DESPITE a valiant attempt and a final match victory, White Hart team secretary Trevor Powell narrowly failed to catch consistent Terry Southard for the title of this year’s club champion.

The club pool at Grimley played host to the final encounter with Powell taking carp on a red maggot and method-feeder set-up which he cast tight to the far island on peg seven and was rewarded with a match-winning weight of 28-1-0.

Steve Morgan was unlucky on ‘Golden Peg’ 23, falling just short of the winner with 24-6-0. Despite breaking his pole on a big fish, Morgan managed a number of carp on the pellet to just miss out on the extra £100 pay-out.

Third place went to Sean Brad-shaw with a feeder-caught 16-0-0 from peg six to beat 10-year-old Matt Maslin who showed the senior members the way home with a fourth-place 13-12-0 carp net.

Southard was declared 2009 champion with 43 points, Powell second on 38 with Dan Clarke third with 35.

The final White Hart outing of the year will be the Fur and Feather contest on October 11.

Club veteran Acko Staite narrowly won the Arbo contest on the River Avon at Eckington.

The fixture is proving lucky for the former Wye dace expert after he won the same fixture last season.

Drawn just above the road bridge, Staite used a ‘topper’ float along with red maggot on the hook over a bed of groundbait in order to net 5-1-8 of small skimmers. Close behind in second place was Tim Yapp netting 4-14-8 of perch and skimmers along with a useful three-pound tench on pole and maggot.

Third spot went to Ade Wilks, weighing in 2-10-0, and Ron Smith was fourth with 1-12-0.

Barbourne members had a close contest when they tackled the middle pool at Woodstone Manor near Tenbury Wells.

Top rod on the day with 46-4-0 was Derek Silk who offered red meat at 10 metres on peg five to net carp to around five pounds.

Lee Griffiths claimed the runner- up prize with a sweetcorn-taken carp net of 43-8-0 from peg 12, while Ashley Bosworth was third weighing in 40-12-0 from peg nine.

The Saturday open at Cob House Fisheries’ Laugherne Island pool saw John Watson come out on top when he weighed in 176-6-0 of carp, all coming from the margins on pellet and corn from peg 18.

Shakespeare star Neil McKinnon was second with a method-feeder weight of 140-8-0 from peg 15. On peg 24 was third placed man Gary Romain who weighed 117-5-0 to beat Chris Cameron’s 100-12-0 net.

Chris Senter’s domination of Br-ockamin matches continued with him winning the John Jefferies and Bill Edgar Memorial contest with a huge weight of 152-7-0.

Finding himself on permanent peg five on the top pool, Senter caught carp from across to the island early on before netting eight good fish in the final two hours on corn from the margins.

Best weight from the bottom pool was Anthony Perkins (Wales) with 85-2-0 off peg 25, all his fish coming to pellet presented shallow.

Pole expert Alan Baldwin took third prize with a paste-caught 49-10-0 from top pool peg 33 to beat Rob Wiltshire’s 48-14-0.

PROSPECTS: Tomorrow sees the start of the popular Hereford Winter League but with the Wye desperately low, competitors will be hoping for a draw on one of the river’s huge chub shoals.

If not it will be a small fish affair with perch and bleak scoring good points.