WEATHER DECIMATES ALL ROUND CHAMPIONSHIP

East Midlands All Round Champion - Dave Morgan (Northants)

Unrelenting rain was the winner at an extremely damp Northampton Shooting Ground on Sunday for the East Midlands All Round Championships.

The weather had set in on Friday night, and despite forecasts showing it clearing out Sunday morning it did anything but and it seems many decided to give shooting the swerve for the weekend, and as someone who attended as spectator I can’t say as I blame them, I had an umbrella and still got soaked.

17 hardy souls though did brave the elements and although the scores were possibly down by a few clays because of the weather the level of competition was still good with 4 shooters tied on 87 to decide second and third in Seniors.

Northants shooter Dave Morgan who is probably better known for his achievements in Skeet ran out the winner just one target in front of the quartet of Leon Gill & Jo Smith both from Northants and Philip Barnard and Marcus Lord of Cambridgeshire. Yours truly drew out the discipline to decide the placings, and English Sporting it was to be, sadly Leon had gone home, probably to try and dry out, so it was left to the remaining three shooters to divide the spoils.

Stand 2 with a changed cage position was the venue and it was Jo that ran out the winner to give him the runners-up spot clearing up all the shoot off targets, Phillip dropped just one to give him third and Marcus missed two.

Isabel Russell & Jo Smith (Northants)

Isabel Russell from Northants had no challengers in the Ladies category so retains her regional title on a score of 74.

A Suprised and Delighted George Whatton (Northants)

In Juniors it was local lad George Whatton who came out on top over the only other rival Ethan Lord from Cambridgeshire, George returning a score of 75 and Ethan 61.

Vets Champion Mick Russell (Northants) Takes on the Rabbit Stand

In Vets it was another regional title for Northants shooter Mick Russell who finished well clear of second place finisher Mike Burton who had travelled down from Lincolnshire, who in turn was clear of Dave Piggin from Leicestershire who was making good use of his East Midlands Season Ticket that he had won at the AGM.

Many thanks to the few that braved the elements, the two refs and everyone at NSG.

(L-R) - Mick Russell, Jo Smith, Izzy Russell, Dave Morgan, Phillip Barnard, Ethan Lord.