ROACH were to the fore again on the Ouse below York for Sunday's 56-peg John Smith's Hospital Angling Cup.

South Bank rod Paul Burton (Anglers World Holidays) found himself pegged in the current hot-spot, the Donkey Woods sand, and made no mistake with a quality net of roach between eight and 10oz taken on pole and caster at 11 metres. His 11lb 12oz was enough to see off the challengers in style.

There was a tie for second place with the scales unable to separate John Cyrowski (Barlby Village Stores) and Steve Evans (Bentley Angling Centre), who both weighed in 6lb 12oz.

Cyrowski was pegged below the winner and used stick float and caster for an all-roach bag, while Evans was almost directly opposite on the Fulford bank where he used the same tactics in conjunction with a long rod for a mixed net of roach and perch.

The next two weights came from the pumper section and were taken by Ken Barley (Acomb Tackle) with 6lb 8oz and Mick Doyle (LB Scaffolding) with 6lb 5oz. Dean Smith (MAP Elton) completed the main prize list with a level 6lb from below the bay at Fulford

Section winners were: J Milner 2-12-0, E Wright 2-4-0, K Ellerby 4-11-0, C Stokes 5-13-0, G Bullock 4-7-0 and W Shillito 3-8-0.

The pairs event went to the reunited double act of Tony Stephenson and Dean Smith, who contributed well to their 10lb 13oz tally.

The fish fed well on both days of the double header at Carpvale backed by Spectrum Auto Services with the opening contest on Cyprio the pick of the bunch. Dave Spence led from peg 19 with an all-carp 87lb taken on a variety of floating baits. Roy Worsnip took second from peg nine with 65lb 14oz on cat meat ahead of top York rod Barry Klar, who took 64lb 8oz of carp on feeder and meat.

Klar did even better the following day taking victory on the front pond and securing top overall spot on weight advantage.

His section winning 57lb of small carp on feeder and meat gave him an overall score of three points, the same as Worsnip but with a higher aggregate weight.

With half the field from York and the others from Leeds, Klar's heroics could not stave off the West Yorkshire challenge with the Leeds boys triumphing 500lb to 435lb.

Dennis Gederd took the Saturday open at the Willows with a nice net 52lb 4oz mixed net of carp and ide taken fishing shallow with caster from peg 48 on Goldrush.

Second place went to Tony Hewson with another mixed bag of 48lb 10oz taken on pole and maggot from peg 53.

Others: Phil Austin 45-8, Paul Mortimer 39-12, Gordon Fennell 38-8 and Stan Jeffries 37-8.

Updated: 10:44 Wednesday, October 13, 2004