Shiplate farm, West pool

Couldn't get into the match on the main today so I organised a knockup on the West pool, ended up with ten fishing, so not to bad, breakfast on the way in lillypool, and I got to say it was very nice, 4.6 on the rixster scale.
Got to the fishery and got out draw sorted before the other match,mat culpin drew for me and handed me 14 , second longest walk in the fishery, the longest walk was taken by Dave wride (15), I drew for mat and handed him 12, so we were next I each other as 12 wasn't in today, the other side of mat was John page on 11, so I was next to Weston super mares most deadly duo,😂😂😂.
First job was to go around to the far side and clear a couple of spots to fish against.

I should have bought my shears round cos that spiky grass is a bit rough to be pulling at.

I set up a pellet rig for the far side, a shallow pellet rig for half depth against the far side of possibly mugging , as there were a few fish on the top , even though it was bitterly cold, then a rig for pellet just down the far shelf, and lastly a meat rig for by the aerator and to my right just in front of a reed bed.
At the start I began on the pellet rig down the far shelf, there seemed to be a few fish about as i had some liners and lost a couple of foulers before landing a carp of about 4lb,  it I was already behind mat And John as they had had a couple a piece,   but that was my.last fish from that line,
I went across to the far side, and again liners were the only indications, the fish were swimming through without stopping to feed. It was about now that I saw a tail next to my net to the right, so I went in with my shallow rig and I had a 6lb carp, just two feet from my net, I threw a few pellets in and went back across, 15 minutes later after having had a fish from across there was another next to my net, I went in and had that one aswell,  but that was to be my last from there,  odd fish showed down there during the match but I couldn't tempt another from there, I had odd fish across but it was hard for everyone, even the main lake was being hard, dave.wride to my left was.fishing his normal soft pellet.approach, and his peg for better as the match progressed, he was catching plenty of skimmers, nothing big but plenty of bites, as for the carp side of things , John page seemed.to be doing the best as far as I could see, I was a few.fish behind him , but in the last hour I had a few better fish on meat down to my right by the weedbed, I had though mat was in between us, but I wasn't to sure as there seemed to be a total lack of activity  from him. We ended at 4.30 and I don't think anyone's was complaining as it was the coldest I have been in weeks, dave.to my left was.First to weigh , his silvers went 20lb exactly, which was enough to take the silvers money, just edging out Mike nicholls by 4oz, my fish went 52 lb which was good enough for second.

As I expected John page won on the day with 64lb, I think John and me benefited from the two empty pegs between us, oh no sorry I forgot  mat was between us , I think,

Thanks for the quid mat , shame I had to pass it straight on to John LOL 😂

The weigh sheet is below as normal, it's fished a lot harder than expected, but we had a lot of cold rain during the night and the cold.wind got a lot stronger during the day , but the main lake was a lot harder with 38lb winning overall.

When I went around to clear my.peg out , I stopped for a quick chat with (our) Mark Thomas who I haven't seen for a while, I thought he had sold his match tackle, the only rods he has got now are 5 lead rods, so I told him it pays to fish to your strengths then wandered back to my peg.

"our Mark"