JOHN NEEDS TWO BITES AT THE CHERRY

(L-R) Rachel Parish, Jackie Houghton, Sue Bate, John Winn, Jack Wilkinson, Curtis Woolley, John Bates & Tony Clayton.

The first East Midlands Championship of the season took place at Nottingham & District today (March 6^th), the ABT title was up for grabs which attracted a healthy regional entry but also managed to draw in shooters from neighbouring regions.

Local weather reporter Julia Fell gave a favourable report of cold with grey skies but brightening up later so we were set fair for a good day’s competition. Former winner John Winn from Lincolnshire hit the ground running setting the perfect score after two layouts with only a handful of shooters within striking distance.

Varying light was causing some problems with many shooters swapping lenses, sometimes mid round but it seemed to have little effect other than force John back to the field where notably Russ Hufton ( Nott’s) and Lincolnshire junior Jack Wilkinson were impressing.

The final round saw the front three all having to shoot on layout five which was proving the most troublesome, Russ let five escape the gun to leave him on 92/100 so it seemed like it was a straight fight between the ex Champion and the young pretender to the crown.

John had a two clay lead but that was soon eroded away as two slipped by, the remainder of the round saw each gain and lose the lead on two occasions, it was anyone’s guess, the final rotation left John wanting one to seal victory and to everyone’s amazement and I think John’s the target despite a double barrelled attack just went sailing on, a shoot off was going to be needed to split the pairing, Russ Hufton claiming the Bronze medal.

Meanwhile on the course Rachel Parish (Nott’s) had comfortably retained her ladies title with a great score of 88/100 a full seven clays in front of nearest rivals Sue Bate (Northants) and Jackie Houghton (Lincs) who would now also need to shoot off.

In Veterans John Winn had comfortably taken the title four clays clear of John Bates (Nott’s) who won the silver and John was a further clay clear of Tony Clayton (Northants) and Ivan Heathcote from Leicestershire, sadly Ivan had left the ground come the shoot off time and Tony was left to shoot a customary target to seal his bronze medal position.

Curtis Woolley had succumbed to the barrage of Jack and picked up runners up in juniors and so it was to the shoot off to separate the Ladies medals and the overall winner.

John was in no mood to give Jack another chance even though it was neck and neck until a target beat Jack that some thought he may have just nicked, but in the end John ran out a fairly comfortable winner although great credit must go to Jack for pushing him all the way. The Ladies medal placings were a little more close with the destination of the silver in doubt right up to the last rotation, but in the end Jackie prevailed and Sue had to settle for bronze.

Many thanks to all that attended and thanks also to all at NDGC who got us off to a flying start, the next Championship event is the FITASC at Kegworth on March 20^th.

 

PRIZE MONEY

 

A CLASS – Joint 1st	Paul Cockle - JJ Reilly  - John Winn
B CLASS – 1st	Jack Wilkinson
B CLASS – 2nd	Russ Hufton
B CLASS – 3rd	Nigel Watson
C CLASS – 1st	John Bates
C CLASS – Joint 2nd	Mick Feather – Roy Ashmore
D CLASS – 1st	Lee Hoyland
D CLASS – 2nd	Malc Craven