FOUR MAN NORFOLK WIN, BUT CAMBS TAKE THE POINTS

The Winning Norfolk Team

Round 5 of the East Midlands Intercounties shoots with the FITASC at Sporting Targets over three days, the first time that has been done in the history of the region.

With the Directors Trophy end in sight for another season, three main protagonists have come to the fore, Northants, long guilty for missed opportunities in this competition, Suffolk, with a history in this event that has shown them as winners on five occasions out of the seven times since its fruition, and Cambridgeshire as pretenders to the crown, always thereabouts, but just not doing enough to take the title.

A pre-shoot inspection of the teams suggested that it was going to be a close-run thing, and in the final reckoning when the DT points were being collated, just a single point separated three counties......but more on that later.

In the Senior team competition, a four-man Norfolk team of Duane Morley 96, Carson Revell 95, John Dyson 83, and Tim Page 82 won by a five-point margin over Cambridgeshire with a team of Harry Seal 88, Mark Stevenson 90, Jamie Harding 84, Dave Mennie 74, Glen Spalding 89 and Graham Valentine 80, back in the runners-up berth, the two being a long way clear of third placed Bedfordshire.

In Ladies it was a trio from Northants that claimed their 3^rd regional team title in 5 shoots, this time it was Lorraine Waters 72, Emma Nelson 70, and Louise Smith who was the top scoring lady on the day with 82, finishing with a team score of 154, well clear of their nearest rivals.

In Veterans it came as no surprise to see the Leicestershire Vets winning another title, the formidable pairing of Steve Brightwell and John Wells both scoring 92 to give Leicestershire a huge margin win of 15 points over second place finishers Suffolk, Colin Saich top scoring also with 92.

Steve Brightwell (Leics Vets) & Graham Valentine (Cambs Seniors) 

In Juniors it was extremely pleasing to see five junior teams entered, in the past we have struggled to get more than one entry. In the final reckoning the Cambs pairing of Taylor Hedgecock 84 and Dan Mawby 79, finished well clear of second place Northants who had Henry Collins matching Taylor’s score of 84. As both shooters had left the ground count back was used to determine the destination of the JHG glassware, two stands were chosen at random, and Henry was declared the winner.

Many thanks to the excellent entry of 120 shooters, and to Andrew and all his team at Sporting Targets for making everyone so welcome.

Looking at the Directors Trophy points, despite Norfolk’s win in seniors, they didn’t have sufficient scores to get the 8 points and slipped someway down the score charts, needing 6 scores to get a total for consideration. Cambs though did and their score of 524 gets them 8 points, but it was very close as just one point separated them from Suffolk and Leicestershire tied on 523, they were both awarded 7 points, and Northants 5.

Looking at the table, its Cambs that have the title in their hands, it is as they say, theirs to lose, but you write Suffolk off at your peril, Northants can also still mathematically win, but it’s going to take a very surprising turn of events in the final shoot, the Intercounties ABT at Nottingham on October 29^th.

	AR	DTL	ESP	ESK	FITASC	ABT	TOTAL
BEDS	4	0	8	1	3		16
CAMBS	6	8	5	6	8		33
LEICS	2	5	1	2	7		17
LINCS	5	4	3	3	1		16
NOTTS	3	7	2	4	4		20
NORFOLK	0	6	4	5	2		17
NORTHANTS	8	2	7	7	5		29
SUFFOLK	7	3	6	8	7		31