Nash Bank Life Adjustable Table

How well is it built?

The top is what earns the 9.0. It's a shatterproof, weatherproof work surface, so a dropped lead or a night of heavy rain shouldn't crack it or leave it warped, and that matters on a table that lives outside for days at a time.

The leg frame folds in flat under the top, and the whole table has a smart, understated black finish.

Each leg has a one-touch adjuster, so setting the height is a flick of a lever rather than a fiddle with twist collars or push buttons.

That's pretty much what you want with cold, wet hands at first light, and the swivel mud feet are a thoughtful touch on a table that will spend its life on soft banks.

For me, it's about as well put together as a bank table gets, with nothing on it that looks like an afterthought. I think the 9.0 is fully deserved.

Stability & Footing

Will it stay level on a sloping, muddy swim? That's the job of the swivel mud feet and the one-touch legs. The feet pivot to sit flat on uneven ground and spread the load on soft banks, and they shouldn't damage a groundsheet if you set the Small up inside the bivvy.

With an adjuster on every leg, you can level a big top on a real bank, and very few swims are truly flat. The Large in particular has a lot of surface to keep level, and a table that four people are eating round needs to stay put when someone leans on it.

To be fair, any tall table with a big top is a little less planted than a low bedside table like the Trakker Deluxe Bivvy Table, especially on soft mud at full height. That's the only reason it doesn't score higher than 8.5, and I think it's a very stable table for its size.

Storage & Organisation

The Small is the clever size for keeping a swim organised, because it sits at the same height as an SS4 Sleep System.

That puts remotes, a head torch, your phone and a brew within easy reach of the bed, and beside a recliner or a Moon Chair it holds food and drink at a comfortable height.

The top itself is flat and open, though. There are no recessed trays or rig tool slots for small bits, so hook packets and leads are better kept in a box on top of it. Compare that with the Trakker Deluxe Bivvy Table, which has a recessed top and a slot to hold a phone upright.

For packing away, the fold-flat design keeps it slim in the car. The Small model weighs 5.5kg and the Large model weighs 7.5kg, so neither is light, but that's the price of a solid build. Overall, 8.0 sums it up fairly.

Is it good value for money?

Is it worth the extra over a basic bivvy table? It costs nearly twice as much as the Trakker Deluxe Bivvy Table, but that's comparing two very different things, as the Trakker is a low bedside table and the Nash is a full-size session table.

A fairer rival is the Fox XL Bivvy Table, which sits at a similar price and has the same 80 x 60cm top size as the Nash Small.

Where the Nash pulls ahead is the shatterproof top, the one-touch legs and the swivel mud feet, plus the choice of two sizes. The Fox sets higher, from 56cm to 75cm, while the Nash Small comes down to bedchair height, so it suits bedside use better.

I'd recommend the Small to anyone who wants a solid bedside surface at SS4 height, and the Large to anglers who fish long sessions with friends and want a table to eat round. If you only need somewhere for a phone and a torch, a cheaper bedside table does that job for far less.