ONLY TON OF THE DAY WINS IT FOR LEE

The DTL Champions & Medal Winners

For the first time in over 10 years Northampton SG hosted the Regional DTL Championships and sadly the entry was considerably lower than has been achieved in recent years.

44 shooters from around the region attended at what turned out to be a glorious day with endless sunshine and hardly a breath of wind.

Lee Hoyland from Nottinghamshire was one of the first shooters out on the layouts, and got the ball rolling with a 25/75 on his first layout, a 25/74 followed on his second, three targets escaped the first barrel on the next layout but were duly cleared up by the second, and just one on the last to give him a cracking score of 100/295, it was then a long wait for Lee as he had to watch the scores come in.

Steve Whitelock from Bedfordshire was going well, but a few second barrel kills were costing him dear, and then a complete miss on the third layout did for his chances finishing on 98/290.

Lee though was pretty untroubled throughout most of the day, until the last couple of squads, one of which had a former Champion & East Midlands Supreme Champion Chris Morris from Cambridgeshire shooting in, the other, Northants Junior Henry Collins having a day off from Sporting, and by his own admittance chasing East Midlands Supreme Championship points.

Henry Collins (Northants) - Junior DTL Champion

After three layouts Chris was going well with a score of 75/222, but a complete miss on the fourth layout ended his challenge to finish on 99/292. News was that Henry Collins was doing even better, with three layouts under his belt; he was just three points away, a single target escaping first barrel punishment on each layout, but as with Chris the fourth layout proved to be again the graveyard, with two targets left to sail on unhindered into the grass banking and end his chances.

This left Lee as Regional Champion, Chris claimed the runners up spot and Steve Whitelock in third, consolation for Henry was his first achievement in Regional DTL as Junior Champion.

Completing the 1-2-3 in juniors we had another local lad taking an away day from his favoured discipline of skeet was Colt George Owen, his score of  92/268 good enough to give him the runners up medal, J Janes of Bedfordshire winning his first medal in the region finished third on 89/258.

In Ladies J Goodwin from Bedfordshire was over 20 points clear of nearest rival and fellow Beds shooter Helen Bowen, J Goodwin recording 87/249 to Helen’s 82/228. Kirsten Vogel flying the flag for Northamptonshire completed the placing’s finishing third and winning her second East Mids medal in a week.

In Veterans it was regional regular from Leicestershire Mike Brookes that won the title with a score of 92/273, Melvin Tebbett also from Leicestershire finishing just two points behind with the same number of targets killed to claim the silver; Keith Taylor made it a clean sweep in Vets for Leics taking the bronze on 90/267.

Many thanks to all those attended, to our hosts NSG and to the refs on the day.