Higgins tops Maver British Pole Champs

Merseyside man Matt Higgins is this year’s Maver British Pole Champs winner. The Neptune Angling man weighed in 153-1-0 from peg 30 on the Specimen Lake to win the 82-peg match fished by qualifiers from Maver Mega Match This eliminators that have taken place throughout the spring and summer.
A finalist in the forthcoming Match This final, Matt ended up well clear of runner-up Pete Upperton, another angler who will be fishing for £50,000 in a few weeks’ time in the final, the Middy rod recording 112-6-0 from peg 52 on the same lake.
In fact, it turned out to be a good weekend for Pete as, the day before, he teamed up with his mate Robbie Taylor to win the 86-peg Maver Pairs match, the two men both winning their sections to post a perfect two points, Perry Stone and Rob Hitchens taking second on five points.
Individual glory was also there in abundance for the winners as Robbie took second and Pete fourth, Kieron Rich winning overall with 133-2-0 from the Specimen Lake.
The main focus though, was on the Pole Champs and, being pole-only, there was no place for the feeder or pellet waggler on what turned out to be a blustery day at Maver Larford Lakes.
Matt began his match by fishing pellet shallow at 13m to take carp and a few skimmers, before changing to the margins with the same bait to locate some of the lake’s famed big carp up to 17lb.
It was a similar story for Surrey man Pete on the opposite bank of the lake as he started shallow but took the bulk of his weight from the margins on meat.
The day before, Middy-backed Kieron was taking the individual honours from peg 22 as he fished pellet on the deck at 14.5m and later shallow to find carp and skimmers, finishing the day on meat in the edge for some big carp. Robbie, on peg 44 of the Specimen Lake, found his carp on the pellet waggler and then pellet down the side to register 131-1-0 at the scales to just miss out.
However, there was plenty of consolation on the pairs front as, combined with Pete Upperton’s 91-4-0 section winner on the Match Lake, no other pairing were a match for them as they won the title in comfort to pocket the well-earned £1,000 top prize.