WHILE the prospect of cold weather did materialise last week, the deeper water in the Broughton Road length of the canal failed to save the sport for last Sunday’s Skipton Winter League match.

All the catches were of small roach and perch which together produced the lowest winning weights of any match this season.

Not only that, some of the names on the leaderboard was refreshingly different for a change with Brett Young taking the individual honours with 380g.

Rob Thornton was second with 320g and Russell Heaton third with 270g. Other leading weights were 4 Andy Wharton 210g, 5 Andrew Thomas 180g and Dave Fenn a distant sixth with 140g.

In the pairs competition, Andy Wharton and Andrew Thomas tied with Ernie Ramsbotham and Brett Young to take joint first place with 390g each.

The other leading pairs were: 3 Thornton & Kenny Wright 320g, 4 Heaton & Jason Aldis 270g, 5 D & R. Fenn 200g and 6 Bill Davenport & Keith Brown 170g.

With one match remaining to be fished, Dave Fenn looks to be pretty safe in the individual competition and the same goes in the pairs along with his partner, father Bob Fenn, although another cold spell could bring about some last-minute changes.

The leading positions are – Individuals: 1 Dave Fenn 27pts, 2 Bob Fenn 36, 3 Rob Thornton 49, 4 Bill Davenport 43, 5 Graeme Waterfall 45 and Keith Brown 47. Pairs: 1 D & R Fenn 14, 2 Davenport & Brown 22, 3 Heaton & Aldis 23, 4, Thornton & Wright 29 and 6 Waterfall & Chenier and Ramsbotham & Young 32.

Davenport and Brown secured the first trophy of the season by winning the pairs knockout competition against Chenier and Waterfall by 200g to 20g.

Davenport is in with a chance of a second success when he fishes against Brett Young in the final of the individual knock-out competition.

The last match of the series will be fished on the Long Ing length of the canal at Barnoldswick on December 10.

Hopefully conditions will be kind and good sport will prevail although at the time of writing a two-week long cold spell has been forecast.