MAIDEN TONS SEPERATED BY A SHOOT OFF

Maiden Tons - Mark Goddard & Paul Simpson

Rarely in the discipline of English Sporting does anyone achieve the perfection of taking on a course and returning to the clubhouse without a blemish on their scorecard, rarer still on a Championship course, but for the first time in the history of the East Midlands region that feat was achieved by two shooters in the East Midlands English Sporting Championships held at Barrow Sporting Clays on Sunday (May 19^th 2019), firstly Mark Goddard of Norfolk and then Paul Simpson of Suffolk.

Those taking the course on first thing were treated to a misty start, but it certainly couldn’t be used as an excuse for the occasional missed target in fact many shooters informed me that it aided them with no changes of light to confuse the eye.

Weather conditions changed just after lunch, the mist lifted but the cloud cover still left ideal conditions and the temperature had risen to a pleasant afternoon with no wind to speak of.

Thomas Whomes from Suffolk had by now risen to the top of the leader board with an excellent 96/100 to lead the field, but with the carpark slowly filling again after the initial first wave of shooters the calibre of those readying themselves to shoot was obvious to the degree that Eric Chapman who himself is no mean shot, and of course an authority on shooting in the local area, that someone scoring the perfect ton was by no means impossible. Whilst I remained sceptical that anyone would manage to overhaul the impressive score set by Thomas Whomes, it was hard to argue that it wasn’t within the realms of a possibility.

Shortly after Jake Moore from Norfolk took the lead with 98/100 and even then he doubted that his score would hold for the rest of the day especially with the news that a handful of shooters had passed the halfway mark and were still straight, so I guess it came as no surprise that news filtered through that Mark Goddard from Norfolk had beaten the course and recorded his maiden ton.

Although Mark was undoubtedly thrilled to score his first ton, it was obvious that he felt he wouldn’t be alone at the top of the leader board and shortly afterwards his fears were proved correct as Paul Simpson from Suffolk matched him for his maiden ton, Paul commenting that he only decided to shoot at the last minute and was so pleased he did.

The Shoot Off

The ground staff hurriedly assembled a stand for the shoot off for this the most unlikeliest of scenarios and I must confess to thinking that it was a pity the duo could not share the accolade of Regional Champion on such a memorable day, but a shoot off it was and it was decided very early on in proceedings. Paul continued the theme by hitting all ten of the shoot-off targets with Mark unfortunately missing the first bird out to give Paul victory.

Third place overall went to Phil Gray of Cambridgeshire with an equally impressive score of 99/100 and he can consider himself very unlucky only to be rewarded with the bronze medal for his endeavours and was himself still straight and within touching distance of that magical ton well past the halfway point.

In veterans Peter Jarvis of Suffolk recorded 95/100 to give him the title narrowly outscoring fellow Suffolk teammate Eric Chapman by just one target, Colin Saich from Suffolk completed the 1-2-3 in Vets taking the bronze medal on 91, Colin was tied for third with David Pointer from Norfolk and Chris Willis from Suffolk but Colin was the only one of the three on the ground when the shoot off was called and takes the medal by default.

Ladies Regional Sporting Champion - Ami Hedgecock

In Ladies it was Ami Hedgcock from Cambridgeshire winning her first ever Regional Ladies title with a superb score of 88/100 to defeat nearest finisher Susan Hallwood of Norfolk by six targets, in third was defending Ladies Champion Becky Elmore some three clays further back.

Junior Sporting Champion - Taylor Hedgecock

By no means least the Junior title went to defending Champion Taylor Hedgecock from Cambs with a brilliant 92/100. Taylor has won more regional titles than I can recall in his time as a junior and this one will probably be his last as in the coming weeks he steps up to Senior level as he comes of age. I’m sure we all wish him well on the senior circuit, I have a feeling he’s going to make some impact in the years to come, although I feel he’s going to be missed representing the East Midlands at junior level in the British Championships team competitions, but fear not as we have more than a handful of good shooters coming through to take his place. With that in mind we look to the likes of Henry Bevan of Suffolk who took the silver medal with a score of 90/100 and Charlie Soanes of Norfolk who took the bronze on 89/100, the future undoubtedly looks bright in the region for young talent coming through, and long may it continue.

We must give a huge vote of thanks to Ben and his team at Barrow Sporting Clays for a very well run shoot that attracted a bumper turnout of 224 shooters, and that is the second highest attendance for this fixture since records began and is only beaten by Sporting Targets in 2016 where 228 shooters attended.

Once again, we give our final thanks to you the shooters who again came out in your numbers to support the region.

All the day's scores - https://www.cpsa.co.uk/scores/fixture/english-sporting-barrow-sporting-clays-20190519/95646