2016 Dorset County Championships

See table below for dates and venues for the 2016 County Championship shoots. Note that 7 of the domestic disciplines also form part of the new Supreme Championship and its associated new title "Dorset Super 7 Champion" (see separate page for more details).

Please note that fixtures may change at short notice. Therefore, please keep an eye on this page for updates. Any changes will also be notifed on the Dorset CPSA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Dorset-CPSA-456150367909876/timeline?ref=page_internal).

Note that the A/R is the first shoot contributing to the new Dorset Super 7 Championship and is on Good Friday, 25th March, at Brook Bank Shooting Ground near Cheddar, Somerset. Do not miss this chance to enter some scores towards the new Championship and to stand a chance of winning some of the £1000+ prize fund!

* Note that, although the Dorset Committee wants to award a County Champion title in Olympic Skeet, no dedicated OSK County Championship competition will be held this year. Instead, scores from the British Grand Prix at the National Clay Shooting Centre will be used to establish the Champion.

 

Discipline	Date	Venue	Shared With	Part of "Dorset Super 7"?
A/R	Good Friday, 25 March	Brook Bank	AVN, DEV, GLO, SOM, WIL	Yes
OTR	Sunday 3 April	Brook Bank	DEV, SOM, WIL	No
DTL	Sunday, 17 April	Brook Bank	AVN, SOM	Yes
ESK	Sunday 24 April	Brook Bank	DEV, SOM	Yes
ABT	Sunday 8 May	Brook Bank	SOM, WIL	Yes
UTR	Sunday 26 June	Brook Bank	DEV, SOM, WIL	No
OSK*	Sat/Sun 10/11 September	NCSC, Bisley		No
FSP	Sunday 11 September	Purbeck Shooting School	DEV	No
STR	Saturday 17 September	Purbeck Shooting School		Yes
ESP	Sunday 25 September	Purbeck Shooting School		Yes
S/B	Saturday 12 November	Pilford CTC		Yes
D/R	Deleted
D/T	Deleted

 

All-Round, Brook Bank, Good Friday, 25th March

This was the first Dorset County Championship for 2016 and it took place at Brook Bank on Good Friday as planned.

Although bad weather was expected for the Easter Saturday, it was beautifully sunny and warm at Brook Bank for this event. As a total of six Counties (Avon, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset & Wiltshire) shared this event as their Championship there was a very healthy attendance, as indicated by the packed car park.

As Alison took charge of checking in, Daughters Antonia and Elizabeth ran the servery and kept the teas, coffees and bacon rolls coming. Wesley then ran around making sure that the layouts were running OK.

After the check-ins were complete, there were 17 squads in total. But shooting started before 10:30 and so things got off to a good start. Things ran very smoothly with Wes making sure that each squad was notified when they were required to shoot. There was only one minor breakdown, when one of the Skeet traps developed a loose nut - which Wes rectified quickly.

Our Dorset shooters put on a very good show with a few outstanding results. As indicated by the recent South-Central County Championship, Dorset has some very strong shooters. And considering that the scoreboard at Brook Bank didn't show a lot of red ink, it was commendable that both Richard King and Garry Foster posted 25-straights for their S/B rounds. With Richard then repeating the trick in his ESK round, our Dorset shooters accounted for three of a total of only eight straights that day across all competing shooters from all counties and all rounds.

At the end of the day, perhaps three Dorset shooters stood out. Usual suspects Richard King and Ian Mulliner ended on 97 and 94 ex 100 respectively, Richard's score winning him both High Gun and the Dorset All-Round County Champion title, as well as first in AA-Class. Ian's 94 won him 1st in A-Class, although he had to share it with Matt Panter from Gloucestershire!

But Dorset's most outstanding achievement was made by Emily Hibbs who shot a 92 ex 100. To say that Emily won the Dorset Ladies title and first in C-Class doesn't really capture what she did. Emily is still a Junior and has been shooting for less than three years, yet she put in an AA-Class score. Absolutely brilliant and well done!

See table below for all Dorset scores.

 

Name	S/B	ESK	ABT	ESP	Total	Dorset Pos
Richard King (County Champion)	25	25	24	23	97	1
Ian Mulliner	24	23	23	24	94	2
Emily Hibbs (Ladies Champion)	24	24	20	24	92	3
Garry Foster	25	22	24	14	85	4
Darrin Donaldson	22	24	20	17	83	5
Ben Jennings	22	20	20	14	76	6
Tony Read (Veterans Champion)	22	24	13	15	74	7
Ian Brazier	20	19	19	10	68	8=
Ollie Hambly	17	18	18	15	68	8=
D. Packham	19	19	13	16	67	10
Tom Green	18	19	18	8	63	11
N. Maltseva	18	20	7	13	58	12=
J. Whitmarsh	18	17	9	14	58	12=
L. D. Wright	9	13	8	8	38	14

 

Olympic Trap, Sunday 3rd April, Brook Bank

Not a great turn-out for the OT this year but at least Dorset offered the opportunity to shoot this discipline as a County Championship this year. Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire also used this event as their own Championships. Out of thirty-six shooters in total, three were from Dorset. Devon mustered ten, Somerset 11 and Wiltshire five.

The Lings made a strong representation for Somerset in the form of Steve, Ed, Abbey and Theo, Ed claiming High Gun with 95 ex 100. Regarding Dorset, Terry Poore was the best performer on the day with a very respectable 81 - not bad at all considering that Terry has only recently started shooting fast trap competitively within the last year. Note that Terry shot a 25-straight at OT on Easter Monday at Brook Bank - many seasoned OT shooters take years to achieve that goal! So, Terry came away this time with joint Overall and Veterans County Champion titles. Terry was followed home by Tony Read on 77 and then Ollie Hambly with 75.

See table below for a summary of these scores.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Terry Poore (Overall & Veterans Champion)	81	1
Tony Read	77	2
Ollie Hambly	75	3

 

Down The Line, Sunday 17rd April, Brook Bank

Big rain and a distinct chill in the air on Saturday didn't look like a good omen for the DTL the following day. Shooting just isn't comfortable with goose bumps and a dose of hypothermia! But the view outside the window couldn't have been much better when I got up early on Sunday morning to get ready for the trip to Brook Bank. The skies were blue and it looked like being a warm day. I did still pack my thermal base layer but I didn't put it on!

And that judgement was about right. Arriving at Brook Bank shortly after 10:00, the sun was even more intense with only a few clouds in the sky. And yes, it was warm enough to forget about the thermal vest! Alison and Wes's extended car park was already packed and although a few people were there to practise other disciplines, the vast majority of people were there to shoot the DTL competition which was a shared Avon, Dorset and Somerset County Championship.

With their usual great teamwork, Alison looked after checking-in, Wesley rootled around sorting out the layouts and Alina looked after the servery. When the check-ins had finished, there were ten squads in total - most of them full, totalling 47 shooters. It was fantastic to see that 16 of them were Dorset shooters. This was a significant improvement over the corresponding event in 2015, when we had only 10 Dorset shooters. Hopefully it's a sign that DTL is Dorset is flourishing.

Our Dorset shooters were spread around several different squads. And at around 11:00 the shooting started. With Wesley making sure that squads were ready to go out on time, things ran very smoothly and with minimal equipment failures. The sun was very bright early-on but the start time was just late enough to avoid serious visibility problems.

At the end of play, Dorset was responsible for a respectable proportion of the red ink on the scores whiteboard in the clubhouse. Dorset's most consistent shooter was Richard King, who took the 2016 County Champion title on 100-298. He was equal High Gun and 1st in AA-Class with Hampshire's Dave Toomer. As the presentations got underway, Ben Jennings pointed out an interesting statistic - Dorset had actually won either 1st or 1st-equal in all Classes. Running through those Class wins, Ian Mulliner won A-Class on 99-295, Ben Jennings took B-Class on 98-284 and Malcolm Clarke took C-Class on 94-280. Ollie Hambly was also pleased with his first-ever perfect 25-75 and 2nd in C-Class on 93-276.

Back to the other Dorset trophies, Christine Poore won over two other shooters in the same category to win the Ladies trophy on 82-232. But after 100 birds, Veterans Terry Poore and Tony Read had tied on 276 Points. After asking for a promise not to claim any no-birds, Wesley provided enough clays for a shoot-off! Well, what better and more exciting time can you have? Not a single clay for Wesley to pick up afterwards! Both Terry and Tony scored 25-straights - but with Tony making the tiniest mistake and needing just one second barrel. 25-75 versus 25-74 - it doesn't get closer. Thus, by the narrowest of margins, Terry took the Veterans trophy for 2016.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Dorset won in every class and its County Champions fought a great battle to win their trophies. Thanks go again to Alison and Wesley for hosting another successful Dorset County Championship shoot.

See table below for all Dorset scores.

 

Name	Breaks	Points	Dorset Pos
Richard King (County Champion)	100	298	1
Ian Mulliner	99	295	2
Ben Jennings	98	284	3
Malcolm Clarke	94	280	4
Terry Poore (Veterans Champion; after S/O with Tony Read))	95	276	5=
Tony Read	94	276	5=
Ollie Hambly	93	276	5=
Andy Weller	92	269	8
Mark Taylor	88	256	9
"Mitch" Mitchell	87	250	10
D. Packham	86	246	11
John Healy	85	241	12
Christine Poore (Ladies Champion)	82	232	13
Justin Gough	77	224	14
L. D. Wright	67	189	15
Annabelle Mackendrick	62	175	16

 

Dorset DTL Champion, Richard King, together with Christine and Terry Poore

who won the Ladies and Veterans titles

 

English Skeet, Sunday 24th April, Brook Bank

Well, another lovely sunny day for the 4th Dorset County Championship (the 3rd to count for the Dorset Super 7 Championship). Wesley wasn't around, as he was shooting the ABT selection shoot at NCSC, Bisley - as were Dorset's Ian Mulliner and Tony Read.

In Ian's and Tony's absence, five Dorset shooters took part in the County ESK Championship: Ollie Hambly, Emily Hibbs, Ben Jennings, Richard King and Terry Poore. They all shot together, forming a single Dorset squad.

Richard continued to show his pure class with his seamless ability to be a top shooter in any discipline he chooses. He returned a silky-smooth straight in his first round. Round 2 saw another exhibition performance from Richard, adding another 25 to his total. By Round 3, Richard's record had well and truly got stuck in the groove with yet another straight - Alison and Wes will need to buy another red pen for the scoreboard! Emily Hibbs shot a 24 in Round 3, helping to alleviate her frustration at her 22 and 23 in Rounds 1 and 2.

Round 4 eventually came around. But the high bird of the pair from Peg 2 beat Richard. The rest of the squad were willing him on to shoot a perfect 100-straight but it was not to be on this occasion. But he recovered to obliterate the repeated target and to clean up the rest of the round for a round score of 24 and a grand-total of 99. In Round 4, Emily had obviously found a better groove and matched Richard's 24.

Richard's final score of 99 earned him the Dorset Champion title. Emily ended on 93 and retained the Ladies title for a second year. Terry Poore ended on 67 and won the Veterans title. See table below for a summary of the Dorset ESK scores.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Richard King (Overall Champion)	99	1
Emily Hibbs (Ladies Champion)	93	2
Ben Jennings	80	3
Terry Poore (Veterans Champion)	67	4
Ollie Hambly	60	5

 

Automatic Ball Trap, Sunday 8th May, Brook Bank

A very warm May day at Brook Bank - the warmest yet this year. Absolutely beautiful up there in the Medips. Along with Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire also made this event their County Championships. A total of eight squads took part and Wesley put on enough layouts to ensure the shooting finished on time.

Dorset mustered seven shooters, spread between three different squads. It was fantastic to see shooters Christine Poore and Rob Weller put aside the DTL competition that perhaps they'd usually choose to shoot and shoot the Ball Trap instead.

Terry Poore confirmed yet again that he's really taken to fast trap this year by putting in a solid 22 in his first round. Ollie Hambly and Tony Read followed behind with 21 and 20, respectively. Things carried on in a similar vein with most Dorset scores hovering just below and above 20 in each round. Terry and Ollie took turns throughout the competition to get the higher score and finally ended up in the lead on 85 points apiece.

That amounted to Ollie's first-ever sniff at a County Champion title and also his first shoot-off! Terry and Ollie were accompanied to the layout by referees Tony Read and Ian Mulliner. Tony certainly looked ruthless with that button! Terry won the toss and elected to shoot first.

Bearing in mind that I happen to be that Ollie, I'm well placed to admit that the pressure got to me! I sort of felt OK. I mounted the gun the same - I'm sure I did! I looked for the target. The thing came out, I saw it and I moved after it. But either my targets were made out of cast iron or I was completely adrift! As Terry stood there turning all his targets into smoke, mine were landing in the next field completely intact! Great! I was tempted to fiddle with my gun between shots and make out that I had a malfunction developing (like a friend of mine who used to get off his mountain bike and fiddle with his chain every time a shallow incline was a bit too much for him)! But no, the gun was fine; the nerves had just got to me!

But actually, after 22 targets each, I happened to take an ill-advised glance at the scoreboard. Uhhhh? Terry was only one point ahead of me - I was under the impression that he was on about 20 and I was on perhaps 10! But no, I was only one point behind Terry! It was still in the balance. But we both cleared our final three targets, resulting in shoot-off scores of 20 versus 19 and thus giving the 2016 Dorset ABT Champion title to Terry. Well done Terry!

See table below for a summary of the Dorset ABT scores. See also photograph below of Terry with his trophy.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Terry Poore (County Champion)(after 20 v 19 shoot-off against Ollie Hambly)	85	1
Ollie Hambly	85	2
Ben Jennings	82	3
Ian Mulliner	80	4
Rob Weller	79	5
Tony Read	78	6
Christine Poore	48	7

 

 

 

Universal Trench, Sunday 26th June, Brook Bank

I'm afraid that there was a poor turn-out by Dorset shooters for this event. Ollie Hambly, Ben Jennings and Terry Poore were the only shooters from our County.

See table below for a summary of the scores.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Terry Poore (Overall & Veterans Champion)	83	1
Ben Jennings	81	2
Ollie Hambly	73	3

 

Olympic Skeet, Sat & Sun 10th & 11th September, National Clay Shooting Centre

As it was not feasible to host a dedicated OSK County Championship, the Committee decided to award the County Champion title based on scores from the British Grand Prix held at the National Clay Shooting Centre, Bisley.

Three Dorset shooters took part this year. With a commendable 109 kills from 125 targets, Peter Flower takes the County Champion title.

See table below for a summary of these scores.

 

Name	Score ex 125	Dorset Pos
Peter Flower (County Champion)	109	1
Andy Hitchmough	92	2
Danny Maidment	86	3

 

FITASC Sporting, Sunday 11th September, Purbeck Shooting School

A good turn-out of 19 Dorset shooters attended the Dorset FSP County Championship at Purbeck Shooting School. This made up for some of the previous poorly attended shoots. Andy Herbert-Smith won the County Champion title with a score of 87 ex 100. This was only one point short of joint High Guns, P. Easton (Oxon) and W. J. Thatcher (Wilts). Well done, Andy.

See table below for all Dorset scores.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Andy Herbert-Smith (County Champion)	87	1
Martin Reynolds	83	2=
I. D. Baldock	83	2=
Rob Burleigh	82	4
John Hatchard	81	5
J. Waters	80	6
M. G. Edwards	79	7
C. Griffin	78	8
Ray Hillyer	77	9
Chris Dare	76	10
C. D. Hanson	75	11=
T. Stanley	75	11=
R. Pike	75	11=
J. W. A. Weekes	72	14
M. Guilbert	66	15
M. Noble	62	16
Geoff Huggins	60	17
N. Maltseva	52	18
J. Dare	46	19

 

Sportrap, Saturday 17th September, Purbeck Shooting School

Another good turn-out from Dorset's Sporting shooters on consecutive weekends saw them account for 15 of the 18 total entrants. After all was said and done, Dorset shooters occupied the top four places with Stuart Rudling achieving High Gun and therefore also the title of Dorset Sportrap County Champion 2016 with a score of 94 ex 100. Of course, whenever he appears, Richard King never disappoints. Richard came snapping at Stuart's heels with a score of 92 to take Second Place.

Note that it was fantastic to see three Juniors take part in this event.

See table below for all Dorset scores.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Stuart Rudling (County Champion)	94	1
Richard King	92	2
Martin Reynolds	86	3=
Paul Thomas	86	3=
Tom Green	82	5=
T. Stanley	82	5=
J. Waters	82	5=
Mark Cassel	79	8
E. C. Charles	72	9
L. Hill	64	10=
M. Hughes	64	10=
Trevor Lake	61	12
I. Gillespie	59	13
Ollie Collier	58	14
M. Noble	55	15

 

English Sporting, Sunday 25th September, Purbeck Shooting School

For the third consecutive weekend, our Dorset shooters had a Sporting County Championship at Purbeck Shooting School to attend. This time it was English Sporting. Continuing on the theme of good attendances for these disciplines, Dorset fielded 27 of the 37 total shooters taking part. Retaining his good form in the Sportrap the previous weekend, Stuart Rudling put in another ninety-plus score. His 92 ex 100 narrowly missed another County Champion, putting him in Second Place. It was Paul Thomas who triumphed this time, with his score of 94 giving him both High Gun and the County Champion title.

See table below for all Dorset scores.

 

Name	Score ex 100	Dorset Pos
Paul Thomas (County Champion)	94	1
Stuart Rudling	92	2
M. A. Hill	84	3
E. Kelly	82	4
Joey Froud	78	5=
Mark Harvey	78	5=
Tom Green	75	7=
Mike Hillyer	75	7=
N. Bullen	73	9
Eric Nix	73	9=
M. G. Edwards	72	11=
C. D. Hanson	72	11=
Rob Burleigh	71	13=
Mark Cassel	71	13=
M. Litten	71	13=
P. D. Waugh	71	13=
J. W. A. Weekes	70	17
Mark Dewey	69	18=
Andy Herbert-Smith	69	18=
Ray Hillyer	66	20=
Mark Taylor	66	20=
Sam Harvey	63	22=
K. J. Vincent	63	22=
John Hatchard	62	24
E. C. Charles	60	25
Trevor Lake	58	26
K. Elton	53	27

 

Single Barrel, Saturday 12th November, Pilford Clay Target Club

A good turn-out of 15 Dorset shooters (including one non-CPSA member) attended the Dorset Single Barrel County Championship at the newly-registered Pilford Clay Target Club.

See table below for all Dorset scores.

 

Name	Score ex 50	Dorset Pos
Ian Mulliner (County Champion)	45	1
Ben Jennings	44	2
Nigel Bough (Veterans Champion)	43	3
Alison Bough (Ladies Champion)	42	4
Tony Read	40	5
Terry Poore	38	6
Eric Nix	35	7
Darryl Packham	34	8=
Ian Brazier	34	8=
Mark Taylor	30	10
Lyn Wright	29	11=
John Healy	29	11=
Ollie Hambly	27	13
Matt Griffin (non-CPSA; Day Guest)	26	14
Justin Gough	23	15