SENIOR RACE WIDE OPEN

With the Northants and Bedfordshire counties not fielding teams there was more than the senior title to battle over and Counties were scrambling for points in the inaugural running of the Directors Trophy.

Northants had stolen an early march in the previous two rounds but now the door was wide open for the six remaining counties and 100 shooters to take full advantage in this leg three of the Intercounties the DTL. The weather was fine and very warm with a light mistral breeze..... The Nottingham & DGC targets as usual were perfect..... No excuses; it was time to step up to the challenge.

The home county kicked things off and put themselves firmly in the driving seat with a team score of 1747/1800. Ian Joseph and birthday boy Ken Rimington top scoring both on 99/295 with Lee Clements just behind on 99/294. Peter Armett recorded one of the first of the many tons of the day but let 9 slip past the first barrel leaving him on 291 points, the rest of the Nott’s team posted some solid scores to set the benchmark, John Martin 95/280,Paul Meakin 99/285, Vince Kisielowski 95/275 and Russ Hufton 97/287 doing the damage.

Lincolnshire got closest of the early starters with Jan Powell and Marvin Houghton both knocking up tons but at the end there score fell 6 points short of deposing Nott’s. It was now a nervous wait to see if any county could manage to mount a challenge but despite a few highlights of tons from Steve Herriven and John Reynolds from Norfolk and another High Gun ton for Chris Morris of Camb’s little was going to threaten the North of the Region stranglehold.... or was it!

Suffolk shooting last quietly fancied their chances, not always noted for their trap abilities but history shows on the day they are more than a match for our northern cousins. There was no obvious concern in the clubhouse as the Suffolk scores came in round by round but the mood started to change as every returned scorecard forced worried looks, calculations were taking place but of course the points aspect of this discipline made it much harder to work out and access but that added to the tension. The last scorecard was greeted by onlookers and Julia struggled to get near the scoreboard to even record the final scores, “it’s a tie” one declared, “no I think we have just held on” came from another. As Julia crunched the numbers on her trusty calculator the scores were final, Suffolk had done a Robin Hood Job and snatched it from under the noses of Notts. So it was congratulations to the Suffolk eight man squad of Adrian Last 88/262, Frank Welham 98/282, David Bishop 99/293, Richard Hunter England Sporting Manager taking an away day with 97/289, Nick Havard 98/288, Puff Baker 98/292, Geoff Howlett 99/295 and Melvyn Stephenson on 96/278 to give them a final team score of 1749/1800 leaving the Nott’s eight some to take runners up honours.

The rest of the team trophies were blighted with poor entries which sadly must be down to the tough financial restraints we are all under, the knock on effect of course is a reduction in levies to the region which of course pays for trophies etc, on average I estimate entries to East Mids shoots are down somewhere in the region of 12% this year.

Nott’s Juniors took the team title on 577/600 with yet again Curtis Woolley impressing with 100/294 which was good enough to give him the Junior High Gun Trophy, Joe Booth 95/283 and Freddy Brown 95/278 completed the winning line up.

Lincs ladies won a three way fight for team victory running out fairly comfortable winners over the Leics team with Liz Kendrick top scoring on 99/289 for the runners up. Tracey Bridge and Alison Dupree top scoring on 98/289 and 97/289 respectively for Lincs, Jackie Houghton 94/279 and Jo Day 92/283 endorsing the victory.

The Vets was a very close race with just 11 points separating the 6 teams, at the end of reckoning the Leicestershire quartet of Mike Brookes 98/293, Dave Kendrick 97/287, Alan Bott 92/268 and Keith Taylor just squeezed out a one point lead over nearest rivals Lincs to finish on 580/600.

As always we have to thank our hosts for the day Nottingham & DGC and all their superb team who once again gave us an excellent trouble free days shooting, kept us all well fed and watered and provided us with a high standard of refereeing.

Round four of the Directors Trophy see’s a return to Nottingham in 2 weeks time for the ABT and Suffolk will be keen to hang onto their narrow three point lead but as the field closes up its a long race to the finish... It’s not over yet and there are bound to be many more twists and turns before the trophy finds its new home...stay tuned!