THE Braintree Club Sweep on Hobbs Croft proved to be a good match with plenty of silver fish caught and that resulted in a close finish.

Billy Walker ended the day with a match-winning 11-5-0 of roach and skimmers on a variety of baits over joker feed.

Sections (excluding winner): 1 J Loosley 10-1-8, 2 M Gould 10-6-8.

The Hill and Black Lake at the Fennes can be badly affected by the wind as it was in the Braintree Club match two weeks ago, but then it fishes quite well with a ripple.

Last Sunday it was the other extreme when it was flat calm for most of the match and then it is much harder to get a good result.

Mark Banks landed one double-figure carp plus bream and roach to win the match with a final total of 32-10-0.

Second place went to the ever-improving Matt Gould, with another good net of skimmers and bream weighing 21-13-0.

Sections (excluding top two): 1 C Sale 20-12-0, 2 B Walker 19-10-0, 3 A Gould 13-2-0.

The same anglers keep winning at Notley on Fridays and Jim Loosley took the honours two weeks ago with 12-2-0 of F1s and silvers, from Kevin Howell, who had a similar net weighing 7-11-0.

Then last Friday the carp put in an appearance and Walker landed one with silvers to win with 7-14-0, from John Daniels, who had one carp and silvers for 7-5-0.

On Sunday, the Braintree Club have a friendly match against the Kelvedon Club on Seabrooks Reservoir (draw 8.30am).

Now that most anglers fish all year round, it easy to overlook the fact that the river and most canals' season finished last Tuesday until June 16 and Rod Licences are to be renewed at the end of March.