Favourites before the match with many anglers and the on-site bookie, dynamic duo Des Shipp and Steve Mayo didn't disappoint as the two men lifted the Angling Times/Maver Pairs Challenge title for the second time in its history at a rain-lashed Larford Lakes complex.

Up against some of the country's top commercial rods, Steve and Des proved to be the only pair to return a perfect two point score thanks to two section wins, their Daiwa Dorking team mates Paul Holland and Paul Hiller finishing closest on weight after tying on four points with Sean Ashby and Kian Wardle.

The win comes just a couple of years after their 2006 triumph and rightly justified their pre-match billing but as Des revealed afterwards, it isn't really as clear cut as all that.
"You never really are favourites even after the draw," the Preston Innovations-backed ace revealed. "There's 98 other guys out there that are all handy. Yes, we know Larford quite well and it seems to look after us in the big events but believe me, we've slipped up here on several occasions too so you take nothing for granted."

Indeed, Des looked to have the mother of all battles on his hands after drawing in what was labelled the ‘section of death' on the Match Lake, sharing the 10 pegs with the likes of Steve Ringer, Steve Cooke, Simon Fry and Chris Vandervleit.

"Yes it was a hard section but I didn't actually get that bad a peg," he smiled. "I had an island to chuck to, which always gives you more options and given that the wind was howling down the lake today, I've been grateful to have somewhere to chuck the feeder and catch."

For Maver man Steve on the Specimen Lake, he got his favourite big splasher waggler to work, netting 14 carp on it to win his section but just a few kilos in a nail-biting climax but even then, the win wasn't clear cut as the weigh in was still taking place on the Match and Arena Lakes.

"I knew Paul Hiller had won his section and knew that Paul Holland had caught well but we just couldn't get any news from over there," Steve said. "To win it again is just unreal. We blew out big style last year when expectations were again high but this year we got what we both felt were two pegs that gave us a genuine shout at the title."

He may have gone into depth about how to win the Pairs fishing the pole in last week's Angling Times, but it was the Method feeder that gave Des Shipp the springboard to launch he and Steve Mayo's assault on the Maver Pairs title.

Drawn on the windy Match Lake at peg 40, Des abandoned the pole early doors to concentrate on the tip fished to the island, a move that saw him surge ahead of those around him to register a vital section win with 63-180 of F1 hybrids and small carp plus a handful of skimmers.

That gave him a decent amount in hand of Steve Ringer who finished second in section but it wasn't quite As comfortable for Des's partner Steve Mayo over on the Specimen Lake. Peg 62 on the Chalet Bank was a good draw but he could never quite kick on and pull clear of those chasing him.

"I felt conditions were just right for the big wag but after two and a half hours, I'd only caught four carp," Steve explained. "That's when a lot of people start panicking and it becomes a bottle job. I knew that if I kept at it, the fish would eventually come and it really started hitting them shortly afterward. I still lost plenty though that would have made the weigh in a little less nervy!"

Steve fished a 10mm white boilie under his big waggler at 50 yards, feeding small balls of brown crumb and Van Den Eynde Hi-Pro Carp packed with caster and meat while Des's winning approach was a small Method feeder with a single grain of hair-rigged corn buried inside the ball and cast to within inches of the island.

"I thought corn would be better because it's a very visual bait and also a tough one that you don't miss many bites on," he said. "I kicked off on the pole short with pellet and caught a few F1s but then the skimmers moved in. Coupled with the wind getting up, it really was no good for the pole and I suppose with a couple of hours to go I was behind in the section but then things really got going and I properly bagged!"

So that was the main title decided but what about the race for second? Two pairs tied on four points apiece and had an identical section countback with a section win and third. That saw weight decide things and the value of drawing on the prolific Arena Lake shone through.

With Paul Holland bagging 92-900 from there, it gave him and partner Paul Hiller over 45 kilos to spare from Sean Ashby and Kian Wardle, Holland finishing only third with his big weight while Hiller turned in a star performance on the Specimen Lake to bag a win.

"I went equipped to fish shallow on Arena but I just couldn't keep them where I wanted them," said Holland, who had set a lake record on Arena in qualifying for the final at Larford in May using a shallow approach. "I ended up going down the edge and although I started catching, I'd just got too far behind to play catch up."

For Hiller however, on peg 72 on the Speci, he enjoyed a cracking day's fishing, using meat over meat and hemp feed at 6m to plunder 55-520 of carp, skimmers, tench, roach and bream.

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