Jon Portman celebrated his return to match fishing by taking the overall honours in the Christmas Double open organised by Little Dawley AC on Wide Waters and Dandy Pool.
On day one the Rod & Gun angler drew on the Wide and finished third behind clubmate John Smith and boxer Shaun Walton (Little Dawley).
Smith fished feeder for 7-4-0 of skimmers, Walton had 4-7-0 in second and Portman was third with just 0-11-0.
Over on the Dandy, two carp on straight lead gave Brian Ashley (Little Dawley) 9-15-0 and top points on the pool, with Glen Brown (Lilco) netting 6-3-0 for second, and Stuart Clorley (Warners Tackle) grabbing third with 5-9-0.
On day two everyone swapped pools and a carp from the Dandy, added to some decent roach, saw Portman finish top there with 11-0-0 - which gave him a points score of 4.
Crucially, Mark Perrins (Little Dawley) edged out Walton for second, with Perrins weighing 4-7-0 and Walton 4-0-0.
That left Walton on 5 points, and the focus switched to the result on the Wide.
A win for Brown would clinch the overall prize for him, and a first or second place would do the trick for Brian Ashley.
In the end they both missed out, as Paul Bucknall of the host club won the pool with 5-1-0 of skimmers and roach ahead of Wayne Harding (Little Dawley) on 4-2-0.
Brown was third with 1-12-0 and Ashley fourth on 1-2-0. That left them with the same 5 point total scored by Walton, meaning the prizes would be decided by aggregate weight.
That first day catch of 9-15-0 by Ashley added to his second day weight gave him 11-1-0 for second, Walton’s total was 8-7-0 and Brown’s 7-15-0.
Still in the new town, the water level was up over the pegs on the dam wall at the start of the Holmer Lake open, but dropped off during the match despite the heavy rain on Saturday.
Mick Musgrave (Telford AA) worked with both pole and tip for an all roach 6-8-0 to win from peg 13.
Portman framed again, taking second from peg 14 with 5-14-0 which included skimmers, roach and crucians, and third went to the in-form Dai Smallman (Ind) who scaled 5-8-0 at peg 10.
You can gauge how bad the weather was from the fact that Graham Rossiter put his brolly up, something never seen before!.
There is another open at Holmer this Saturday, draw 9am, fish 10.15 to 2.15pm, £10 all in. Book with Dave Smith 01952 402700.
* Leighton AS held their annual match at Aston Eyre on the Thursday after Christmas and most fish came to long range tactics as they have moved towards the middle of the pool for the winter.
Dave Upton was a comfortable winner, taking carp on groundbait feeder with maggot and corn for hookbait, to get 34-14-0 at peg 28.
That left Ashley Randall some way behind him on 19-12-0 at peg 14 while a level 16-0-0 gave Trevor Boden third at peg 30.
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