History for Hall

Hall: Fish'O'Mania winner

Matt Hall, 47, made match angling history at Cudmore Fishery on Saturday afternoon as he became the first man in the 16-year history of PartyPoker.com Fish'O'Mania to land the trophy twice, as he cantered to a comfortable victory in the Sky Sports-televised event.

A Fish'O'Mania champion at Hayfield in 2003, where he won narrowly from Darren Cox, Hall made no mistakes as he took the lead after an hour and did not relinquish it. In the end he romped home, winning by nearly 12 kilos from second placed Rob Wooton.

Full Fish'O'Mania results

34.770 kg was the winning weight and Hall's history making exploits made up for his miserable experience last year when he trailed home in 15th place.

Hall, a technical author from Nottingham, caught almost all barbel in his match-winning bag. Using chopped worm and caster on a pole fished at around 12 metres, he made the most of end peg 16 to secure the win.

"The title means a lot more to me than the money," said Hall. "To win it once is awesome but to win it twice is something else and I wanted it so badly.

"It's what I've always wanted since I won it once and no one had won it twice. I've pushed myself to do it and eventually I got there.

"You can keep the FA Cup, this is what I do and to win this is the pinnacle. Your family are the lynchpins with the amount of hours you spend away. Fishing is a very lonely sport but this makes all those hours worthwhile."

In the other PartyPoker.com Fish'O'Mania matches, Sandra Scotthorne of Rotherham won the ladies match whilst Jack Swindells (Warrington) won the junior match.

The Celebrity Match was won by an athletics team comprising Commonwealth decathlon champion Dean Macey, European 400m winner Du'aine Ladejo and 2000 Fish'O'Mania Champion Geoff Ringer and England International Angler Claire Dagnall.

Fish'O'Mania results