Supercup 2017 Midlands semi final
Brilliant team card sees them win with impressive total
DERSINGHAM AC made their long trip to Tunnel Barn Farm pay in style with a stunning victory in the Angling Times Bait-Tech Supercup Midlands semi-final.
The Norfolk six recorded impressive team and individual wins, finishing with just 17 penalty points to qualify for October’s final at Barston Lakes.
It was Dersingham’s second Tunnel semi-final victory, following on from two years ago when they went on to be crowned Supercup champions, and skipper Adam Playford was delighted with the result.
“Tunnel seems to suit us,” said the 32-year-old electrician from King’s Lynn. “We won two years ago, we won again today, and James Collison won both matches individually.”
Pellets down the edge and caster fished shallow across saw the team average better than third in section.
“We spent a day at Tunnel with Paul Holland, who has a fantastic record here, and he helped us finalise our approach, which was to start down the edge on the deck with 4mm expander pellet over micros while priming the shallow caster line, ideally across to the far side by the cover.
“Each man had six pints of each, plus six pints of maggots for feeding in the open water in front, but this didn’t seem to work in practice so we stayed largely on pellets and casters.
“Basically, if we stopped catching down the edge on pellets, we changed to caster across... if we stopped catching on caster across, we changed to pellet down the edge, with maggot as a back-up if required.”
The plan worked to perfection. Section winners in Adam himself, individual winner James and Paul Pleasant were backed up by section runner-up Martin Allen, fifth from Matthew Bunting and seventh from James Wilkinson.
Adam added: “We fish commercials such as Decoy and Westwood, but our home water is Gatton which is full of roach and skimmers. Barston will suit us down to the ground!”
Stoke Match Group finished clear runners-up but then things got tight with just five points separating the next six teams.
Result, teams (top five qualify for final): 1 Dersingham, 17pts; 2 Stoke, 20; 3 Oakham Hookers, 29 (section countback); 4 Beaufort, 29; 5 Bottisham, 30; 6 JVAC, 31; 7 Barnstone, 32; 8 Ridgemere, 34; 9 Long Eaton, 53; 10 Evesham Jubilee, 55.