Ben Leach Wins £25,000 in the Parkdean Masters Grand Final 2004 Words and pics: Angling Images Ben Leach blasted away the opposition to win the four-hour 24-angler winner-take-all Parkdean Masters Grand Final at Cornwall’s White Acres Country Park and trouser the cool £25,000 winner’s purse with 68-3-0.

Ben Leach 2005 Parkdean Masters Winner with Keith Arthur and Tony Hampson representing Parkdean Holidays

Jenny’s Lake was once again the scene for Parkdean’s Blue Riband fishing event backed by the company themselves and despite changeable weather sport was good for most. With the final reformatted to double the entry from 12 to 24Milo backed Daiwa Dorking ace Ben amazingly drew the same peg - Jenny’s 15 - as he did in last years Grand Final and confidently proclaimed that he’d messed up a chance to win back then, but wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. The confident prediction came true as he imparted an impressive display of accurate crumb feeder fishing to net carp to 12 lb plus around a dozen F1’s. With a 1 lb 8 oz carp on his first cast dropping a large Drennan Gripmesh feeder packed with casters and lightly plugged with Sensas Crazy Bait Gold and Marine tight to the marginal island grasses the tone was set. Adding a 3-pounder and several 12 oz F1’s 24-year-old Ben Latched into a big fish after 40 minutes that had him hurriedly releasing the line clip. After a tense five minute battle Ben slipped the net under a 12 lb ghostie to leave the rest of the class field playing catch-up.

A good second hour when double hair-rigged luncheon meat proved most effective saw the gas safety technician forge even further ahead with several carp and F1’s.The third hour saw him slow up and small roach upset the rhythm but a brief flirtation with the pole line produced just one skimmer and a roach. Back on the feeder, Bath, near Bristol based Ben finished with a flourish adding four late carp to 5 lb for a clear win. ‘I can’t seem to win a festival having been a runner up at best but I really wanted to win this final,’ said Ben. ‘I’ve been through a series of mixed emotions today, at one time I couldn’t bait up because my hands were shaking, but when I had a really good spell I just thought it was going to be my day,’ he went on.However he revealed that he had luck on his side: ‘I was given a lucky charm - a piece of wood with “worlds champion angler” inscribed on it and ever since I’ve carried this in my pocket I’ve been winning. ‘I let Grant Albutt touch the charm the other day and he won his lake!’ Ben, a previous White Acres match record holder, plans to use the money to go towards the deposit on a house as well as treat his mates to a skiing holiday.White Acres would like to thank Coca Cola, Coors beer, and 3663 food suppliers for their assitance in staging the event.

LAST IN SIMON ALMOST CLINCHED IT
Gabalino backed Simon Fry made it to the final by the skin of his teeth winning a four way points tie for the last and 24th qualifying place on weight aggregate and ended up as runner-up in the cliff hanger event.

Ben Leach in action as he lands another match winning carp

A tidy performance on the feeder at peg 3 saw the 40-year-old bang out several carp to 3 lb for a 48-14-0 effort. ‘I wasn’t unhappy about coming second because I always knew after the start that Ben Leach had that I and all the other anglers were playing catch-up,’ reasoned Simon who had enjoyed a couple of lake wins on his way to the final.

RINGER’S VALIANT DEFENCE
LAST years big money winner Steve Ringer again made the final after winning the five-day qualifying festival and drew peg 19, one along from his winning pitch last time, and put up a strong meat feeder based battle to bring 47-13-0 of carp to 9 lb to the scales but had to settle for third.
‘I would have liked a longer feeder chuck,’ said Steve who also added fish from his long pole line.