TRIPLE WIN FOR NORTHANTS AS SUFFOLK EDGE CLOSER

Round 5 of the East Midlands Intercounties series of shoots and the race for the Directors Trophy with the Intercounties All Round at Northampton Shooting Ground.

With Norfolk and Leicestershire failing to make it to the start line it was left to the other 6 counties to fight over the spoils in what can be best described as testing conditions. Shooting for the 99 entrants started promptly at 9-00am in overcast and windy conditions with a slight chill in the air which was later to give way to broken sunshine but with the gusting winds remaining.

In the final reckoning Northants Seniors once again eased over the finishing line with the ever-present Suffolk in the runners-up berth. Northants had triple skeet Champion Dave Morgan leading the way on the day’s top score of 94, with great backing from Henry Collins 93, Jo Smith 90, Roy Tyler 89, Julian Williams 88, Neil Faulkner 82, Simon Vogel 81 and Stuart Lobley 77 to give them a team total of 536/600 with Suffolk some five points behind on 531, who in turn just pipped Bedfordshire by a solitary clay.

Senior Team Runners Up - Suffolk

With Suffolk finishing runners-up and the later final calculations of the Directors Trophy points, it means that Suffolk have one hand on the trophy, with just one event, the Intercounties ABT at Nottingham remaining. Suffolk have held the Directors Trophy on five separate occasions, but just recently have had to take a back seat to Nottinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, the later being the current holders. So, its many congratulations to the Stuart Smith 91, Josh Nunn 91, Pete Mayhew 90, Darren Parsons 87, Rob Butters 87, Adrian Cook 83 and Michael Hermitage 85.

Alex Banning & Sonny Bowman - Northants

Junior Team Champions

In Juniors we sadly only had two full teams competing, so it was a head to head fight between home team Northants and rivals Suffolk, and it was the Northants duo of Sonny Bowman 61 and Alex Banning 84 that swept to victory on a team score of 145. It’s been a great season for the Northants lads, with Sonny and Alex both winning Regional titles, Alex in fact winning four, and his score in the All Round not only gave him 1^st in C Class but the Junior High Gun Trophy.

Rose Palmer, Ruth Markham, Kirstin Vogel - Northants

Ladies Team Champions

In Ladies we had four full teams fighting over the spoils and it was the Northants team that defended their title once again with a ten-point victory over the nearest team Cambridgeshire. Ruth Markham recorded the highest ladies score of the day with a superb 80/100, enough to also give her 2nd place in C class, Rose Palmer 73 and Kirstin Vogel 71 completed the winning line up.

In Veterans it was the Bedfordshire quartet of Jim Munday 84, John Stanton 83, Glen Moore 89 and Philip Coxall 83 winning yet another Intercounties team title with a final score of 173/200 who just denied Northants taking a clean sweep of the winner’s glassware by 3 points.

Many thanks to everyone at Northampton for a good day’s competition, we now move on to Nottingham & District for the final round of the Intercounties, the ABT on October 28^th.