..........so here goes with what I know.Given the weather that greeted the gruellerites on Saturday, was I secretly glad I’d had a couple of other commitments that had caused me to miss this one...........not half - it was blowing a hoolly with some nasty showers thrown in for good measure
By the time I managed to pop down the cut to see how the guys had fared there was only half hour plus of the scheduled 4 hours left. And man was that wind was whistling........
I got out of the car and scrambled down the bank to the towpath...........what was going on? Where had they pegged?
There were 14 down to fish, but in the ‘sheltered’ pound by the ‘car park’ there were only a couple of anglers – at either end.
‘Perhaps they are all on the boats?’ I thought as Big Col had indicated he intended pegging out down that end. ‘These couple of souls are pleasure anglers’ I initially thought to myself ‘Better see if I can flog em a permit’ 
Just as I headed up to Grove Marina, Mike E strolled up........’You obviously aint found any of your normal kinvers if yam walking’ I said to him. ‘Half have packed up and Buzza’s chucked his car keys in the cut thinking they was groundbait – he’s been in the cut for the last couple of hours trying to find ‘em’ Mike E told me
‘Wouldn’t fancy that’ I thought to myself – I was froze in that wind and I’d only been there 5 minutes
I trotted up towards the marina first to see who was on the ‘cock’ pegs...........I might have known it – it was this happy chappy........
Big Col T was struggling with just a few silvers in the net, so I had a rummage around and found him some alternative bait to try
I’d noticed Blues4eva up by end peg Yamo. ‘Strange’ I thought. I then learnt that he’d basically packed up fishing when Buzza on the next peg had had his disaster and had gone home to get him chest waders when initial attempts to ‘net’ the offending keys had proved fruitless.
Heading back to the boatyard I passed Tony C who’d snared a few of Mike E’s kinvers but confided he was glad that it was only 4 hrs today. Trevor B probably thought the same as he was being well and truly gruellered
Then the sad sight of Buzza looking totally yellow stream off and frustrated as he’d shifted 3 ton of silt onto the towpath but still hadn’t recovered his only set of car keys
........and needless to say he didn’t say ‘Cheese’ when I pointed the camera at him..... 
OBI next peg down had fared a bit better – well for one he hadn’t done a Buzza and slung his keys in the cut, and what was better, he whispered that the ‘new method’
that he had told me the day before that he was gunna try had in fact worked and he’d snared a few silvers on it.........nuff said, ya secret is safe with me OBI 
I was getting chilled by now but thought I’d better just pop down to KOD. He’d ‘had a few’ but advised that he was being battered by the next guy on the end peg who’d had some good kinvers..........
It started raining again with 5 minutes left – didn’t feel like getting drenched so back to the warmth of the car
Haven’t seen a result sheet, but later on I heard later on that that angler on the end peg had walked it..........
1st Jason C - 5lb odd
2nd OBI – 2lb 6oz
3rd Yamo – 2lb odd
