EAST MIDLANDS INTERCOUNTIES SKEET

HELD AT NORTHAMPTON SHOOTING GROUND

ON SUNDAY 23^RD OCTOBER

What a day this turned out to be!  For the first time this season all 8 counties in the East Midlands region had entered teams so with nearly a full house of 20 squads the day had to start on the dot of 9 am.  Unfortunately, at 9 am it seemed as though all of the rain which we didn’t get through the dry summer was now being dumped on Northampton Shooting Ground.  IT WAS DIRE – so it took all of Martine’s “persuasion” to get the first squads out on the range.

Amongst the early starters were Bedfordshire’s Zoe Bruce, Hayley, and Rob Denoon from Notts, T Johnson & P Dodd from Norfolk and Lincolnshire’s Chris Bone, all of whom, in spite of the conditions put in some very good scores.

It appeared that there would be no let up as squad after squad had no option but to venture out into the deluge and unbelievably in these conditions some big scores started to emerge.  99 and 97 from Cambs. Marcus and Ethan Lord, 96 from Leics. Bob Tucker, 95 from Chris Bone and 93 each from Hayley and Rob Denoon.  By lunch time there was evidence of brightening skies and unbelievably by early afternoon there was even a hint of sunshine so teams could just get on with the business in hand.

The re-scheduling of this event following the death of Her Majesty, The Queen meant that it now fell in the middle of half term so one or two team members had to withdraw to meet family commitments.  Nottinghamshire lost two of their big hitters Tom Clifford and Allan Warren and Suffolk lost two of their high scoring juniors in Robert Kingston and Jasper Pearce.  They need not have worried as the rest of the Suffolk team were on a mission racking up a 99, 3 98’s, a 97 and a 91 to give them a winning team total of 581. 

Mick Russell & Dave Morgan - Northants Senior Team

True to form the home team, Northants, put in a sterling performance with consistent scoring from Mick Russell, Dave Morgan, Neil Faulkner, Alex Banning, Andrew Lea and Mick Rolstone but leaving them just 9 points behind Suffolk for the runners-up slot and Nottinghamshire at least had the satisfaction of seeing their Ladies team of Hayley Denoon and Olivia Stevens picking up the ladies’ glassware. 

Olivia Stevens - Notts Ladies

Leicestershire, the smallest county in the region, have been the dark horses of these competitions all the way through.  Quietly picking up this and that from every event helped along the way by their deadly duo, John Wells and Steve Brightwell.  Nor did they disappoint on this occasion as the Leicestershire Vets team of Bob Tucker, John Wells, Steve Brightwell, and Tony Cox walked away with the Vets awards beating Lincolnshire’s Doug Moore, Brett Aisthorpe, Marvin Houghton and Paul Stennett by just 2 targets. 

Leicestershire Veterans Team

But Leicestershire did not stop there as their junior team of Ollie John and Mollie Chesterton, picked up the Junior team awards, with the Junior HG going to Suffolk’s Henry Lungley, who scored a superb 98.

Ollie John - Leicestershire Juniors

Henry Lungley (Suffolk) - Junior High Gun

With any one of 6 out of the 8 counties in the region still in with a chance of winning the Director’s Trophy every point was really going to matter, Nottinghamshire had the misfortune to lose two of their senior team and in the final reckoning Norfolk, with only a 7 man team, were not able to meet the criteria of 8 scores to count for this purpose.  We then had thrown into the mix a very strong team from Northants who could not accumulate enough points themselves to be in contention but could impact on the points of the other teams.  So, as the scores started to roll into the clubhouse there was a lot of number crunching to see which county was likely to emerge the 2022 winner of this trophy. 

The final standings are now published on the website.  Congratulations once again to Suffolk for fine performances in sporting, Fitasc, All Round and Skeet.  Congratulations to all the county teams who have taken part and especially to the team managers for all their hard work and dedication.  This year was the closest final we have ever had so next year could be your year!

Thanks as always to Martine and the team at Northampton who obligingly moved one of their own competitions to accommodate the region for this re-scheduled date.  Special thanks also to the referees who diligently did their job in the most atrocious conditions.

As a reminder of the day, we are posting a selection of photographs of all of the teams.