MOTHER NATURE STRIKES AGAIN !!

                                                               Some of the well deserving winners !!

If anybody could be in doubt that ABT is not Mother Nature’s favourite discipline, then surely the East Midlands Regional ABT Championships held at Nottingham on Sunday was all the proof you needed.

Last year the event was almost washed off the face of the earth as high winds and driving rain made shooting unpleasant at best. This year it was snow that did the damage and many all bar the hardiest of souls gave it a swerve.

The event got off to a difficult start as Carl and his ground staff did their best to locate the layouts and then clear the drifting snow from the traps to enable shooting to go ahead. In the end only two layouts could be cleared of the 2ft-3ft drifts, but amazingly 33 competitors had made the effort to shoot and were attired suitably and ready to give it a go.

Stand and Deliver !!!

John Winn from Lincolnshire always a man to have around whatever the conditions and well known for his penchant for trap gold medals led the field basically from the first gun. Conditions were atrocious with driving snow straight at the shooters and low clays barely managing to skip over the drifting snow, in fact on one occasion it was reported that our lady Chair managed to shoot a clay after it exited from a snow drift….step aside Biddy a new gun is in town !!

At the half way stage John led the field with a staggering 45 ex 50 which was well clear of anyone, Lee Clements from Notts being the closest of challengers but well in arrears eight targets behind.

John’s big rival and county teammate Jack Wilkinson got to grip with the conditions on the last two layouts, but even with an upturn in his scores John maintained his standard and secured yet another Trap title finishing on 84/100, Jack finished runner up with 78/100 and early challenger Lee Clements had to settle for third on 70/100.

In Ladies it was great to see Alison Dupree from Lincolnshire out and about especially after she has only just recently started chemo. Like John she led the Ladies competition all the way through although Tracey Bridge also from Lincs pushed her all the way, in the final reckoning Alison took Gold, Tracey the Silver and our trick shooting Chair Janet Stennett the bronze.

In Veterans of course it was John Winn who took gold and yet another double victory to add to his collection, county teammate Bob Richardson took the silver and yet another Lincs shooter Dave Shepherd tidied things up by claiming the bronze medal.

In Juniors Jack Wilkinson dominated proceedings by taking the Gold medal to add to his Senior Silver medal, Connor Bean flew the flag for Notts by claiming the Silver medal as did Freddy Brown by taking the Bronze medal.

                                                 Supreme Champion Chris Morris Braves the Elements !!

On behalf of the region we would just like to say a massive thank you to all that not only shot but made the perilous journey to get to the ground in the first place. We cannot also forget the ground staff and refs who kept the show running in the most desperate of conditions.

See the Supreme Championship Leaderboard HERE

PRIZE MONEY

1st A	John Winn	84
1st B	Lee Clements	70
1st C	Bob Richardson	69
1st D	Pat Dickman	67
2nd D	John Stephenson	57