A match for a charity close to my heart

[Twiddler]

As many of you know I was a wife of a British soldier and spent many years within the Armed Forces.
So when a friend of mine invited me to a charity match to raise monies for the ‘Help for Heroes, I was more than happy to do a 300 mile round trip to attend the match which was held at Linford lakes in Milton Keynes.

Now my money situation is not the best so close to Christmas and at one stage I thought that I really couldn’t manage to get the money together to make it to the match.
I was very surprised and touched when my lovely daughter Kim and my youngest son Yan put their hand deep in to their pockets to contribute to the costs. I was even more surprised about my son’s word; those brave men and women deserve it’.....aww bless him, he has got a heart after all ;-)

I had set off very early Saturday morning, as I had to do a small detour to Northampton to pick a friend up on the way and arrived at the lake around 8.30am, after?.....you guessed right!!! After getting lost once again, and that even with a Sat Nav lol.

We were greeted by Mal who organized the match and a very friendly bailiff with a quad bike and a trailer to take us to our swims. (I even got to ride pillion on the quad lol)
Mark and Caroline having a lunch time snack..bacon butty



Soon the others came over to say hello and to introduce themselves, as I only met Mal and Andy before.
It’s always nice to be able to put faces to names when you have been chatting to them online and finally get to meet them.
Andy and Bob contemplating


I was well surprised about the size of the lake...a beauty of 22 acres, who the owner Dave let us have for free for the weekend...and to top that up he even donated a first class hog roast for us but we will get to that later.
View of the lake



My swim



Due to the amount of people who were supposed to turn up; the decision was made on 2 rods only. The lake bed had about 4 inch of weed, so I decided to fish chod rigs and Mark was so kind to show me how to tie them, as I have never tied one before.

Bait were 14 mm pop up tiger boilies, with a small PVA bag of crushed boilies tied to the 2oz led.
I decided to fish the deeper water about 60 yards out, due to the cold weather.
I knew it would be a tough weekend, as the wind blew cold and the carp won’t be moving around much.

By 3pm the early start and the cold got the better off me and I snuggled up in to my sleeping bag having a snooze when I got woken by a few bleeps on my right rod. My hopes of a bite were quickly shattered when I saw a couple of swans in my swim knocking my line.

By now it was already dark and a quick look on the clock told me it was almost time to bring the rods in to get ready for the evening festive in the club house.

As mentioned before Dave the lake owner was so generous to donate a massive hog roast with all the trimmings and offered us the same again for next years event.


A raffle and an auction also took place that evening with some cracking prizes donated by a tackle shop owners and even a celebrity in the angling world, who was also present at the match and run the auction in such a fantastic way that even Del boy would have blushed of envy.

The one and only Jonny Bannister!!!!
Not only that he had us wetting ourselves laughing all night but he also got some cracking donations together for the auction with the help of his best mate Rob who has his own tackle shop/bait company.
Both of them were very generous to say at least and really went out their ways to help raising as much money as possible for such a fantastic course.
Jonny, me and Danny


But that’s not all; Trevor Higgs also gave a generous donation, one week free fishing for 2 on Freedom lakes in France.

The evening went on with a lot of food, banter, a few drinks and making new friends until about midnight when it was time to head back to the swims to put the bait out for the night and to snuggle up in to the sleeping bags.

The fish didn’t play ball for any of us, only Danny caught an 18lb common, two Tench and a couple of bream, the rest of us blanked but nobody really cared about that, as catching fish wasn’t that important.
The reason we all were there however was.

It was a fantastic weekend although only about 14 people managed to attend the match, yet a good sum of around £1600 were raised.

I know it’s only it’s not a huge sum and much more is needed to help and support the boys and girls who risk their life’s, get injured or even killed on their tour of duties for this country.

I’m pleading to all of you, please make a donation, even though it may only be a couple of pounds, every little help to make a difference for our war heroes.
https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/H4H

[fishypaul]

well done claudia its an excellent cause and you all deserve a big pat on the back for what you have done,
i have already given them my donation

[cuckoo]

Cracking report sis , looks like a great time was had by all , and that looks like a awsome place to fish £1600 is a fantastic amount raised , well done to you all i would have gone for the pig roast

[pingu]

although non military i know alot about what happens via my brother who works at at RAF Headly Court rehabilitation centre, its a very worthy cause

nice one all, a great sum raised from what looks like a great weekend

dave,

[barbelblanker]

Couldn't agree more Twiddler and I think we DO also need to remember the families of our armed forces when their men and women are in harms way. It just goes to show how people feel the HFH started trying to raise a few million and more and more people, as they become aware, put their hands in their pockets for such a worthy cause. Service families must have a lot to put up with at ALL times but especially when there seems to be a constant need for their loved ones to be away. Golden opportunity, maybe, to stretch out a hand and see if there's anything we can do to help them , maybe even take their minds off it with a days fishing for them or their kids. Now there's a thought.

[Banana Steve]

Great report Trouble, and all for a good cause. Well Done

[paddy2k7_red4life]

a very good report and its for a very good cause

[ctwhitelaw]

great report and all for a great cause too, Well done.