NOTTINGHAMSHIRE WIN AGAIN, BUT IT’S CLOSE

Some of the Victorious Notts Team.

Round 2 of 6 in the East Midlands Intercounties with the Down the Line shooters taking centre stage and a trip to Nottinghamshire to see Carl Smith and his team at Nottingham & District GC.

Shooting commenced promptly at 8-30am in glorious sunshine, with a light breeze just edging left to right on the ranges. As is the way the home county of Nott’s got proceedings underway followed by Lincolnshire and then the rest of the counties depending on the distance they had travelled to the ground.

Notts junior Freddy Brown 100/296 was the only shooter in the team competition to score a ton, although former Leicestershire shooter Shane Smith now living in Wales did the perfect 100/300 in the morning. The Notts juniors closed the day on 592/600, George Lewis 99/296, Joe Booth 99/295 and George Hurst 91/264 and won the junior event from nearest rivals Lincolnshire who had shooting for them brothers Josh and Jack Brazier, and a quick look back in the history books shows 9 year old Jack as one of our youngest ever competitors in an Intercounties event, and we look forward to watching Jack’s skills develop over the coming years.

9 Year Old Jack Brazier shooting for Lincolnshire Juniors.

In Vets it was the Leicestershire quartet of Mel Tebbett 98/285, Mike Brookes 95/276, Keith Mault 90/263 and Keith Taylor 84/246 who won again with a team total of 561/600, 7 points clear of nearest rivals Lincolnshire who had Dave Shepherd as their top scorer on 95/280.

As the day progressed the wind increased although it was still warm and there was no clue as to what was to come later in the day as the competition entered its final phase.

In Ladies it was the Notts Ladies that after many years trying finally broke the resistance of Lincolnshire girls, Sarah Odam top scored for Notts on 96/279, she was ably backed up by Megan Gamble 91/264, Jenny Hilton 86/242 and Hannah Tunnicliffe 76/204 to give the Nott’s girls a final total of 543/600, some 23 points clear of Norfolk who had young Izzy Thurnell top scoring on 96/273, surely a star of the future.

As mentioned the weather turned sour at the end of the day with both Norfolk and Suffolk shooting in a strong wind with driving rain, but credit to both counties the scores were still more than respectable. Team Norfolk just fell away at the end recording a team score of 1714/1800 and fell short of Nottinghamshire’s 1734/1800, but Suffolk with every round were edging closer and closer. In the final reckoning Suffolk came up short by an agonising point to finish on 1733/1800 to give Nottinghamshire a hat trick of team wins.

A very wet Suffolk Team that were the Senior Team Runners Up.

Top scorer for Notts was Russ Hufton on 99/292, the remainder of the winning team made up from Paul Meakin 99/292, Ken Rimington 99/291, Lee Willcoxson98/288, Andy Brown 97/282, Chris Twigger 95/282, Adrian Snell 88/258, team captain Curtis Woolley with 98/289 and the team reserve Gordon Hodgkinson on 97/284.

The Suffolk lads had to be content with the Runners Up glassware to comfort them on their long trip home, John Aldous top scored on 99/293 and was backed up by Paul Neal 98/291, Nick Havard 98/288, Huw Peters 98/288, Frank Welham 96/287, Robbie Manning 98/286, Barry Randall 97/283 and John Stokes 85/253.

Leicestershire Veteran's win another title.

 The final piece of business to sort out was the destination of the High Gun glassware with Nott’s juniors Freddie Brown and George Lewis both locked on 296. In the shoot off it was surprising to see Freddy miss the first target out and from then on was always playing catch up, in the final reckoning George dropped just one point to finish on 25/74 and give him the win.

Finally as always we would like to thank Carl and all his team at Nottingham & District who were once again the perfect hosts.

Prize Money

1^st AA – Shane Smith 100/300

2^nd AA – Joe Booth 99/295

1^st A – Maurice Beedan 100/297

2^nd A – John Titterington 99/293

3^rd A – Paul Neal 98/291

1^st B – Daniel Beedan & Bernie Hutchinson 97/286

1^st C - Mel Tebbett 98/285

2^nd C – Sarah Odam & P Crehan 96/279