One Hundred and Nine Qualifiers fished the first final of this fantastic event.

Out of over 1,200 anglers who had fished qualifying rounds at various Premier Fisheries venues around the country, 109 Anglers had a great day out at the prestigious Mallory Park Fisheries complex in Leicestershire.

ABU GARCIA and CEMEX ANGLING sponsored the event.

Apart from pools on the day a total of £9,500 was paid out to the 9 section winners. In addition, prizes with a retail value of £22,500 from ABU were won at the qualifying rounds.

With sections averaging out at 12 Anglers, each of the 9 section winners picked up £500 plus pools plus a top of the range ABU Suveran 13’match rod.

In addition the highest section winner picked up an additional cheque for £5000.

The bad fishing conditions of a bright sunny day preceded by a cold clear night made fishing relatively hard. Several anglers amassed good weights in the latter stages of this exciting event.

The overall individual winner was Jeff Reast from Nottingham with a total of 133lbs. fishing for ABU GARCIA.

Jeff drew on the famous UGLIES Pool. Fishing paste at 10 metres on the pole, he just piped Perry Stone who drew on Glebe pool 1 who weighed in 127lbs 11oz. of mainly feeder caught fish. It was a nail biting finish with 7 anglers weighing in over 100lbs.

Some of the sections estimates were too close to call, Clint Elliot of White Acres fame used every trick in his book to weigh 104lbs 05oz to just beat Geoff Valance off the next peg in Pretty Fish pond who had 104lbs 01oz.

There was a similar battle in the lower section of Glebe Phase 2 between local angler John Hall and Dynamite Baits Alex Bones. John had a terrific run in the last couple of hours to weigh in 116lbs against Alex 100lbs 2oz.

Man of the Match was awarded to 15-year-old Luke Bamford who weighed in 88lbs 6oz from an unfancied peg on Mallory Big Lake, he was presented with a Suveran Match rod by fishery owner Roy Marlow for his achievement.

Kevin Coe and David Higham directors of Premier Fisheries presented the cheques. Both directors agreed that for the first event of its kind from Premier it was an outstanding success and told the anglers that next year’s event would be bigger and even better.

Graham Thomas, managing director of Pure Fishing UK the major sponsors was equally enthusiastic and was looking forward to being involved in a bigger event next year.

Fishery owner and director of Premier Fisheries Roy Marlow thanked everyone involved. “The atmosphere of this event was excellent, everyone came for a fun day and enjoyed it. This event was aimed at Premier Fisheries regular customers and not a few superstars. This event is the way forward and will be bigger and better next year”