Mikes a Ninety Nine

(L-R) Henry Collins, Mike Harris, Pete Bloomfield & Joy Hirons.

Northampton Shooting Ground once again hosted the East Midlands Regional Skeet Championship on Sunday (June 17^th), the entry of 50 shooters being 10% better than that of last year when held at Lakenheath.

As a sport, wind is a key factor and a visit to Northampton the day before might have made you thing taking a kite with you may have been more productive. Luckily the weather gods smiled upon us on the Sunday and the gale force winds subsided with just a mistral breeze and the occasional shower being the only distraction.

Chris Morris from Cambridgeshire set the pace of the day with for him a below par 96, his score would leave him sweating that his 96 was going to be enough to give him the needed five points to clinch the East Midlands Supreme Championship. The results of this will be known once CPSA HQ publish the official result of the shoot on the main website later in the week.

As the day progressed Pete Bloomfield (Suffolk), Mick Russell (Northants) and Trevor Frammingham (Norfolk) all overtook Chris with a trio of 98’s, with many well fancied shooters and previous winners just falling short after a solid start.

Towards the end of the day Mike Harris from Northants and Albert Taylor from Cambs were scoring for fun, both recording 50 straights, sadly Albert dropped away after a promising start but Mike continued the trend to go 75 straight. Just one target off the middle pair escaped Mike’s gun on his last layout, but his 99 was enough to give Mike his first regional title, which was great compensation after the disappointment of losing out on his county title the week before in a shoot off.

In Ladies Joy Hirons from Leicestershire won her first ever regional title with a score of 93, just edging out last year’s Champion Liz Green from Cambridgeshire who finished four clays back on 89. Long travelling Heather Pointer from Norfolk was rewarded for her efforts with the bronze medal.

In juniors it was local talent Henry Collins from Northants who proved his Junior High Gun win in last year’s Intercounties Skeet was no fluke by cruising to victory with a superb 95, this was some six clays in front of Isaac Crum from Notts who in turn was six clear of Taylor Hedgecock from Cambs to give them the Silver and Bronze medals respectively.

In Veterans Pete Bloomfield’s 98 was not surpassed all day to give him the title for the second year running, and it was down to Ben Muttock (Northants) and Lol Barr (Leics) both on 95 to fight over the silver and bronze medals. Deciding to shoot pairs off the middle Ben secured the silver after one rotation clearing up both pairs to Lol’s couple of losses.

The final proceedings of the day was a three way shoot off over a full round to decide the winners of the overall Silver and Bronze, at the final reckoning Pete let just one slip to take Silver, Trevor missing out on two to give him the Bronze and sadly Mick losing three to deny him a podium place.

A final mention of the day must go to Dave Morgan of Buckinghamshire who scored the days only ton and was rewarded with the Alan Bott Skeet Trophy for his efforts.

As always we extend our thanks to Martine, Pete and Roy at Northampton for an enjoyable days shooting..

Next weekend (June 24^th) we have two shoots, the first being the Handicap by Distance at Nottingham and the other the Sportrap at Cambridge, I hope to see you there.