THERE were three RDAA matches on the River Thames last weekend, writes Alan Hughes.

Starting at the upstream venue Prospect A.C. held their match on Wallingford A section.

Kevin Jarret took the honours with 7lbs 13ozs. Pete Birtles took the runner-up spot with 7lbs 2ozs and completing the trio was Wayne Russell with 5lbs 2ozs. Skimmer bream and roach made up nearly all of the weights.

Bracknell Avocets held their match on the Wallingford B section of the Thames.

Eight anglers turned out for the fifth match of the season.

Everybody caught and the overall match weight was 40lbs 8ozs.

Big fish only showed for one angler and that was the overall winner Chris Bowman.

He had one bream of 6lbs 2ozs and along with mainly roach weighed in 12lbs 8ozs. In second place was Terry Smith with an all roach net with 11lbs 8ozs and in third place was Alan Powell with 10lbs of silver fish.

The Sonning section was the venue for Reading Civil Service and Ian Marcham took first place with an all-roach net of 20lbs 7ozs.

Roach gave Gordon McGee second place with 11lbs 7ozs and third spot went to Les Hannington with 4lbs 12ozs of roach.

Away from RDAA club matches, Reading Fishing Club and Tilehurst Royal British Legion fought out the second of their two annual matches on the River Thames at the Beale Park stretch.

With a lead from the first match, TRBL had high hopes of winning the annual Tapperns Shield on the day and this was how it worked out with TRBL taking the team honours winning by 292 points to 170.

TRBL, therefore, won the coveted shield over the two matches 547-380.

Individually first place on the day went to Martin Bowman (TRBL) as he took 23lbs 1oz to the scales with Colin Wainwright (TRBL) taking the runner-up prize with his 18lbs 7ozs and Dave Cowley (TRBL) claimed third place as he weighed in 18lbs 6ozs.

The individual cup over the two matches was won by Cowley with 57 points.

The RDAA Tuesday Club decided to fish the Thames at the Prom in Reading.

The river had gone very clear since the weekend and this showed in the reduced weights.

Colin Shepherd took the honours with an all-roach net that totalled 6lbs 3ozs.

Similar species weighing in at 4lbs 14ozs gave the runner-up spot to George Callaghan and third place was shared between Dave Bosher and Ralph Nosted who each had 4lbs 6ozs.