My first open was a similar experience to neilio it was on the river witham around tatts bridge about 1990, i was very nervous at the draw not wanting to make an ar*e of myself. So put my hand in the bag and drew one above the bain mouth (noyed bream and roach area) i started to set up and the peg below me seemed to be free, starting to feel confident with this obvious advantage i set up the feeder rod and then a stick float rod with a john allerton lignum stick (remember those). I was ready with 20 mins to go and a car drew up and you guest it this 6ft plus bloke got out and because i'd seen is photo in the mags new it was john. Not only was he opposite the bain mouth it put my plan of using the stick float out of the window i wasn't going to have him laughing at my incompetance. Any way it turned out to be a feeder match with bream on the cards and i came 2nd in section to john which wasn't to bad.

I did get my own back though i havn't drawn next to him again untill this year at lindholme when we were on luarals he came late to his peg again and my heart dropped again, he was on a point (flyer) and i was down the side. At the end he weighed 68lb odd and i had 69lb odd, we had a good chat after and its nice after all these years and practise to be told you fished a good match by someone of his calibre.

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Steve Davies