Acorn Fishery – Bev’s Memorial Match – 30th August 2025

On Saturday it was up to Acorn for Bev’s Memorial Match which was brilliantly supported with 37 anglers booked in. We got there nice and early and enjoyed some lovely bacon and sausage rolls before getting some bait and buying tickets for the raffle after the match. Draw time arrived and Des got someone to pull out a peg for him and didn’t look overly impressed with 18 on the far side, I delved in and number 7 was my home for the day, it can be a great silvers peg and I’d done well off it before, Nick P also drew ok with number 15 on the far side.

With almost a full house and some pretty wet and windy weather forecast, most people were predicting weights might be a little lower than usual. The swim looked great with the island opposite and open water to my left but the wind was blowing into my peg and there were loads of carp moving about which wasn’t what I wanted to see!

On the whistle I fed a 13 metre line to the island, 10 metres straight out and angled to the left and a short swim at top kit plus one. Starting long, the wind was a pain and after half an hour, all I had to show for my efforts was a small roach and I’d pulled out of an ide and lost a carp! The 10 metre swim was next and I had a couple of skimmers and an ide but at this early stage it was quite hard going and from what I could see it had been a slow start for everyone.

I was hoping I’d be able to bounce between the two 10 metre swims but the line angled to the left was pretty much a non-starter. With two hours gone, it wasn’t really happening so I dropped in on the short line a lot earlier than I normally would, a few ide obliged before I hooked a better fish which turned out to be a cracking 4lb tench. I caught fairly steadily on the top kit plus one line without really bagging and towards the end of the match I had to keep rotating swims and would get a fish or two before having to move again.

At the all out, I’d finished up with 38 fish and when the scales arrived, I had a couple of carp for 12lb 2oz and then my silvers went 34lb 11oz. With everyone weighed in, all the anglers enjoyed some really nice burgers before the results and the raffle. Des once again showed his class as he won this match for the second year on the trot with 162lb 2oz, Walshy was second with 117lb 11oz from 34 and Glenn had 111lb 9oz to take third spot. I won the silvers and had a nice pick up of £80 plus a bag of groundbait (and I won a Matrix bait box on the raffle!). Photo credit – Acorn*

542059667 1236151318313594 8681400220375897578 N

Des won it for the second year running with an excellent 162lb 2oz*

1 – Des Shipp (Preston Innovations) – 162lb 2oz
2 – Mark Walsh (Acorn) – 117lb 11oz
3 – Glenn Calvert (Sensas 88) – 111lb 9oz

Sections
A – Alfie Rhodes (Acorn) – 85lb 7oz
B – Chris Fox (Acorn) – 90lb 5oz
C – Tony Whittcomb (Acorn) – 109lb 10oz
D – Paul Lasson (Acorn) – 85lb 6oz
E – Bob Gullick (Acorn) – 84lb 2oz
F – Matty Vowles (Acorn) – 107lb 12oz

Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 34lb 11oz
2 – Lee Masey (Acorn) – 18lb 5oz

It was a really nice day and I believe with money from the food sales before and after the match plus raffle tickets etc, over £600 was raised for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, a fantastic cause. A massive well done to Zoe, Mark and everyone at Acorn for organising a great match.

Thanks to £3 from Nick P along with £2 from me, the Nugget-O-Meter total climbed to £545.

There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling

Also I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here