The 9th Stoney and Friends Charity Fish-in
was the biggest and most successful yet.
This year a record 158 individuals paid
to take part, who over the weekend raised
a massive £21,080•33 for people
living with cancer. With money still to
come in from a number of participants this
figure is set to rise.
Although the gates didn’t officially
open until the Friday morning, a number
of anglers travelled down on the Thursday
evening for the traditional car park social.
Most impressively, were a pair of anglers
who finished work in Newcastle that afternoon,
stopping only to collect their tackle from
Leeds on their way down.
too much social?
By early Friday morning the car park was
choc-a-bloc with cars as people arrived
from all 4 corners of the country; friends
were reacquainted as Craig “The Cheerful
Chippy” served fresh brews and full
English breakfasts. As well as the previously
mentioned Newcastle via Leeds route, anglers
had travelled from as far a field as Blackburn,
Glamorgan, Devon and Great Yarmouth to highlight
just four. None of these, however, endured
a journey as difficult as regular supporter
Phil Blumsum, who travelled from Hove in
Sussex by train and bicycle. Amongst the
anglers attending were a number of females
and three generations of the Hill family.
With 10 lakes being available this year
(Sandhurst, Match, Nursery, Copse and Summer
on the east side of the complex and the
Split, Pumphouse, Horseshoe, Pads and South
lakes to the west) anglers were soon fishing
in a variety of locations using a mutitude
of tactics.
Saturday dawned fine and bright and reports
were soon coming in of a couple of big catfish
landed. Other known captures at this stage
included two 29 lb carp, a 26 lb common
and a few doubles out of Sandhurst, a 28
lb carp out of the Copse, a 35 lb catfish
out of the Split Lake ( Kindly sponsored
by REEL. IT. Just for this weekend ) but
top capture so far had to be a 44 lb 6 oz
catfish out of the Nursery Lake.
Noon arrived and signalled the start of
the raffle ticket marathon. With the weather
continuing to be warm and sunny the team
of jolly ticket sellers (Allan, Chris, Vikki,
Sam and myself) donned shorts and suncream
and set off on our merry way. Needless to
say when we were as far as possible from
the car park, and our waterproofs, the heavens
opened and it was 5 very wet and bedraggled
individuals who arrived back in the car
park some 3 hours later. The weather, however,
had not dampened the generosity of everyone
and, with only half the complex complete,
Allan and Chris were quickly despatched
to purchase some more tickets.
Eventually, more than 6 hours later (and
a couple of changes of clothes) everyone
had been offered tickets and, with dusk
fast approaching, it was time for everyone
to concentrate once more on their fishing.
Sunday dawned fine and bright but this
time these conditions didn’t last
for long; but at least a few more captures
were being reported. Whilst nothing to top
the 2 catfish from the previous night, many
more fish had been caught during the second
night including a 11 lb 2 oz bream from
the Nursery, a 20 plus carp from the Pads
Lake, and numerous doubles from around the
complex.
As people gathered in the car park for
the infamous raffle our 2 raffle tickets
girls worked tirelessly to ensure that nobody
went home with change in their pockets.
At 1pm, as the prizes were being put out
on display, the sun, very fittingly, came
out.
Before the raffle there were the numerous,
but fully justified, thank you’s,
as well as a few prizes to hand out:
This year Alan Cooper of Perfection Groundbaits
had presented us with a trophy for the captor
of the best specimen caught over the weekend.
The unanimously agreed winner of this was
Tom Harrison for his 44 lb 6 oz catfish
from the Nursery Lake (he also had the 11
lb+ bream!). Along with a trophy his prize
included a voucher for 10 kilos of bait
of his choice from Perfection Groundbaits.
Simon Clarke of the Catfish Conservation
Society (CCG) had provided a year’s
free membership to the CCG for the capture
of the best catfish. However, as Tom Harrison
was not targeting cats he generously agreed
to allow us to present this to Joel Pritchard
for his 35 lb Split Lake capture.
Finally, in recognition for all the hard
work that goes in to raising sponsorship
we like to acknowledge those people that
raise the most personal sponsorship and
this year, raising a total of £822•00,
Christian Price was presented with a beautiful
“Stoney Stalker” one of only
2 of a type stalking rods donated by David
Bird, one of our Vice-Presidents. Prizes
were also awarded to Mark Mann (£569•90),
Paul Martin (£506•70), Ray Owen
(£452•00), Tom Richardson (£440•00)
and Richard Dalmas (£410•00).
At long last it was time for me to stop
talking and for Chris to commence the raffle.
This year, as always, our sponsors had done
us proud and with so many prizes (and so
few different coloured tickets!) the raffle
took over an hour to complete.
As already stated this year we raised a
record £21,080•33, with quite
a bit still to come in but none of this
would be achievable without the help of
many people. Obviously without the participants
themselves this event would be nothing,
but special thanks also need to go to the
following:
Ian Welch and his staff of CEMEX Angling
for kindly donating the whole Dynamite Yateley
Complex
Ray Vandell and his team of Bailiffs at
the CEMEX Angling Dynamite Yateley Complex
Ruth Lockwood and her staff at Yateley
Angling Centre for their continued and varied
support
Our helpers and marshals over the weekend:
Eugene Burke
Sean Gibson
Duncan Green
Martin Lewis
Andy Paice
Graham Plater
Brian Richardson
Our raffle ticket girls:
Sam Goulden
Vikki Richards
And our sponsors:
CEMEX Angling. Nutrabaits. DHL Express.
Moorland Fisheries.
Dynamite Baits. Solar Tackle. Angling Publications.
Perfection Groundbaits.
Reel.IT Coulsdon Carp Centre. Cotswold
Aquarius. Surbiton Angling.
Heathrow Bait Services. MCF. Crawley Angling
Society. Shakespeare.
Gold Label Tackle. Atomic Tackle. Nat West.
Gardner Tackle.
Richworth. DB Design Group. Enterprise
Tackle. Fishrite
Yateley Angling Centre. SBS Tactical Baits.
Catfish-Pro Ltd. Leeda.
JRC. Catfish Conservation Group. Rigcraft.
ECHO.
Specialist Anglers Alliance. Villeroy &
Boch. Europe-Assistance.
Southern Angler. John Roberts Tackle Developments.
Ringwood Tackle.
Keenets. Carp-Tech. Martin “Smarts”
Lewis.
Ringwood Brewery. Surface Technology Systems
PLC. Blue Cube.
Next year the event will take place over
the weekend 11, 12 & 13 August 2006.
I hope we will see you there helping make
our 10th Anniversary even more successful.
Just some of the wonderful catches caught
by the anglers this year:
Robert Curry………Pads 23
lb 4 oz Mirror
Miles Laughton….. Sandhurst 29 lb
Common, 24 lb Mirror, 16 lb Mirror
Christian Price……Sandhurst
25 lb 8 oz Mirror, 2 x 19 lb Commons
Kelvin Norris……..Sandhurst
14 lb 12 oz Mirror
Graham Shuck……Sandhurst 24
lb Common
Graham Plater……South Lake 21
lb 12 oz & 15 lb Mirror, 19 lb 8 oz
& 16 lb 8 oz Common
James Hill………..Horseshoe
6 lb Tench x 2, 5 lb Tench x 4, 4 lb Tench
x 2, Bream 8 lb & 9 lb,
Tom Richardson…Horseshoe 6 lb Tench,
7 lb Bream, and many Tench & Bream around
4 lb.
Andy Paice……….Split 11
lb Catfish
Tom Harrison…….Nursery 44 lb
6 oz Catfish, 11 lb Bream, 15 lb Mirror,
14 lb Common, Many Bream to 9+
Well done everyone.
Until next year
TUG WILSON
Press Officer
Macmillan Cancer Support
“Stoney and Friends” Committee.
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