WARDS AC matchman Leon Elsworth certainly seems to have got the measure of his club's pool, recording his second consecutive victory from his favourite peg 19 last weekend.

With many matches in the county cancelled due to plummeting temperatures, Wards members did manage to stage a winter league contest, which produced some surprisingly good weights despite their lake being completely frozen.

Offering a luncheon meat bait over a bed of corn, tactics normally reserved for the summer months, provided Elsworth with half a dozen similar sized carp which together pulled the scales around to a respectable winning weight of 15-5-0.

Runner-up from nearby peg 21 was Derek Silk who netted four carp on corn and pellet going 13-8-0.

Third place went to Dave Reeves who, finding himself on peg 14, set out his stall for silver fish and by using maggot and corn was rewarded with a mixed bag going 10-4-0.

Catches at the prolific Moorlands Farm fishery were also tempered with the best match weight recorded going to Daiwa Gordon League star Mal Watson. He used local knowledge to sit on peg 22 on Bank Pool.

Pole-fishing his pellet bait at 14 metres saw Watson net a run of carp to comfortably win 24-peg rover' contest, which was held on all pools, with a weight of 46-1-0.

Lawrence Connolly (Pace Angling Academy) finished second with 35-8-0 to beat Roman Skura's 30-13-0 third placed catch.

Pete Mace won the previous day's 31-peg open on the Meadow, Moors and Bank Pools with a pellet-taken carp weight of 39-12-0 which came from Meadow peg 15.

Boldings star Paul Cartwright finished in second place with 36-1-0 and in third spot came Sid Julian (Moorlands) weighing 32-3-0.

The over 50s contest saw Steve Gillard (Lodge Farm) use a straight lead and corn attack on Bank 18 in order to win with 43-10-0 of carp.

Martin Harrell (Tipton) was the beaten runner-up weighing 40-12-0, while in third position came Pete Short (Mid Leisure) with 34-12-0.

Peg 96 between the bridges on the prolific Belmont stretch of the River Wye has won three of the last four contests held on the venue.

Latest lucky matchman was former Wye champion Dennis O'Leary (Fox Match) who used traditional float-fished bread flake to win round seven of the Hereford Winter League with an all chub catch going 55-12-0.

After two consecutive wins on the venue Birmingham's Lee Gardener had to settle for second best with his weight of 45-6-0.

Third place went to Welsh star Richard Candy who weighed in 36-8-0 to beat Shakespeare backed Dave Brittan's fourth-placed net of 36-2-0.

Best team on the day were Shake-speare with 41 points followed by Dave Harrell's Match Fishing team on 37 and Fox Match third with 36.

League leaders are now Match Fishing with 63 points in front of Woody's and Cardiff Nomads who are joint second with 61.

Prospects: Milder weather should see things improve in all branches of the sport. On the canal, roach should start to feed on caster and maggot bait, while commercial's will respond best to sweetcorn.

With only three weekends of the season left for river anglers, sport should finally improve on the Severn with roach and chub hopefully prepared to feed after a long winter of high water levels.