A warm gentle steady rain welcomed 25 lockdown weary anglers to the inaugural match of the new season at the Bungalows and Long Reach. The pegs were drawn in a socially distant manner and the excitement was high and the banter light hearted as the match men set off to their pegs for the day. The river was in fine fettle with a residual tinge of colour from the mid-week showers and a very gentle breeze offered no challenge to the proceedings. As the match got underway the rain ceased and the conditions, although bright, were excellent.
With much expectation the anglers plied their skills and mastery to temp the waiting quarry to their baits.  The fish however, had other ideas and decided that were not going to respond to the trickery and play hard to get. Perseverance paid off for the lucky few who had drawn the fortunate pegs towards the end of the stretch where the bream were more compliant to the attractions offered. The rest of the field struggled to find the usual offerings of silver fish that abound the stretch; but most managed to winkle out a few fish to make the day a little less disappointing. The overall winner with an impressive haul of sizeable Bream was Ray Berry with 26lb 4oz, Second Place going to Ed Palmer with a mixed bag of bream and roach for 10lb 10oz and Third place taken by Dave Lee with mixed silvers for 3lb 13oz.
Most of the intrepid anglers had something to show for their efforts but all agreed it was great to be back on the bank again and the light hearted banter turned into the usual baiting (p#$$-taking) of those who had excelled on the day.