shiplate farm xmas match

After the normal sunday fry up it is off to shiplate farm for there annual chrismas match, This is a great venue run by steve and carol oliver and bein as its less that ten minutes from are home the traveling costs are minimal,
37 fishing today which is a nice turn out for any match,with both canals and the main lake in, after all the talk of were we were hoping to draw I was in the queue , I fancied end pegs 1 or 15 on the main lake or a high number on hawthorns, into the bag and out pops 8 hawthorns smack bag it the middle.
Not to disappointed as I had won a match recently from peg 9 I made two 4x10 chanti rigs for a cross in 2.5ft off water on 0.13 to 0.11 and a size 20 808 and a 4x14 chanti down the track,
After feeding  all 3 lines with a minimum amount of micro and 4mm expander I started a cross with a 4mm expander at dead depth, 30 mins in and four bites? resulted in 3 missed and one foul hooked carp which did its best to  say hello to my other lines before sheding the hook! shiplate regular and silver fish hunter gordan jones (golly) was on peg 7 and had already had a few silvers and a rouge carp on the silvers line fishing pinkee down the track, 2 hours in and I was still fish less so a switch down the track resulted in a 3oz skimmer  then nothing!
I decided to concentrate on my far lines tho bein it shallow and a switch to double maggot whilst drip feeding the same via a toss pot saw me swap between the lines across for the rest of the match fishing for 1 fish at a time seemed to be the best option then re-feeding and moving to the next swim.
All match I was drip feeding maggot by hand down my short edge and did manage to snare one carp at half depth, Ending up with 7 carp over and the one short
 I was expecting the more favoured high numbers to produce, even the ever present steve howell (peanut) on peg 12 struggled for a mere 7lb odd, I was chuffed to end up winning the lake with 34lb 5oz and back to the hut for a lovely laid on spot of very welcome hotdogs , sausage rolls, and home made mince pies" it was down to the results,
First on the day was phil (Fabio) harding on peg 15 main lake with 50lb 9oz of carp caught on the method feeder & 8mm pellet towards the lawns and after last nights monsoon season the extra water had caused the canals to fish harder of late resulting in my 34lb to be enough for 2nd on the day and a very welcome £75 in the back pocket"
Top silvers on the day went to Julian pinkett with 16lb 10oz of skimmers on main lake peg 13a fishing the waggler and maggot,
full results
1st Phil harding 50lb 9oz
2nd Dom Sullivan 34lb 5oz
3rd Mat tanton 23lb 10oz
4th Lewis jones 21lb 6oz
5th Tim lewis 19lb 6oz
Top silvers
Julian pinkett 16lb 10oz