EAST MIDLANDS INTERCOUNTIES ALL ROUND

HELD AT THE PRIORY CLAY TARGET CENTRE

ON SATURDAY/SUNDAY 15^TH/16^TH JULY

THE WINNING SUFFOLK SENIOR TEAM

After all the lovely weather we have had recently the ground staff at The Priory were just praying that it would hold for the weekend.  Alas, their prayers were not answered as, for once, the forecast weather of 40 mph winds proved to be accurate. 

Those shooting on Saturday had the worst of all scenarios as the strong winds were also combined with squally and, at times, very heavy showers.  If the folklore regarding St Swithin’s Day is accurate we are in for a very rough 40 days and 40 nights.

In spite of the difficulties, Norfolk’s Simon Owen managed an 89, the Gilbert family, Richard and William, carded 86 and 84 and Lincs shooters Robin Ley, Phil Thomas and Graham Elkington all turned in respectable (given the conditions) mid 80’s scores.

On Sunday the strength of the wind did not abate one iota but most of the squads managed to get the job done before it started to rain in the early afternoon. 

Unusually, Suffolk were the first squad of the day and, as always, they set a very high bar so almost immediately their senior score total of 517 was the one to beat and although there was some very good scoring from the other teams it was only the Lincolnshire squad who came close, with some exceptional scoring from father and son duo, Marvin (90) and Dale (92) Houghton just helping to top up the very solid scores from the rest of the team.  So once again Suffolk were the well deserved winning senior team with Lincolnshire finishing runners up on 515.

SENIORS RUNNERS UP - LINCOLNSHIRE

VETERANS CHAMPIONS - LINCOLNSHIRE

The veteran’s category was an equally tight competition.  Norfolk were already 2 points ahead of Lincs from the Saturday scores and finished with a team score of 170 leaving a big task for Lincs last man, Ian Spooner, to catch up but a perfect 25 on the skeet helped Ian to rack up 87 giving Lincs the win by just 1 target. 

 LADIES CHAMPIONS - LINCOLNSHIRE

Sadly, counties have struggled to field ladies and junior teams for this event with just 2 ladies’ teams and only 1 junior team.  Lincs ladies had the advantage of strength in numbers as they were able to field a full squad but even so the Notts ladies can never be taken for granted as both Hayley Denoon and Kathryn Smith are a formidable duo.  On this occasion the Lincs ladies team score of 158 was enough to give them the win. 

JUNIOR CHAMPIONS - NORFOLK

Only Norfolk fielded a junior team.  Their top scorer, William Gilbert, also won junior high gun on a score of 84 as well as the James Hinkins memorial trophy awarded for top scoring junior overall beating Suffolk’s Henry Lungley and Notts Joe Turner by just 2 targets.

Many thanks to Natasha and the team at The Priory.  Running an Intercounties shoot is a whole different ball game to running a championship and this is the first time that The Priory has been awarded an East Midlands Intercounty shoot so congratulations to them for a job well done.  Special thanks to Joe Mitchell, who set up an excellent sporting round, to the referees who withstood the gale force winds all weekend and to the girls in the kitchen for keeping us all fed and watered.