SALISBURY bait and tackle wholesaler Lee Woodhouse (Team Carbotech) saw £20,000 slip through his hands in the Cornish Whiteacres Skol Masters final after leading the event until the last half hour.

With the competition only paying the winner, it proved a costly 2lb 5oz between Woodhouse's weight and that of winner Alex Murray (Team Sillybait).

There were 188 anglers competing over five days on Whiteacres, Porth, Bolingey and Gwinear. The top 12 on points went through to the grand final on Jenny's Lake at Whiteacres for the final shootout - winner take all.

Woodhouse won his lake at Porth with 17lb of skimmers on the feeder, and had a second place on the match lake at Whiteacres with 77lb of carp on the pole and meat, followed by section wins on Trelawney with 31lb and Bolingey with 48lb. He finished eighth overall of the 188 competitors collecting £1,200 on the way.

In the Grand Final, Woodhouse shot into an early lead, taking small carp on a mixture of waggler and feeder tactics and, with half an hour to go, looked to have the £20,000 in his grasp only to see winner Alex Murray take three late carp for 5lb to give him 28lb 12oz at the scales.

Grant Ulbit also finished strongly to weigh 27lb 10oz with Woodhouse back in third with 26lb 7oz. Luckily for Woodhouse he did a deal with Alex Murray before the final. If either won the pot each agreed to give the other £1,500. Woodhouse walked away with £2,700 for his week's effort - and memories of what might have been!

Cormorants' Dave Hambridge finished 17th in the festival, missing out on qualifying by just one point after a second on Gwinear an two section wins, while Hansfords' Chalkie White, who failed to collect on the fishing, landed £365 at a bingo game.

Wickfords unbeaten run in The Mid-Hants Winter League came to an end in the second round on Gold Valley Lakes, Farnborough.

Steve Harris 40lb 12oz, Brett Cooper 34lb 6oz, Tom Stone 29lb 4oz all won their sections for Hansfords who also had three runners up in their sections. Hansfords are now in second place in the series with the next round on The Thames this weekend.

Hansfords' Chalkie White is holding an 80 peg open on the Lower Lake, Match lake and Main Lake at Broadlands on Sunday November 5 with tickets available from White on 02380 785285.

Cormorants' latest round of their club championship on Tony Beeny's Wytherington Farm Fishery at Downton on the inner circuit of his new Top Moor match lake saw the first win of the year for Dave Nightingale.

Nightingale, in his second match after a triple heart bypass, took 30lb 3oz of small carp and bits from the bridge peg on ten-metre pole and maggot to get the better of Terry Randall. Randall weighed in 25lb 8oz of small carp with Neil Tappin third with 18lb 4oz, (others, G Collins 16lb 12oz, R Yeo 13lb 4oz, R Kajko 13lb).

The Open on Manor Farm at Ower saw victory for Robert Pugh who took 17lb 14oz of mainly skimmers from halfway up the pond on the car park bank on the long pole and maggot to win easily.

Stuart Morton finished second with 4lb 11oz of roach and skimmers with Roger Mills with 4lb 8oz of bits on the waggler.

Brian Tillman is running a series of winter matches on his day ticket venue Dark Lane at Blackfield with a match every fortnight on Sunday.