SPA AC match secretary Mick Watson comfortably won the well attended New Year's Day open at Droitwich Angling Centre.

Held on the new stretch of the canal east of the town, Watson benefited thanks to a run of good fish at the start of the match.

Finding himself on peg 28, he had no hesitation despite the canal being heavily coloured and landed some roach early on.

Continuing with the same tactics saw him also add a skimmer before the shoal eventually left for him to end the match with a winning total of 5-7-3.

Top Worcester rod Tim Biddle (Sensas DAC) came second when he posted a worm-caught peg one catch of 3-12-3 while Tony Foster (Stourbridge) took third on peg 25 with a weight of 2-10-4.

Section prizes went to Paul Harris, Matt Hodgetts, Lee Davey, Steve Worton and Gary Rowberry.

n Catfish expert Mick Watling won a closely-fought Christmas contest held on Court Farm Fishery, Deblins Green.

Despite gale force winds, all of the leading anglers recorded double figure catches as Watling targeted the venue's small carp population with pellet bait offered close in over groundbait and posted a creditable winning weight of 16-7-0.

Second place went to match organiser Dave Warren who went further out to 11 metres with worm and pinkie baits to net a mixed bag weighing 12-2-0.

Commercial fishery ace Matt Barnes used a feeder set up with maggot to beat the conditions and weigh in third (11-2-0), beating Richard Oliver’s all rudd net of 10-1-0.

n The Boxing Day open at Moorlands Farm saw regular Neil Colcombe narrowly win with 63-7-0 of F1 carp.

All of Colcombe's catches were taken at just three metres on maggot from middle pool peg 12. Second was Adam Jones (Strike) with 56-7-0 and third Jeff Borden (Fosters) 48-3-0.

The following Saturday open on silver pool saw Rob Brennan (HT Angling) also take all F1 to record a winning weight of 53-8-0. Runner up was Stuart Tibbetts (C.I.) with Paul Bailey (DHA) third.