EAST MIDS INTERCOUNTIES DTL AT NOTTINGHAM & DGC

LADIES TEAM CHAMPIONS - LEICESTERSHIRE

Round 5 of the Directors Trophy at the smartly turned out Nottingham & District Gun Club, with the always hotly contested DTL the discipline of choice.

98 shooters attended giving us 7 Senior teams, 5 Ladies teams, 7 Vets teams, and 3 Junior teams.

The weather was in a word…. unbearable…even from 8-30am it was hot and sticky, with just the merest hint of a breeze, a bit of light cloud cover, and you could sweat up just thinking about shooting, never mind actually doing it, but thankfully with the last two layouts covered it did give the shooters a bit of respite from the sapping conditions.

The first guns sounded off promptly at 9-00am with the Nottinghamshire shooters aiming to set the standard of the day for everyone to chase. The Senior total of 1748 looked a decent effort, with some excellent tons from Paul Meakin, Rob Denoon, and Peter Armett, but with 6 counties still yet to shoot and the way this event has panned out in the past it was going to be a long wait until 5pm.

Photos - Top Left, Norfolk Vets. Top Right, Leics Juniors, Bottom Left, Leics Seniors, Bottom Right, Joe Turner JHG.

Surprisingly local rivals Lincolnshire fell well short of the total and it was Leicestershire that turned out to be the main challengers but still falling 5 points behind at the final reckoning with Alex Harris leading the way on 100/299 which ended up as the highest score of the day.

The traditional late charge by Norfolk and Suffolk was possibly hampered by the now driving rain and Notts held on to their lead all day and were crowned Senior team Champions, with Leics as Runners Up.

Wrapping up the Seniors we should also give honourable mentions to the rest of the tons, Chris & Richard Morris for Cambs, and Sean Crutchfield for Norfolk.

In Ladies the Leicestershire duo of Mari Hughes and Julie West sprung a bit of a surprise in their first ever Intercounties shoot turning over some of the more seasoned counties in this event finishing on 554/600, 7 points in front of second placed Cambridgeshire.

In Juniors Joe Turner shooting for Notts recorded an impressive 99/293 to give him the Junior High Gun title but it was the Leicestershire Juniors of Joshua Kind and Sam Maling who took the team title on 570/600, 4 points clear of second placed Suffolk.

Last but by no means least, the Vets competition was a very close affair. Notts held the lead virtually all day on 578/600 with Ken Rimington the top man on 98/292. They fended off Lincolnshire by a solitary point despite the best efforts of Richard Grey who recorded a ton, his first in over 20 years, but they were overcome in the last squads of the day by Norfolk who had Richard Gilbert as top scorer on 100/297, which was the 9^th ton of the day, the other that we haven’t mentioned being Steve Eley for Cambs Vets.

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to the shooters for coming out and supporting the region once again.

Finally, as always many thanks to everyone at Nottingham for the first class hospitality, especially the girls in the kitchen on such a hot day, and of course the refs and ground staff, who without them there would be no shoot.