Mike is on his way! Six-lsland, Decoy

A late result for this Spratts match, as my back took a turn for the worse, and I can't sit at the computer for long before it seizes up. But things are better this morning.

Mike Rawson has never won a Spratts match (nor a Fenland Rods match for that matter), but his results this seaosn have been startlingly good, and he almost won this match, held in a seething cauldron of heat on Wednesday, He lost three good fish, any one of which would have won him the match. He ended third.

Winner was Trevor Cousins, who fished pellet shallow on peg 4 for 119 lb 15 oz, followed by Mick Raby on 115 lb 15 oz. It's good to see him back on the bank after missing most of last season with heart problems. Mick fished meat at five metres on peg  17, opposite the gap between the island and the corner of peg 4. It's a very consistent peg, which I've drawn only once (I won after taking advice from Nigel Baxter on how to fish it). But it offers so many options that it can be confusing.

Mike Rawson was only 9 oz behind, with 115 lb 6 oz on peg 22, mainly taken shallow on pellet - a method which Mike has only recently mastered - to great effect.

A tight match in the heat on Six-Islands lake.

Peter The Paste on fire
Peter Spriggs fished his usual miraculous, irresistible, flavoursome, home-made paste on peg  19 for 109 lb 9 oz and fourth, with John Smith having a late run of good fish on cat meat fished close in down his left-hand bank from Peg 3. He ended with just two nets, neither of which went over the club's 50 lb limit, for a total of 99 lb 9 oz!!! How's that for estimating?

Good, also, to see Ted back. At 92 everything must be just that much harder than it used to be. But he still catches fish...

My new Matrix seat box
I have to miss the next Spratts match on Oak because of an injection and blood tests, but I will be kept busy working out what to put into my new Matrix P25 seat box. It's light (at least lighter), but at the moment it has less than half the draw space of my Octbox. In addition I have to modify my trolley base to take the different-sized box, as the footplate is not supported at the rear when it's closed up. The Octbox has strong runners along both sides of the seating to take the footplate, but it's one of the reason's it's so heavy.

Everything at the moment seems to be a compromise. But I can now walk without sticks, and hope to be back on the bank within a fortnight.