FINAL WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Tony Clayton (Northants) - Senior & Veterans ZZ Helice Champion

A busy final weekend to the regions calendar saw Tony Clayton from Northants overcome a field of nineteen competitors at Rugby & District Trap Club to win the ZZ Helice title. Tony’s score of 14 was just enough to overcome second place finisher and Ladies Champion Jane Bell from Cambridgeshire after a shoot off, Tony’s score also secured him the Veterans title, sadly there was no junior entrant.

Many thanks once again to John Nightingale at Rugby for again hosting this event.

Meanwhile the two day Intercounties FITASC event was taking place at Lakenheath CTC this year given extra significance as Directors Trophy holders Suffolk were holding a slender one point lead over cross border rivals Norfolk.

A glance at the team sheets prior to the shoot showed that Suffolk were in no mood to give up “Their Trophy” as all the Suffolk big guns were in attendance but these things are never over until the final gun is silenced and as always a John Dyson course has to be respected and should not be taken for granted, any victory would have to be earned.

From the get go the Suffolk team knuckled down and is very often the way in the Intercounties shoots it’s not necessarily the odd individual that makes the difference but consistency of scores is the name of the game and Suffolk are the past masters at this. Eric Chapman always a good man to have on your side led the Suffolk scoring with a superb 92 and with Rob Butters and Neil Bedingfield both chipping in with scores of 91 Suffolk were well on their way to taking both titles. A reduced team of five from Nottingham was meanwhile pushing Suffolk all the way, Simon Davis and John Dunne both matching Eric Chapman’s score and Becky Bream totalling a very respectable 87,the final reckoning showed Team Suffolk finish with a superb score of 358/400 narrowly squeezing  a two point gap on nearest rivals Nottingham. The victory also was enough to give them 8 points in the Directors trophy to retain this prestigious title  although on the day the Cambridgeshire team did equal them mainly because Harry Seal shooting in Juniors scored 90 to bump their overall total up, Harry’s impressive offering being enough to give him a well-deserved Junior High Gun Trophy.

Harry Seal (Cambs) recieves his Junior High Gun Award from Andrew Clifton

Disappointingly there was involvement from only one junior team that of Bedfordshire but they deserve great credit for supporting their county and they also returned more than respectable scores and would have been tough to beat given some competition, so its many congratulations to Joe Heast 80 and David Ferriman 76 who fully deserve their reward.

Bedfordshire Juniors recieve their Junior Team glassware from Andrew Clifton

The hot shot Ladies duo from Suffolk Pearl Butters and Pauline Chapman this time backed up by Karen Bedingfield claimed their third team title of the season adding to their victory’s in the All Round and the Sporting. It was Pearl this time that top scored on 78 to give Suffolk a final team score of 146 which was some way clear of nearest rivals Norfolk.

In Vets it was a battle royal with only three clays separating the top three counties, Bedfordshire and Norfolk finished all square on 164/200 but it was Cambridgeshire that just edged things with a narrow victory, Brian Dunbavin was the main stay of the team scoring 86 with Philip Simpson 81 and Paul Gray 55 to complete the winning Cambs side.

Finally our thanks must got to Pete Usher and his team at Lakenheath for hosting this Championship not only did Pete put up the High Gun money for this event which incidentally was won by Simon Davis from Nott’s after a shoot off he also dipped into his pocket to provide some Vets High Gun money which was duly won by Eric Chapman, and lastly a big thank you to John Dyson for putting on such a superb course, in the words of Eric Chapman “ It was right on the money “.