foxy Five team were well clear of the field with 17 points, followed by Willinghurst Cabin on 24 points with my team finishing in a well deserved third place on 25.5 points.
However, the day wasn't all about the fishing but getting a load of mates together and raising money for charity. Another big Thanks goes to Hathers, Mick Seymour and Mrs Pikey for running the Raffle. Unfortunately I missed most of it as I was sorting out the results but from what I could hear, everyone was enjoying themselves. I still laugh at the sight of Ged Cooper chasing Mick through the cabin cos he thought he'd won a raffle prize and this was even before the draw had started !
Arriving home at 7.30pmit had been a long and very rewarding day, Mrs Pikey and I then sat on the lounge floor surrounded by money and calculators and when all the adding up was finally done discovered that we had raised an amazing £4,000 for Rainbow Trust.
I couldn't wait to go in a tell them on Monday morning and to say that they were grateful would be an under statement. I'm already planning next years match and hope to make it a national "Rainbow Trust Day" with other matches being run around the country. So, if you live outside the Surrey area and would be prepared to run a match for me next season to help raise money for what is a brilliant cause then don't hesitate to contact me - I think you can just comment on here if need be and I will get back to you. Otherwise, I can be contacted via the Total Fishing.com website.
