Forget Ali v Fraser or England v Germany, this was the big one. Pike Anglings biggest grudge match was coming back to Canterbury with us hosting it this time as the cup holding champions.
When I walked into the room I was both shocked and crestfallen. I shall explain. This cup is now in its 3rd year. Year 1 saw Canterbury hosting the first event and Thames Gateway took the piss and turned up with two members those being Steve "Spike" Gould and Malcolm Styles. Turns out that both of them are walking fecking encyclopedia's are far as Pike are concerned and they romped it and stole the cup from off its pride of place on the old duffers biscuit tin. In our defence a lot of us didn't turn up to this one prefering to leave it in the hands of Andy Larkins (this was before we started calling him Jonah Larkins.)
Year 2 saw us going to Thames Gateway and we got mobbed. It was 6 against about 15. I considered just grabbing the cup and making a run for it but they breed em big up there and a few of them had downed a pint or two by the time we got there and I wouldn't have fancied my chances, besides I think they had an inkling of what was on my mind because they sat us down as far from the door as they could then crowded round it. We didn't need to resort to underhand tactics though, we won it fair and square......Jonah Larkins wasn't there (can you see where I'm going with this)
Anyway back to this year. The two encyclopedia's are sitting there and so was our Jonah. Holy feck our backs were up against it now. On the plus side though we had a roomful and JR was also in attendance and he has forgotten more than most of us know so unless the questions were all about those things that he had forgotten about we had a chance surely.
The quiz started and at this point I'd like to thank our quizmaster Nick Prior for a well thought out and presented quiz. A lot of work must have gone into it and it was both fun and different. Well done mate. Actually I'm glad Nick was quizmaster as we would have been severly disabled on the name the angler round with him in the team if the recent issue of Pikelines is anything to go by........Who is this James Gardner that keeps popping up by the way lol.
Once the quiz was underway it became obvious from the crumbs that had accumulated at my feet that JR, who was sat next to me, was more interested in the assorted fayre in front of him than what was on the screen, however I needn't have worried as Steve Gould had forgotten his own name as had our own Andy Brown but the boys were on form and once JR had eaten more mince pies than Santa on Xmas Eve he also came up with some blinding answers, granted most of them were wrong but to be fair he had, by this time, spied the biscuits and his mind was on other things. My cunning plan consisted of putting Nev Fickling down as an answer to everything as I knew that I would have at least one right on a pike orientated quiz. Turns out I was right as well :-) The count up took place and we did it! We won AGAIN and have a years worth of bragging rights against the boys from the North. Although given the look of disgust and shock on their faces as I placed the cup back on the biscuit tin we may go easy on them for a while.........Nah stuff that! WE WON YOU LOST!!!!! Ner Ner Na Ner Ner.
We have been toying with the idea of some sort of "fish in" competition with our neighbours oop North and I was even more for it when the round robin took place at the start and the Gateway boys took part and reeled off what they had caught this season.......That was until I listened to what the whole room was saying on their catch reports and, as I fish with half of them, realised that they are fecking pikers and as such are prone to lying through there back teeth and underplaying their hand lol. ...........Would be a laugh though, maybe one for the future ;-)
Well done to all that took part and our thanks to Spike and Malc for coming down and keeping the Comp alive. Happy Xmas and tight lines to one and all.
