The Stonehouse Brewery sponsored event at Weston Pools on Saturday provided a tight finish in the battle for the beer.

At stake was a nine gallon keg of fine Stonehouse real ale, donated by the brewery, and the man saying a big cheers at the finish was Barry Gabriel (Deggys), who just sneaked ahead of fellow Deggys rod Clive Wynn.

Barry was on peg 3 on the Wilfred Owen Pool and fished pellet on the deck at 7 metres for a 53-12-0 haul, while over on the Canal Clive fished across at peg 7 to finish one fish behind on 52-2-0.

Alan Dewhurst (Wallasey Tackle) finished in third with a Stretton Pool best of 42-6-0 and a Stock Pool best of 33-12-0 gave Dave Evans (Deggys) fourth.

Peg 3 on the Wilfred did the business again on Sunday and helped Alan Dewhurst to move up from third to first.

He alternated lines between 16 metres and 6 metres to stay ahead of Richard O’Connor (Drennan Northwest) who was at peg 4 on the Stretton. Alan’s catch took the scales to 54-10-0 and Richard was only just short of the 50lb mark with 49-12-0.The Canal gave the remaining frame weights, with Ian (Speedy) Ward (Sensas TA) getting third with 45-0-0 at peg 8, and Clive Wynn making the frame again with 38-14-0 at peg 14.

Milder conditions with some sunshine on Tuesday saw the weights climb and peg 3 on the Wilfred Owen came up trumps for the third time.

Darren Frost (Drennan NW) drew the hotspot this time, and made his first visit to Weston a winning one by scaling 76-0-0.

Pushing him all the way to the whistle was Mark Pleavin (Weston T&B). He put together a Belvidere Pool best of 71-2-0 at peg 22 to finish in front of two Sensas TA men.

Phil Davies filled third with a Stretton best of 66-11-0 at peg 32, and Mike Harris, also on the Stretton netted 55-12-0 for 4th.

Sunday opens will revert to a normal draw format from this weekend, while the Tuesday matches will continue as rovers.

The contact number is 01691-671812.