DARREN WINS THE TITLE AFTER A SHOOT OFF

A busy month for Northampton Shooting Ground, as they hosted their third regional shoot in about a month, this time it was the skeet taking the centre stage.

Perfect conditions were the order of the day with an increasing wind predicted that was later going to have a bearing on the shoot offs later in the day. The entry of 62 was the best since 2006 when 80 also attended NSG and was the third highest attendance since records began.

Joy Hirons set the early pace tabling a 97 which for some time looked like it could have been enough especially with the wind picking up making the occasional target bounce unsympathetically on the breeze. Pete Bloomfield from Suffolk increased Joy’s score to take the lead on 99, Chris Jarratt from Lincs falling just one target shy on 98.

The final squads saw a few regional stalwarts making a concerted effort and from those it was Darren Parsons who matched Pete’s score at the top of the leader board. A tie for third resulted in a shoot off with Chris Jarratt recording a straight to defeat John Miller of Notts although John was later rewarded with silver medal in Vets.

The shoot off for overall winner saw Darren victorious over Pete as both shooters battled wind affected targets, Darren scoring 23/25 to win the title; there was though consolation for Pete as his score was good enough to claim the Vet’s trophy, Spencer Basham from Suffolk once again winning a medal, this time bronze and that was after countback.

Joy’s score from earlier held out for the rest of the day and yet again gave her the Ladies title, incredibly for the fourth year in a row, Tracey Miller from Notts shot 94 and took the silver medal back to Notts and Izzy Russell recorded her second medal win in a month by taking the bronze on 92.

In Juniors it was a new face in the region that took the title, Tom Tristram from Notts, still only a colt but winning with a very impressive 96, he was though chased all the way by Northants lads Ollie Mann and George Owen who finished all square on 95, and in the shoot off it was Ollie who was victorious winning with a score of 23/25.

Finally, many thanks to Martine, Pete and Roy at Northampton who have hosted three events in our busy schedule.