BRAINTREE Sea Angling Club’s final charter boat match of the year was fished out of West Mersea on Chris Mole’s Enterprise.

Due to strong south westerly winds the match took place in the estuary where plenty of shelter could be found.

Plenty of whiting were caught with some good size fish in among the small ones but no codling or thornbacks which had been expected.

It was a close contest and with half an hour to go, it came down to a battle between Paul Hart and Barrie Senior.

Hart caught a dab which gave him extra species points to put him in the lead, but Senior fought back with a double shot of sizeable whiting followed by two more.

However, at lines up, he was still one point short as Hart won the day with 16 whiting, one dogfish and a dab for 56 points. Senior finished with 20 whiting and a dab for 55 points, while third place went to Chris Bull with 42 points from his catch of 15 whiting and a pout.

Senior's second place was enough to put him in top spot over the series of boat matches, though, and meant he collected the Bolduc Cup, with Chris Leonard as runner-up two points behind.