SPORTING WON IN BEDS

Tom McGregor (Suffolk) Junior High Gun

On Sunday, we had the 3^rd Rd of the East Midlands Intercounties series at Barrow Heath with what is generally our biggest shoot of the year, the Intercounties Sporting.

Those arriving early at the ground were welcomed to a good covering of fog, but I was assured by ground owner and course setter Phil Moss this would have no effect on the targets or anyone’s ability to shoot them.

As usual with a “Mossy shoot”, there was something there for everyone, no eyesight tests, nothing silly, just a good quality championship course that tested all ability’s, and I certainly never heard a single shooter say anything other than positives about the targets.

As most of you know by now Barrow Heath will be closing its doors shortly, so make sure you pop along for one or more of the final shoots (details on the Barrow Heath website), but fear not Phil has joined forces with Stuart at Eriswell Lodge and he’s going to be running the Sporting shoots, and already regular shoots are scheduled (details on the Eriswell Lodge website) so I hope you can get along to Eriswell and support them both.

At the start of the day as usual speculation was rife on who would win, there were the obvious contenders of Suffolk, Northants and Norfolk, and a few gave a strong Bedfordshire team a chance, but when news reached Barrow that Team Manager Andrew Clifton was laid up in bed that chance seemed to be gone.

The day had started promptly at 9-00am with seemingly the majority of the 282 entrants on or around the ground, and as the day progressed it was growing ever more obvious it was going to be very close between the main protagonists. Norfolk were the first of the favourites to record a senior team score and unsurprisingly went straight into the lead on 513, and those studying the expertly run scoreboard were quickly doing calculations on what was needed to take the lead.

A string of below par scores for Suffolk knocked them out of the running, and it appeared to be a three-horse race. Next home was Northamptonshire, who just squeezed the narrowest of leads by one target late on with a consistent collection of mid-eighties scores, but as always seems to be the norm these days in the Intercounties shoots, the result was only determined as the final few cards are returned, and in dramatic style Bedfordshire edged past both Norfolk and Northants to win by one target on 515.

So, its many congratulations to the Bedfordshire team of Andrew Clifton (In Bed), David Ferriman 90, Adrian Jeffries 85, Steve Whinnett 87, Steve Whitelock 90, Dean Quince 71, Gavin Smith 79 and Stuart Clarke 84, also many congratulations to the Northants team of Mick Russell 89, Dave Morgan 85, Jo Smith 88, Neil Faulkner 86, Kim Wan 84, Chris Sumner 82, Paul Cooper 82 and Ollie Bradshaw 81 who finished as runners-up.

In Ladies, it was more glory for Bedfordshire as Becky Elmore 73 and Jane Maloney 74, took the team title on a score of 147 after the Northants trio had led the table all day on a team score of 145, Louise Smith top scoring for Northants on 74. A special mention for Notts Becky McKenzie who was top scoring lady on 85, with next best Pauline Chapman of Suffolk on 80.

Completing a hat trick of wins for Bedfordshire were the Veterans team of John Stanton 86, Glen Moore 87, and Malcom Jenkins 77, again the Beds team had been depleted with the withdrawal of Jim Munday early on, but it wasn’t a problem as Beds finished on 173, comfortably in front of second place finishers Suffolk by seven targets.

Tidying up the days results were the Suffolk Juniors of Aaron Harvey 83, Sam Nunn 74 and Tom McGregor whose score of 90 clinched victory for Suffolk and earnt him the Junior HG trophy. Suffolk finished on 173, 16 targets in front of runners-up Northamptonshire, and we later learnt the Suffolk Juniors scores helped their county massively in the race for the Directors Trophy, more on that in a bit.

The Expertly Run Scoreboard

A massive vote of thanks to Phil Moss and his team at Barrow Heath for a great days shooting, and I extend those thanks to the ground staff and refs who continued keeping the show on the road despite rain of biblical proportions on a couple of occasions. Also, many thanks to Marie and her little helper who kept the entries and the scores rolling despite the numbers, and to the girls cooking the grub, it appears you ate them out of house and home at one stage, but relief supplies were brought in to keep everyone happy.

As always, we save the best to last, and once again the regional shooters came out in their numbers to shoot for their county, and for that we thank you, it should be a matter of pride to shoot for your county, and I’m pleased to say that many of you still consider it to be an honour.

For those of you not entirely sure what the Directors Trophy is all about, I’ll try and briefly explain. For each of the six East Midlands Intercounties shoots the top 8 scores from each county are calculated, that is regardless of whether those scores come from Seniors, Ladies, Vets or Juniors. Those top 8 scores are added together and the county with the highest total gets awarded 8 points for coming first, 7 points for coming second and so on, a county not fielding a team will get zero points. After all 6 shoots the county with the highest total is awarded the Directors Trophy, in the event of a tie, the county with the most 8 point wins are declared the winners, if they are still tied the county with the most 7 point finishes are the winners and so on until a winning county can be found.

In this shoot, Suffolk benefitted greatly from the superb scores by their Juniors, and although the Seniors finished 4^th in their category, the points earned by Tom McGregor and Aaron Harvey pushed them into a third-place finish in the Directors Trophy league standings, and this is just one example of shooters in the Vets, ladies and Junior teams that have helped their counties cause, for this shoot 20 scores from outside Seniors were used to calculate a counties total.

At the halfway stage, it’s very close at the top with the East Midlands Intercounties Skeet at Eriswell Lodge next up on the 24^th of this month, the current table is shown below.

	AR	DTL	ESP	ESK	FITASC	ABT	TOTAL
BEDS	4	0	8				12
CAMBS	6	8	5				19
LEICS	2	5	1				8
LINCS	5	4	3				12
NOTTS	3	7	2				12
NORFOLK	0	6	4				10
NORTHANTS	8	2	7				17
SUFFOLK	7	3	6				16