Watching The Greats...

OK Peter, poles only (to give you a chance), bait will be limited to casters only (1 pint) and we will fish that little commercial lake in the Avon Valley where I caught that roach which was just short of 2lbs.

Mark will be the judge, adjudicator and weigh-in man.

Pool - £50 each, winner takes all.

The challenge has been made.

)

[Peter Jacobs]

Fist off - challenge accepted.

Poles at dawn it is!

Second off - we will have to wait a few weeks as that little commercial was closed a couple of weeks ago - not sure why, but hopefully will be open again soon.

Watch this space.

[Peter Jacobs]

PS - groundbait allowed Ron?

No groundbait. As I said, just 1 pint of casters each.

Ten pegs will be made available. First choice of pegs to be tossed for. NO carp to be weighed in, only roach!

[Mark Wintle]

Having got back FM (server down?), I have to say that I laughed at Ron's selection.

This is supposed to be a match angling hall of fame - the legends if you like, and especially the brilliant to watch.

So whilst Ron's inclusion of Billy Lane is fine, and I would include Walker and Graham amongst the greats, the rest are good anglers and no more. As for the DVSG being considered in the same breath as the likes of man-fish (John Dean), who are you kidding? Bob's a good club match angler, the rest aren't even match anglers in the way I would describe them.

Anyone who remembers some of JD's match results in 300 peg Burton Joyce matches will know what I mean. The man was a genius.

Peter,

Don't worry (not that you should need to, seem to remember having to show him how to plumb up!), us old match secretaries can get you any result you want!

I was talking about anglers in general Mark.

[Peter Bishop]

As a teenager I once got pegged next to Benny Ashurst at a Crewe and Nantwich open on the Shropshire Union Canal and decided it would be a more productive use of my time to sit and watch him fish. Though not in any way nasty about it he was certainly very cagey and did he best to shield what he was doing from my prying eyes! How different to the late and great Ivan Marks. I once had the pleasure of sitting behind him (and Dave Downs) as they practiced on a stretch of the Great Ouse Relief channel. He was simply awesome. His groundbait found the same spot as if it were laser guided, and he hit bites I couldn't even see to ammass a splendid bag of bream stret pegging five rod lengths out. He even gave me a shirpy non stop commentary throughout and took time to show me his rig,and swingtip setup and pass on some grat tips. His only proviso was, "Dont tell them buggers from Nottingham what we're up too". What a lovely man. I had the pleasure of meeting him again about five years ago and he still talked my head off for 45 minutes!
Also fished with Bob James and watched Nuddy and Keith Arthur at close quarters but no disrespect intended, non of them will ever measure up to Ivan in my eyes. Simply the best ever and bloody nice with it. There are a few big time Charlies around these days whom no one will even lavish such praise on when they float off to the great river in the sky...

[Beecy]

one thing sticks out by a mile here, most of the names mentiond are from the past, the only current intenationals being Conroy and Scotthorne.


Why do you think this is ?

is it that all of us who have posted have long since lost touch with the match scene and do not know the current top men, or is it that the top men at the moment are not good enough to be clased as greats?


When reading the match results these days it seems to be the same guys winning on the same venues with the same method. Is this what match carping has done, that we now only have venue/method specialists?

or are there still a good crop of allrounders out there that we are not aware of?

[Mark Wintle]

Who's winning 1000 peggers any more? Or for that matter 300 peggers? Ashurst didn't count them with less than 300 pegs. When John Dean was matchman of the year he did it by winning 300 peg matches week after week on the Trent against the finest opposition around, scores of them.

Look at the size of opens now! 82 pegs described as massive turnout? League matches are generally the biggest but even winter leagues are half the size they once were. A big match is now 100 pegs. Most "opens" are knock-up sweeps.

Then look at Ivan Marks 3 wins out of 4 in the Gt Ouse Champs with over 1000 in each.

The other international is Gardner who has been at the top for over 30 years.

[Peter Bishop]

Maybe we just get nostalgic. Scotthorne is a brilliant thinking angler and a real all rounder but Mark's point is spot on. When I sat next Benny Ashurt we were in match of 750 plus competitors. The likes of Benny and Ivan were so good with a rod and line they didnt need a pole cup to feed acurately. The pole has been a great leveller ( and I am grateful for that) so the chap with the longest and lightest pole, has as much chance as the skilled and practiced expert with rod and line.
Of course there are one venue, one method anglers, but as most matches seem to be held on commercial carp pools these days winning techniques are easily transferable from one venue to another, and can make such matchmen look better than they actually are. Amazingly, some of these guys who fish these type of venues almost exclusively end up in the England squad.