Cofton Cup VIII

The eighth edition of the Cofton Cup took place during the last week of April with 45 anglers competing to be crowned the Cofton Cup champion. A new format was fished this time round with each angler fishing one of the three 15 peg qualifying rounds. Anglers finishing in places 1-5 went through to the Cofton Cup final, anglers placed 6-10 contested the Plate final and the remaining anglers placed 11-15 contested the new prize, the Spoon.

This format gave everyone an opportunity to fish a final for prizes and money. The format was well received and will be taken into the next editions of the cup.

Glorious weather throughout the week added to the atmosphere that always accompanies cup week.

Qualifier 1 on Sunday started the proceedings with Graham Nicklin’s catch of 83.01 from peg 23 topping the leaderboard. Other notable catches included John Davies qualifying for the final in 5th place from un-fancied peg 7 and Rupert Hall’s carp off of peg 1.

Qualifier 2 got underway on Monday with Clive Hancock fishing in his first Cofton cup netting the top weight at 66.13 from peg 25. Rob Ellis also fishing in his first cup qualified in 4th keep eye out for his name in the final.

Tuesday saw the last qualifier number 3 and by the end we had the completed line ups for our finals. 4 times winner Andy Everill came out on top in this one weighing in 78.11 and going into the final looking for a fourth consecutive win.

The inaugural Spoon final was fished on the Wednesday and it’s first winner was Craig Smith who put together a 45.07 weight from peg 10. A well deserved and popular win. Runner up was Simon Pickney from peg 15 with 39.08. Kevin Gunn came 3rd with 31.13 from peg 17 going a little way to making up for suffering the pain of peg 7 in his qualifier.

The Plate was a very well contested match with a former cup runner up picking up the win. Paul Bland compiled a net of 48.07 from peg 17 to just pip Mike Nunn into 2nd with 45.04 off peg 25 and Peter Hall 3rd with 41.06 off peg 5. Our plate champion in his own words fished a terrible qualifier and should have done better, so was very please to bounce back and get the win.

Cup final day Friday and there was, as always, a bit of electricity in the air come draw time. With the final 15 it really could of been anyone’s match. The spectators all had different ideas on who was favourite. It was an exceptional match and had great weights all the way through from top to bottom.

Clive Hancock was in the process of compiling a great bag only to brake his pole 1.5 hours from the end. He tells me he didn’t catch another fish after this incident. He would be thinking what if as he still weighed in 67.04 to finished 4th. Picking up the money in 3rd place was Phil Denslow with 74.05 from peg 15 and runner up was former Champion Bob Rand with 82.09 from peg 10. Our Cofton Cup VIII champion and richly deserved winner was Rob Ellis who had an amazing fish off peg 13 which had not produced much across the week.

Rob’s final weight was 92.01 highest of the week and also contained a silverfish net of 30.03 which also netted him the Dave Honey Silverfish award. This was Rob first Cofton Cup making his achievement even more incredible. Well done to our champion Rob Ellis.

Rounding out the prizes, the heaviest individual fish was Lee Prophet’s 12.06 fish from the first day.

Cofton Cup Final

Winner: Rob Ellis – 92.01 – peg 13

Runner-Up: Bob Rand – 82.09 – peg 10

Third Place: Phil Denslow – 74.05 – peg 15

Clive Hancock – 67.09 – peg 23
Tony Rickard – 63.08 – peg 17
Gary Hennessy – 49.01 – peg 1
Phil Strickland – 45.13 – peg 12
Steve Bond – 45.13 – peg 21
Ian Somerset – 39.09 – peg 19
John Davies – 39.01 – peg 22
Graham Nicklin – 36.13 – peg 7
Andy Everill – 32.13 – peg 8
Lee Prophet – 30.01 – 12
Ken Carter – 23.04 – peg 5
Tony Bird – 21.09 – peg 25

Plate Final

Winner: Paul Bland – 48.07 – peg 17

Runner-Up: Mike Nunn – 45.04 – peg 25

Third Place: Peter Hall – 41.06 – peg 5

Marc Barden – 40.08 – peg 1
John Simpson – 39.07 – peg 7
Scott Preece – 33.01 – peg 12
Stephen Bridle – 31.01 – peg 13
Nick Selway – 30.06 – peg 23
Dave Walton – 29.02 – peg 15
Stephen Prophet – 26.04 – 3
Danny Prince – 23.10 – peg 19
Martin White – 17.05 – peg 21
Nigel Stanley – 17.02 – peg 8
Alan Prophet – DNW – peg 10
Steve Saxton – DNW – peg 22

Spoon Final

Winner: Craig Smith – 45.07 – peg 10

Runner-Up: Simon Pickney – 39.08 – peg 15

Third Place: Kevin Gunn – 31.13 – peg 17

Stuart Stevens – 23.05 – peg 25
Bert Burgess – 21.11 – peg 23
Lee McDougall – 18.10 – peg 8
Rupert Hall – 12.11 – peg 5
Dan Fawcett – 11.14 – peg 19
Ken Toft – 10.11 – peg 13
Richard Davies – 10.08 – peg 10
Chris Preece – 09.02 – peg 12
Charlie Rostron – 07.11 – peg 21
Julian Adams – 04.10 – peg 1

Qualifier One

Graham Nicklin – 83.01 – peg 23
Bob Rand – 55.13 – peg 17
Steve Bond – 55.11 – peg 15
Lee Prophet – 40.15 – peg 19
John Davies – 38.14 – peg 7
Alan Prophet – 36.11 – peg 5
Scott Preece – 32.07 – peg 21
Mike Nunn – 31.07 – peg 12
Nick Selway – 29.14 – peg 13
Steve Saxton – 18.04 – peg 10
Darrel Edwards – 12.05 – peg 22
Bert Burgess – 12.04 – peg 3
Rupert Hall – 08.02 – peg 1
Ken Toft – 07.02 – peg 8
Mike Flory – 05.13 – peg 25

Qualifier Two

Clive Hancock – 66.13 – peg 25
Tony Bird – 50.01 – peg 15
Phil Denslow – 49.10 – peg 23
Rob Ellis – 49.01 – peg 19
Ken Carter – 44.11 – peg 21
Martin White – 40.11 – peg 17
John Simpson – 36.02 – peg 5
Nigel Stanley – 32.04 – peg 12
Steven Bridle – 31.00 – peg 3
Paul Bland – 21.00 – peg 10
Dan Fawcett – 17.06 – peg 13
Julian Adams – 17.03 – peg 22
Craig Smith – 15.09 – peg 8
Kevin Gunn – 15.07 – peg 7
Simon Pickney – 12.11 – peg 1

Qualifier Three

Andy Everill – 78.11 – peg 19
Tony Rickard – 71.02 – peg 15
Phil Strickland – 61.04 – peg 10
Gary Hennessy – 45.04 – peg 21
Ian Somerset – 32.07 – peg 17
Stephen Prophet – 32.00 – peg 1
Dave Walton – 26.05 – peg 8
Peter Hall – 26.00 – peg 23
Marc Barden – 23.03 – peg 13
Danny Prince – 22.08 – peg 5
Charlie Rostron – 17.10 – peg 3
Stuart Stevens – 11.13 – peg 22
Richard Davies – 10.00 – peg 12
Lee McDougall – 01.03 – peg 7
Chris Preece – DNW – peg 25

Cofton Holidays Fisheries Manager Luke commented “As always it’s been an absolutely fantastic week with some great performances and an amazing atmosphere. A big thank you to everyone involved for making it what it is; the greatest festival out there! We can’t wait for the next cup competition in October.”

Cofton Cup IX runs from October 9^th – 15^th 2022