The cause is close to Kevin’s heart as his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer but successfully fought it with the help of Breast Cancer Care.

“There is no doubt that the treatment saved her life and Ii need to put something back for what they have done for us and our family we owe them so much ,” said Kevin, “And I feel that by running a match like this, anglers have a great chance to contribute to a worthy cause. It is also an opportunity for a large group of anglers to get together in a big match environment and fish in a friendly but competitive event.”

However, the sheer amount of anglers who are fishing the match this year has surprised even Kevin, and he attributes a lot of that down to the power of the internet. He said: “In previous years, the match has been promoted by word of mouth, and that has seen us with anywhere between 80 and 100 anglers. However, this year, I posted on many fishing forums, including Totalfishing.com and Maggot Drowners, and this has had a great response from anglers. There is no doubt that the forums are a great way to go if you want to advertise a big match.”

Lindholme Fishery Boss Neil Grantham had very generously given the pegs at half price, and many top tackle companies and other manufacturers had donated prizes for the extensive raffle that would take place after the match. There was over £3000 worth of prizes including a 28" colour tv donated by GBA of grimsby.

The draw.
With so many anglers on the complex, the draw was always going to be hectic, and therefore anglers were allowed to draw their pegs as soon as they arrived at the complex. Looking around, you could see that there were some top anglers fishing the match including both Alan and Sandra Scotthorne, Paul Yates, Steve Rothery, Vinnie Smith and Rob Hitchens.

Kevin Allen commented: “There are not many matches were you see such a range of anglers come together. Here there is a mix of the top anglers, club anglers, professional anglers and pleasure anglers who are fishing the match simply because it is a good cause.”

The talk at the start of the match was that the best draws would see anglers fishing on either the Bonsai or Laurels Lakes where the best weights were currently coming off in matches. Willows and Beeches would have an outside chance, depending on conditions, but anglers drawing on the Strip or Loco Lake would most likely find themselves just fishing for their ten-peg section. Taking all this into account, it was decided that there would be no pay-out for the individual top three, only an optional pool of £1 each for the out and out winner. Therefore every winner of each section would receive £75, for their effort, meaning that in effect, anglers were fishing their own ten-peg match.

“With so many anglers on the venue, this seems to be the fairest way of sharing out the money,” Kev explained.

“After all the real winner here is Breast Cancer Care, although I’m sure that the win would mean a great deal to any angler.”

The match
It was obvious from the start of the match that the fishery was not fishing as well as it usually does, but all the anglers were expecting this due to the weight of anglers on the venue – 228 is a hell of a lot!

Anglers benefiting from a bit of room were leading the way to begin with and as expected Bonsai and Laurels were the lakes producing the better fishing. Venue-regular Steve Rothery had fancied his peg, number 30 on Bonsai, when he pulled it out and he was even more happy to find that he had a bit of room when he got to his peg. He was not bagging up by any means, but he was catching F1s steadily on his own ‘Daylite Baits’ pellets by working the area to his right where he had some space.

Also on Bonsai, John Clay was catching pretty steadily, and the early money was on that lake producing the winner. Laurels was also doing ok with former England International Paul Yates, taking advantage of a decent corner draw on peg 39, to tame a few better carp in the early going. Beeches and Willows appeared to be more difficult, although some anglers were managing to catch a few fish. As expected The Strip and Loco were fishing very hard with many anglers struggling to even get a bite. However, a few anglers were catching fish down the edge and up in the water on The Strip and those fortunate to be able to throw the feeder out to the central island on Loco, were also getting the odd reward.

As the match began to draw to its conclusion, it became obvious that Tim Hayes on point peg 54 on Laurels, was catching very well down the side. Tim had struggled for about two hours of the match, before focusing his attentions on the reed bed at four metres out from the end of the point. It was here that he began to find the better carp, with fish averaging around the 5lb mark coming to the net, and as the end of the match drew near he really was motoring, catching a fish every time he went in. A tell-tale sign that he was going to be in with an outstanding chance of winning the match, was the fact that he had three keepnets in the water (there is a 50lb per keepnet limit).

As local-ace Johnny Howard sounded the horn for the end of the match, the odds looked likely that Tim had done enough to win the match as owner Neil Grantham reckoned that nobody had done a ton on Bonsai. “If he has 100lb, then he has won it easily,” Neil stated.

The result
First to weigh in was match organiser Kevin Allen, who promptly placed 17-12-0 on the scales from his peg on Willows 4. This saw him win the first, difficult, ten-peg section and give him a bit of reward for all the hard work that had done in organising the match. He said: “There is no doubt that a match like this needs some serious preparation, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of the likes of Martin Butler, and Neil Grantham and Nige Broadley and most of all the understanding from my wife , who has been spending so much time helping me get sorted and the fabulous team at Lindholme Fisheries.”

As the scales went round, the best weight up until Tim Hayes weighed was former Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion Rob Hitchens, who had managed 50-12-0 from Willows. However, most people knew that Tim had easily beaten that weight, it was just a question of by how much. Well three weighs later, and Tim’s total catch came to 131-12-0 a magnificent effort and surely enough to win the match?

As the results came in from the other lakes, it was clear that anglers on The Strip, Beeches and Loco had struggled, while the best weight from Bonsai was John Clay with 75-0-0 meaning that Tim had comfortably won the match.

The aftermath
After the match most of the anglers stuck around for the raffle, which had an extensive list of prizes. Once again, Lindholme showed why it is a top class fishery, with food and drink facilities after the match. This included bottles of beer, which on a boiling hot day, was clearly a God send! The presentation and the raffle lasted about an hour after the match and spirits were high and banter was commonplace as the usual suspects collected their prizes.

Lindholme boss Neil said: “It’s been a great day and all the anglers have enjoyed it. Credit must go to Kevin Allen who put in so much work to help raise such an excellent amount for Cancer Care.” Kevin said: “Thanks to everyone who helped with organisation and prizes, as well as to all the anglers who showed up to fish the event and bought raffle tickets.”

WINNERS DETAILS
- Name: Tim Hayes
- Team/Sponsor: Unattached
- Based: Derby
- Weight: 131-12-0
- Peg: 54 on Laurels
- How he did it: “After two hours I was treading water, really struggling, so I went down the edge at four metres towards the end of the point, just past the stick-ups. Here I had been trickling in a few pieces of meat and first cast my 4mm piece of meat was gobbled up by a decent carp. From there on in, I caught carp regularly up to the 9lb mark, feeding a dozen or so cubes of meat after every fish. With an hour to go, I stepped up my gear from 0.15 to 0.17 and my purple hydro-lastic was more than enough to tame every carp I caught."

“The peg obviously had a few fish in it, but all the same, I am delighted to have won such a big match!”

Thanks to Kevin Allen for sending this report to UK Fisherman and to Ian Brogan from Northern Angler Magazine, who wrote this piece.

Kevin will once again be organising an event next year. Full details will be appearing on Uk Fisherman, early in 2008.

If you would like to contact Kevin to offer support or just to offer your congratulations, he can be contacted at: silver.s@btinternet.com

For further detaills about Kevin's excellent fund raising, check out his new website at: www.thebigbash.co.uk