13 TONS IN PERFECT CONDITIONS

In glorious sunshine and no breeze to speak of, a bumper turnout of 95 shooters descended on Nottingham & District GC to fight over the spoils of the East Midlands Regional DTL Championships.

Once again it was very pleasing to see representation from all of the 8 counties that make up the East Midlands region, some of which were attracted in earning those vital Supreme Championship points as this was the 5^th and final round of the series, and it was also pleasing to see many other shooters in attendance from other regions, travelling from as far away as Essex and Buckinghamshire.

It really was a day where the weather could not be used as the excuse for a below par score, and a high quality field responded to that by recording 13 tons and many personal best scores. With that weight of scores you may have possibly thought that someone would have recorded the perfect score of 100/300, but surprisingly nobody reached that pinnacle and the final results showed three shooters, Curtis Wooley and Adrian Snell both from Nottinghamshire, and Paul Smith from Lincolnshire tied on 100/299, with just one target escaping the wrath of the first barrel.

In a tense shoot off for honours I guess it came as no surprise to see all three shooters respond to the challenge and score 25/75. A second shoot off round of 25 Single Barrel though finally separated the trio, Paul Smith missed his sixth target out to finish on 24, Adrian Snell missed his 18^th and 21^st bird and Curtis Wooley who has risen from the junior ranks to be a major competitor at senior level dispatched all 25 targets to become the regional champion.

Despite a superb entry of 12 lady shooters, Leanne Powell from Lincolnshire who is no stranger to success in this event dominated proceedings with a superb 99/295 to take the ladies title once again by quite a fair margin. The long journey from Norfolk for Izzy Thurnell from Norfolk was rewarded with the silver medal on 94/273, and Jackie Houghton from Lincs although finishing all square with Hayley Denoon from Notts was awarded the bronze medal, Hayley not being available for the shoot off.

In Vets as seems to have become the norm over the last few years a Leicestershire shooter rose to the top of the pile, this year it was Keith Taylor who took the title with a cracking score of 100/297 with fellow county shooter and a previous champion Mike Brookes in second on 98/293. In joint third was Ken Rimington of Notts, always a hard man to keep out of the winner’s enclosure and Aggie Paphitis from Leicestershire, both were tied on 98/291, unfortunately Aggie had left the ground so no shoot off could take place, Ken was therefore awarded the third place medal.

In juniors a healthy entry saw Josh Brazier from Lincolnshire rise to regional champion with a score of 99/296 with just one target escaping the gun on his third round. In second and extremely unlucky was George Lewis from Notts who although recording a ton had to rely on the second barrel for eight stragglers to be mopped up finishing 0n 100/292, Freddy Brown also of Notts completed the day’s placings by finishing third on 97/286.

As always we thank Carl and his team at Nottingham for providing a quality competition with superb targets and the usual hospitality, thanks are also extended to the refs and ground staff, and finally you the shooters for your continued support.

PRIZE MONEY

1st AA	Curtis Wooley	100/299
2nd AA	Mark Harris	100/297
3rd AA	Mark Shaw	99/296
Joint 4th AA	Dave Hinchcliffe	100/295
Joint 4th AA	Geoff Howlett	99/295
1st A	Adrian Snell	100/299
2nd A	Marvin Houghton	100/298
3rd A	Nick Havard	99/295
Joint 4th A	Keith Richie	100/294
Joint 4th A	Lee Byard	99/294
Joint 4th A	Frank Welham	98/294
1st B	Graham Kendrick	100/297
2nd B	Josh Brazier	99/296
3rd B	Mick Shaw	98/290
Joint 4th B	Nigel Salmon / Scott Whitelock	98/287
1st C	Simon Vogel	99/293
2nd C	Ryan Sharpe	98/289