EAST MIDLANDS I/C SKEET REPORT

27^TH JULY AT NORTHAMPTON SG

INTERCOUNTIES SKEET SENIOR TEAM CHAMPIONS - NORFOLK

It fell to Northampton Shooting Ground to host the East Midlands Intercounties skeet on Sunday.  The ground, as always, was immaculately presented, the East Midlands County flags were in position, and everyone was ready to go as shooting kicked off promptly at 9.00 am. 

Unusually, amongst the early squads were the Suffolk shooters so some tasty scores were on the scoreboard early on from both the Senior and Veteran teams with a clutch of scores well into the 90’s. 

The home side, Northamptonshire, were well capable of overtaking them and, indeed, they have been consistent winners in the past, but they could not quite catch Suffolk.

 As the Norfolk squads took to the ranges it soon became clear that this was going to be an East Anglian battle.  Sporting shooter, Richard Bunning, stole the show with a stupendous score of 99, but you can’t win a team shoot on your own so good back-up is essential, and this was more than ably provided by Mark Goddard and Stephen Nicholls, both on 98, Jonathan Hall (96), Matthew Fisher (95), Paul Freeman (88) and Paul Owen on 87.  Richard is well known in sporting circles and regularly features on the podium of some of the biggest Sporting Championships, just 3 months ago picking up the English Open Sporting Championship title but he is still a staunch supporter of his county and with this pedigree is always a welcome addition to the team.

LADIES TEAM CHAMPIONS - NORFOLK (KATE BENSTEAD & ALISON COUPE) 

Not to be outdone, the Norfolk ladies team swept all before them beating their nearest rivals, Suffolk by 11 targets.  Many congratulations to Alison Coupe and Kate Benstead who scored 90 and 94 respectively.

Suffolk rarely goes home empty handed, but on this occasion, it was left to the Veterans team of Bernie Polley, Adrian Cook and John Lowrie to pick up the honours leaving the Lincolnshire team in second place.

Junior teams are something of a rare beast, so it was good to see that 3 counties had managed to enter a junior team.  Some exceptional scoring from Norfolk’s Jack Anderson on 93 and Cambridgeshire’s Ethan Lord on 98.  Both top scorers had good back up but the Cambs team of Ethan and 14-year-old Lucas Muller just had the edge so took home the junior glassware with Ethan being awarded Junior High Gun.

Many thanks to Martine, Pete, Roy and the referees at Northampton for a very well-run competition.  The weather kindly remained warm and dry making it, all in all, a very enjoyable day.

 

JS