Well what a fantastic past three days it has been for all the anglers who attended the Daiwa Spring classic festival. A total of 90 anglers were ready to battle it out over the next three days. Andy Bennett was favourite for the festival but with some new faces it wasn’t going to be easy for him.
Going into Day one saw the anglers go to their first lake and get ready for the all in. There was so many good anglers on the festival it would be good to see how each of them approached there peg in a different way. On Skylark Dale Shepard was the man doing the business from peg 29 fishing maggots down the edge to catch mainly carp to 10lb . Falcon Lake was an absolute maggot fest , but Daiwa’s very own Matrin Green was showing them a shallow master class. The bag up Lake Osprey was surely living up to its name with Andy Bennett catching up in the water with maggots from peg 3. Swallow Lake was going to catch some people off guard, but Aiden Mansfield was keeping it simple by fishing Maggots short down the first shelf to catch small stockie Carp steady for the most of the day from peg 30.
Section Winners from the first day
Skylark-
Section One Toby Pepper – 148lb 10oz
Section Two Scott Robinson – 115lb 4oz
Section Three Rob Dawber – 121lb 4oz
Section Four Chris Weddle- 142lb 2oz
Section Five Paul Branwick – 124lb 0oz
Section Six Darren Garwood – 95lb 0oz
Skylark Lake Winner Dale Shepard – 159lb 0oz
Falcon –
Section One James Howarth – 134lb 8oz
Section Two Ted Wheeler – 138lb 0oz
Section Three Alan Bickley – 151lb 4oz
Section Four Pat Cooper – 146lb 0oz
Section Five Carl Le-Hopps – 131lb 2oz
Section Six Craig Ebbrell – 156lb 0oz
Falcon Lake Winner Martin Green – 160lb 0oz
Osprey/ Swallow
Osprey Section One Luke Sears – 123lb 2oz
Osprey Section Two John Jowett – 119lb 4oz
Osprey Section Three Ryan Linguard – 157lb 0oz
Swallow Section One Tom Edwards – 152lb 14oz
Swallow Section Two Ross Harold – 144lb 2oz
Swallow Section Three Aiden Mansfield 154lb 0oz
Osprey / Swallow Lake Winner Andy Bennett – 192lb 8oz
Day Two the Anglers changed around and saw the lakes starting to improve on weights. Tom Edwards on skylark peg 24 was catching at a good pace going into the last hour for a lake win . Falcon Lake saw Recce Hearn fishing a nice simple match of pellets down the edge to try and push that 200lb mark. . Osprey was still producing with Gavin Leversedge looking like he was on his way to section win. But Pat cooper on Peg 16 Swallow was running away with the match win by fishing Shallow with maggots to catch a lovely mixed bag of fish.
Section Winners from Day Two
Skylark-
Section One Glenn Brown – 129lb 0oz
Section Two Andy Bennett – 172lb 10oz
Section Three Ryan Lingard – 136lb 6oz
Section Four Eddie Howman – 134lb 14oz
Section Five Gary Burton – 96lb 12oz
Section Six Aiden Mansfield – 163lb 10z
Skylark Lake Winner Tom Edwards – 174lb 4oz
Falcon –
Section One Dale Shepard – 200lb 0oz
Section Two Matt Bingham – 118lb 8oz
Section Three Chris Weddell – 143lb 10oz
Section Four Josh Turnbill – 149lb 6oz
Section Five Graham Thorndyke – 127lb 4oz
Section Six Paul Branwick – 162lb 0oz
Falcon Lake Winner Reece Hearn – 200lb 0oz
Osprey/ Swallow
Osprey Section One Gavin Leversidge – 159lb 8oz
Osprey Section Two Gary Pook – 125lb 2oz
Osprey Section Three Rod Pilkington – 150lb 12oz
Swallow Section One Craig Ebbrell – 180lb 2oz
Swallow Section Two Barry Bush – 116lb 2oz
Swallow Section Three Carl Le-Hopps – 103lb 0oz
Osprey/Swallow Lake Winner Pat Cooper- 211lb 2oz
It was all tight going into the last day with that man Andy Bennett on a perfect two points but only just by weight count back there was a lot of people on Two points after him. On Skylark Ted Wheeler was looking like he was winning the lake from peg 14. Falcon saw Glenn Brown pushing Andy Bennett for a section win. Osprey was fishing hard but Matt Bingham,was catching steady down the middle on maggots from peg 20. Swallow Lake was only getting better with Josh Turnbil catching Shallow on maggots at 6m on peg 4.
Section Winners From Day Three
Skylark-
Section One Craig Ebberll 121lb 8oz
Section Two Alan Bickley 130lb 0oz
Section Three Russ Downing 63lb 14oz
Section Four Martin green 140lb 2oz
Section Five dan Dockerty 101lb 2oz
Section six James Howarth 151lb 14oz
Skylark Lake Winner Ted Wheeler 177lb 12oz
Falcon –
Section One Glenn Brown 146lb 2oz
Section Two John Jowett 159lb 0oz
Section Three Simon Foster 152lb 0oz
Section Four Ryan Lingaurd 149lb 6oz
Section Five Tom Edwards 188lb 0oz
Section six Simon Colcough 140lb 12oz
Falcon Lake Winner Andy bennett 201lb 4oz
Osprey/ Swallow
Osprey Section One Chris Weddell – 161lb 0oz
Osprey Section Two Reece hearn – 152lb 6oz
Osprey Section Three Matt Bingham – 181lb 8oz
Swallow Section One Danny Grimsey – 153lb 12oz
Swallow Section Two Dale Shepard – 178lb 10oz
Swallow Section Three Mick Stamp – 112lb 2oz
Overall it was a tight Festival with a lot of the top 10 going on weight count back. But a big well done to Andy Bennett on winning the Festival. We enjoyed the company of all the anglers that have fished and hope to see you in the future. Also a massive thank you to Martin Green and Daiwa on sponsoring another festival and there continuous support for another year.
Don’t forget to book down in your diary’s that there is a Daiwa Autumn classic Festival in November. Also the Daiwa spring classic festival 19th, 20th and 21st May. Tickets for these are now on sale!!! Limited accommodation is available For any more information please ring the office department on 01205 724162 and select Option 1.
| POS | ANGLER | DAY ONE PTS | LBS | OZ | DAY TWO PTS | LBS | OZ | DAY THREE PTS | LBS | OZ | TOTAL WEIGHT LBS | TOTAL WEIGHT OZ | TOTAL PTS |
| 1st | Andy Bennett | 1 | 192 | 8 | 1 | 172 | 10 | 1 | 201 | 4 | 566 | 6 | 3 |
| 2nd | Tom Edwards | 1 | 152 | 14 | 1 | 174 | 4 | 1 | 188 | 0 | 515 | 2 | 3 |
| 3rd | Craig Ebrell | 1 | 156 | 0 | 1 | 180 | 2 | 1 | 121 | 8 | 457 | 10 | 3 |
| 4th | Chris Weddell | 1 | 142 | 2 | 1 | 143 | 10 | 1 | 161 | 0 | 446 | 12 | 3 |
| 5th | Ryan Lingard | 1 | 157 | 0 | 1 | 136 | 6 | 1 | 149 | 6 | 442 | 12 | 3 |
| 6th | Dale Shephard | 1 | 159 | 0 | 2 | 156 | 12 | 1 | 178 | 10 | 494 | 6 | 4 |
| 7th | Aidan Mansfield | 1 | 154 | 0 | 1 | 163 | 10 | 2 | 160 | 0 | 477 | 10 | 4 |
| 8th | Pat Cooper | 1 | 146 | 0 | 1 | 211 | 2 | 2 | 100 | 14 | 458 | 0 | 4 |
| 9th | James Howarth | 1 | 134 | 8 | 2 | 158 | 6 | 1 | 151 | 14 | 444 | 12 | 4 |
| 10th | John Jowett | 1 | 119 | 4 | 2 | 141 | 0 | 1 | 159 | 0 | 419 | 4 | 4 |