MAGNIFICENT MORGAN

The English Open Skeet Doubles Championships was held this weekend at Northampton Shooting Ground attracting 87 hopefuls which included plenty of former winners hoping to defend their titles plus the usual Skeet heavy mob plus a few young pretenders to the crown to give the Championships a good mix.

Perfect conditions were the order of the day overcast with a whisper breeze which did nothing to help those looking for a plausible excuse for the odd miss, the targets checked by the Head Ref Bob Meadows first thing were running on rails – it was game on !!

Northants local Neil Faulkner was the pace setter early on with a more than respectable 98, but Neil was one of the first to admit that his total was never going to win anything and his total would be surpassed. Northants and England Junior Ashley Sharman joined Neil on his score and throughout the day were joined by Alan Warren and Nick Marsden. By mid afternoon three shooters had just stolen a slender march on the quartet of 98’s namely Dave Beardsmore, Robbie Manning from Suffolk and Darren Wood but soon after John “TJ” Wright from Oxfordshire had topped the lot with the perfect ton, but many suspected this was not over yet as Dave Morgan from Buckinghamshire was still out on the course and with his superb record at Northampton nobody was betting the race was over. It was no surprise to anyone when news filtered round the ground that Dave had fulfilled his potential and joined “TJ” at the top of the pile.

Sara Chambers - Ladies Champion

Whilst all this was going on a young girl from Berkshire 12 year old Amber Hill was quietly waiting for the days proceedings to come to a close, her work done for the day a 93 more than respectable for someone on almost her first outing in this discipline. It soon became apparent to many that Amber was in pole position in three categories Ladies, Colts and C Class; firstly Stanley Baughan crept past Amber to take Colts and then World Champion Skeet Shooter Sara Chambers did the same to take the Ladies title, but compensation came the way of a 3 way shoot off for glory in C Class. Meanwhile Ashley Sharman learned that his score was not beaten in juniors and Alan Warren and Kate Polusom had won the Husband & Wife honours as had Mark & Joe Jackson in the Parent and Child Category.

Amber Hill - C Class Champion

And so to the shoot offs in front of a good crowd, as the two Senior C Class shooters Nigel Hubbard and Andy Parkin walked onto the shoot off stand I heard many people say they did not envy their task against a nerveless young Lady of twelve. The first round saw all three shooters level on three a piece with Amber shooting first, making no mistake on the second round it was Amber’s victory as Nigel and Andy both let one target escape the gun much to the relief of Amber’s on looking Grandparents.

 

Dave Morgan - English Champion

Darren Wood tidied up business by winning the shoot off for overall third, with Robbie Manning eliminated in the first round and Dave Beardsmore a round later and so to the High Gun Shoot off, John Wright soon missed one and Dave made no mistake to become the English Champion, John though did receive some compensation by becoming the Veterans Champion.

Shoot Result Details - https://www.cpsa.co.uk/results/2010/08/01/english-open-skeet-doubles