Easter bank holidays can be unpredictable but this year although the weather held no surprises the winner of the 2009 DTL championship did.  An entry of 95 shooters was nearly a record for this championship and the quality of the field was apparent from the sprinkling of 100’s that started to appear on the score board from an early stage.  One of those 100’s was recorded by Leicestershire’s Shane Smith whose 100/298 eventually proved to be unbeatable but Shane had to wait until the very end of the competition before he was sure of his win.  It was a nail biter to the end as Jody Clarke, on the last squad of the day was only 2 points down at 75 but a whole target sailed away unscathed on the last line to leave Jody in silver medal position with a score of 99/295.  There were a plethora of 293’s needing a shoot off to find the bronze medal winner and although six people qualified to shoot off only Tony Whiting and Stuart Whitehead remained with Tony clearing his 25 to give him the win.  Tony also took the veteran title, with another Leicestershire shooter Mick Marlow second on 98/291 and I Gilbert third with 98/289.  Emma Wheeldon coasted to victory in the ladies category with 98/293 with Leanne Palmer second on 96/286 and Julie Smith (wife of Shane) third with 92/271, no wonder the Smiths went home happy.  The Junior competition was closely contested with yet another Leicestershire winner in Tristram Allen on 98/290, just pipping Curtis Woolley to second place on 97/288.  The bronze medal was taken by Ryan Leak on 97/284.

Thanks go to Carl Smith and his team at Nottingham & District Gun Club for a very well run shoot.

Also many thanks to Notts webmaster Ken Rimington for looking after the East Mids website and keeping you all upto date with the weekends results while I was in sunny Dartmouth