White Acres’ Preston festival
Winner drops just two points to stay on Parkdean trail
THE festival season at White Acres is over for another year.
The closing Preston Innovations event sported a full house, all chasing a top 24 finish and a shot at winning the £25,000 Parkdean Masters.
Cleveland ace James Dent bagged first dibs by winning the five-day clash by virtue of a better dropped score after finishing in a three-way tie for top spot on 31 points.
Joining him with a final tally of three section wins and a second were Rob Wootton and Lee Edwards, but MAP-backed James disposed of a section second while Rob could only bin a third and Lee a last to hand the prize to the Yarm angler.
Unusually, it didn’t take a score of four section wins to take the title, and that made the final result a whole lot closer.
Any one of half-a-dozen anglers were in with a chance. James opened up on day one with a second in section, taking 80-11-0 from the split section of Trewaters, Acorn and Canal Lakes.
Tuesday was much better, as the trip to Porth Reservoir saw him return with a maximum after winning the whole lake with 18-2-0 of roach and skimmers on long pole and chopped worm from peg 76.
James kept that momentum going on day three as Bolingey Lake peg 45 saw him miss out on winning the lake by 6oz. Luke Sorokin did that by the narrowest of margins. However, the section was safely in the bag thanks to 169-4-0 of carp taken by James on short pole and meat.
On to Pollawyn Lake for day four, and James was now motoring, 61-6-0 of carp and skimmers on the pole seeing him win the section to sit on 31 points. A section win on the final day would give him a great chance but another split section on Twin Oaks and Trelawney saw him take second to make things nervy. Dropping only two points over the week, however, saw his consistency rewarded!
Overall result: 1 J Dent, MAP/Sensas, 31pts (dropping seven points); 2 R Wootton, Shimano/Dynamite Baits, 31 (dropping six points); 3 L Edwards, Garbolino/ABC Baits, 31 (dropping one point); 4 A Power, Preston Innovations, 30 (dropping seven points); 5 P Canning, Frenzee, 30 (dropping six points); 6 A Leathers, Browning Hot Rods, 30 (dropping three points).