Those that sought to write off the current river season before it had started had better have a rethink following a superb York Junior contest.

An eager field of 21 youngsters aged between eight and 17 lined the New Walk on the Ouse in York and all bar one troubled the scales.

Winner of a cracking match that saw nearly half the field net 2lb of fish or more and all bag a prize was David Watson.

Drawn at the downstream end of the walk he netted a fine brace of bream for his 8lb 4oz.

Charlotte Darling took second with 7lb 4oz, which included a surprise tench of 4lb 7oz. Third and winner of the eight to 12-year-old category was Jamie Dyson with 4lb 4oz. Tom Broxup took the 12 to 16 years group with his 4lb 3oz catch.

Other catchers were: Nick Darling 4-2-0; S Mitchison 3-12-0; B Carr 2-12-0; B Potter 2-0-0; D Evernett 1-13-0; B Teal 1-10-0; J Collier 0-14-0; R Devlin 0-13-0; T Bamber 0-9-0; D Waiting, R Waiting and J Longstaff all 0-8-0; A Gill 0-5-0; L McGill 0-3-0; S Mitchison 0-2-0; R Beaver 0-0-8.

Thanks go to Anglers Corner, Acomb Tackle, Mitre Angling Centre, York Tackle and Stan Burdett for their sponsorship of this year's event.

The youngsters get a second chance at fame and fortune when the same venue hosts the CIU Junior match tonight.

The draw was to take place on the bank at Blue Bridge Lane from 5pm onwards.

Not content with bagging on the river the juniors have been hauling them in at Dave Findlay's pond in Haxby for the last two weeks.

Tom Sawby and Chris Kaye tied in this week's evening contest with 9lb 7oz.

Tom had skimmers, tench and small carp, while Chris included a bonus 4lb carp in his net.

Luke Wiseman with 8lb 1oz, Tom Broxup (6lb 15oz) and Tom Bamber (6lb 12oz) were also in the thick of the action.

The overall leader is still Tom Stead, who weighed in with 11lb 9oz to win the opening match.

John Haw topped the Mitre Angling Centre Open at Brafferton Fishery with 29lb 11oz.

His comfortable winning margin was secured by a brace of decent carp, plus lots of silver fish. Barry Klar took second with a belting carp of 13lb 9oz to beat off the challenge of Darren Wallis, who had 13lb 5oz, and Linda Wallis with 7lb 3oz.

Weekend bookings

Saturday

Redhouse Middle - Local AC; Beningbrough Park - Acomb WMC; Beningbrough Village - York RI

Sunday

Claxton - Clifton; Redhouse Middle - Ben Johnsons; Poppleton - Harehills; Beningbrough Park - Whiterose; Donkeywoods - Royal Oak; Paradise Farm - BRS

Updated: 12:21 Friday, June 28, 2002