Unforgettable (with apologies to Nat King Cole)

I’m a classical music man – my favourite all-time singer is Paul Robeson and my favourite composition Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. But I am also keen on Shirley Bassey, Matt Monro, Ray Charles...and Nat King Cole, whose song ‘Unforgettable’ was a regular on the many radio request programmes during my formative years.

That’s a tenous link to the Pidley Pensioners’ match I fished on Wednesday, but the match was unforgettable for me because I can’t remember fishing in worse conditions during the past 20 years. It wasn’t the frost, or snow, or even rain – it was the sun! Low in the sky with hardly a cloud in sight, and blasting the water in front of those of us unlucky enough to fish from pegs 12 to 17 on Raven, and I was on 17. It was impossible to see properly from the start at 10 o’clock right up to the finish at 3 o’clock. And  the wind shook the shadows of the trees on the far bank across my swim from left to right all day.

The match for me was actually forgettable – half a dozen perch on maggot to stop me falling asleep and finally four small carp on corn from the bottom of the far shelf in the last hour. I was awarded 4 lb 12 oz...and wasn’t last! Several didn't weigh and I spoke to one angler who never had a bite. Raymond Poolman, next to me, had the right idea;  he fished a feeder all day and never even got a pole out of his van. Even so he said the sun was a real nuisance.

The match was won from peg 11, on the first corner,  by Roy Whincup, who took all his fish on either three or two sections. And all of the anglers I spoke to said they caught most of their fish from the deep water – not the far-bank shallows where most Raven matches have been won.

So a disappointing result, but I don’t think I could possibly have framed from there. I hope I forget about it quickly.