Bright sunshine, warm temperatures, clear blue sky, minimal breeze and excellent catering and shooting facilities greeted the twenty one Cheshire shooters who made their way across three counties to attend this selection shoot.  (Welcome Mr P Luke to our selection process and also to Master J Pickup for your continued efforts.)

The course was over thirteen stands and were of an excellent mix which incorporated , driven battues, rabbit, rollers, mini and midi and your standard clays. Three stands were conceivably the ‘TESTING’  type which saw a majority struggle on except for the current in-form Ian Cunliffe who scored an impressive five out of six on the simultaneous pair of right to left high roller/battue.. (To those of you who bettered this or equalled it, sorry, I didn’t see you.) To keep hydrated on this day was a must to maintain focus and the early starters including Guy Robinson came in with a great score of 86 which was equalled later on by Mike Holland with his favourite Beretta semi-automatic doing the business for him. It was only at the end that this score was surpassed but only by one, Ian Cunliffe on 87. A special mention must go to Jon Outhwaite on 82 and our new Lady member, Kirsty Fenwick on 57 who shot very well considering the pressure she felt, that is what she told me, it certainly didn’t show on some stands.

I must not forget to mention, that alongside this ESP event was a 50 bird Skeet Event and our Mark Haley who had just completed the sporting course took it upon himself to enter the skeet competition and ‘low & behold’ put in an incredible 50 straight. Towards the end of the day there were three on 50 straight and so came the shoot off and what a shoot off it was. All three remaining clear after four rounds of two pairs from peg 4 and then one shooter left, leaving Mark still there. I could go on, but briefly after Mark had returned to the spectator’s table to stock up with more cartridges and after a further five or was it six rounds, Mark dropped a target where his opponent didn’t. Ah well Mark, never mind runner up is no mean feat and it was great watching a proficient skeet shooter.

I now look forwards to seeing everyone at the next selection shoot which is at Kegworth SG on the 3rd June 2018 and in the meantime wish you all continued good shooting and best regards.

 

Paul Ellis - ESP Manager