One of the biggest if not the biggest barbel has been taken by a local angler, writes Peter Stone.

On Sunday, Neil Jones, from Bicester, decided to fish a reach of the Ouse (not the famous Adams Mill) which he had never fished before.

It was his late father Spike's birthday, so before setting off he laid some flowers on Spike's grave. He also decided to use his dad's fishing rod, a 12ft Trevor West Pulse, and landing net handle.

On arrival, it started to rain, which, with a strong wind, made fishing difficult.

As darkness approached, a huge barbel rolled into his swim.

A little later, his rod top pulled over and, after a very hard fight, Neil slid his net under a tremendous barbel weighing 15.6.0 the biggest barbel he had ever seen. His terminal tackle was 10lb bb line and 15lb silk worm hook line and No 4 hook. Bait (which I recommended) was John Baker's Search 4 paste.

It's a lovely story and Neil wonders was Spike looking down on it all?

The second match of the Green Road Social Club Winter League took place on the canal at Kidlington, where weights were low.

Top bag went to Wayne Hagar (Zebco) with 6.5.0, mainly of roach taken on pole/punch. Alan Gee (Dagmar) and Simon Hendy (Top Whack) were joint second with 6.4.0.

A feature of North Oxford's match for the Wally Harper Trophy fished on the canal at Frenchay Road was the number of Daddy Ruffe (Pope) caught.

Top bag went to John Bonney with 3.10.0 consisting of one skimmer, the remainder all Ruffe. The successful offering was home-bred Gozzers.

John Beesley was second with 1.14.0 and Peter Gallagher and Martin Avon joint third with 1.4.0.

Royal Mail's match, due to be fished on Potts on Sunday, has been cancelled.

Oxford Waltonians' match for the Holton Championships has also been cancelled. New match and venue in fixture list.