I used to fish the wallers avon with that exact approach - ball in a mix that had 3 pints of squatt in it at the start and catch over it all day...
You have to tell us alot more about the venue, like the width of it (pehaps the carp are just backing off when it gets a match on it - does anyone catch on a waggler or feeder)
If its only 20-30lb to win these matches is it possible to fish for silvers? Is there a good head of roach you could possibly catch on caster for a couple of hours - bringing these silvers into your swim will help attract the carp for later in the match.
Personally I would leave the margin peg for at least an hour or two before you try catching there - i think you will line quite a few more fish up there if you leave them to get their heads down - sounds to me like its one of those venues where you just have to keep switching lines to keep fish coming, 30lb isnt a big weight to do this way.
When we used to fish willow park regularly we used the tactic of balling in 4 or 5 big balls of groundbait - but not what you would call jaffas - these balls where more the size of small footballs - the reason being we found the jaffa size balls broke down too quickly and would hold the fish for only a couple of hours - with these super sized balls of groundbait we could put in less free offerings and make the fish work harder to get to the bait, this tended to keep them there for 3-4 hours without having to refeed. So if you want to try the tactic you are talking about I would personally not put too much feed into the balls but make them bigger... either that or try the silver fish approach and go for the carp later in the match... but tell us a bit more about the venue and perhaps we can help out more.
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