HAMPSHIRE Website : Hants Champs 2014

English Sporting Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: R Faulds
Ladies: T Faulds
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: C May
 
The English Sporting Championships were held at Southdowns Gun Club on Sunday 11th May. 34 Hampshire shooters attended the event, this for some was their second championship of the weekend having shot the Sportrap the previous day at OLSS. The weather was much the same as at Fareham who were holding the DTL championships alongside this event, which tore some people between grounds and two certain people managed to shoot both! Luke Elliott was on fine form shooting 90/100 at the Sporting and then repeating his score on the Southdowns Sportrap layouts. His 90/100 stood above the rest of the Hampshire field with Des Sturgess just behind on 88/100, Trevor Bell and M Terry were just one target behind Des on 87/100. Carole Sawkins was leading the ladies on 73/100, however Mr & Mrs Faulds made the trip to defend their titles and they did just that finishing on 94/100 and 74/100 respectively, giving them the Seniors & Ladies honours and collecting more trophies/medals at this discipline. In the Veterans class C May shot a 79/100 which was just enough to fend off Dudley Cooper and also Nigel Frampton who has made quite a collection of Vets medals this year across the disciplines. Unfortunately no Juniors entered the event due to other comitments, numbers seemed down on previous years which was a surprise being how well attended this event usually is and how many people have attended all the Hampshire Championships this year so far. I can't believe how quickly they have come and gone and all we have left to shoot is the English Skeet at Fareham Clay Target Club on the 8th June, hope to see you all there.
 
 
DTL Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: W MaClennan
Ladies: D Gordge
Juniors: S Ayshford
Veterans: P Leamon
 
The DTL Championships were hosted at Fareham Clay Target Club on a very bright but breezy spring day. With 4 squads it wasn't the largest of entries and with gusting winds it was going to be high scoring either. Ron King got off to a bad start as did many others, but Phil Eames, Mark Bryant and Bill McLennan were very much in the picture still. At the 75/100 mark there was only a point seperating them putting the pressure on the last round to shoot a perfect score. Both Phil and Bill came close but both dropped a target towards the end of the final round, this gave Mark a good advantage into his last round but with a miss in the middle and a very late second barrel he fell out of the running and a shoot off position also. Phil Eame found himself in yet another title shoot off but this time with the ever consistant Bill McLennon, a full round of DTL on layout C was in order and as a crowd gathered to watch it got underway. Phil missed his first bird out and then second barrelled his second not giving him the greatest of starts, Bill did also faulter but managed to monopolise on Phil's poor start giving him the County DTL Championship title. Bill also won the Hants and Wilts DTL Cup a few weeks previous. Perry Leamon shot well winning the Veterans title, Stephen Ayshford who is a new junior to the scene took his first juniors title, with Diana Gordge also taking her first title in the ladies catergory. 
 
Awaiting photo's
 
Sportrap Championships 2014

 

Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: D Sturgess
Ladies: T Faulds
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: N Frampton
 
Owls Lodge Shooting School once again kindly held this fixture for us and it proved to be a popular event with spaces being booked up two month's ago. 42 Hampshire members decided to ignore the horrendous weather forecast and have a crack at the title. I have never shot four Sportrap layouts back to back and had completely different weather for each one, this ranged from bright sunshine to very very heavy rain. The layouts were all very fair and the scores reflected this throughout the classes. The bar was set early on in the day with Colin Crockford and Mal Grant finishing 88/100, Phil Marks went one better for an 89/100 with Nigel Frampton and Phil King also posting 88/100's. Phil Eames then produced out of nowhere a 91/100 with Neil Lockton topping that with a 93/100. This remained for the afternoon until on the second to last squad out Dorsets Richard King came in on 96/100 to take the Overall High Gun spot. However on the last squad was Des Sturgess who weeks previous had tied with Neil Lockton at the FITASC champs, unbelievably he shot another 93/100 to force another title shoot off. Mr Faulds tweeked the clubhouse Sportrap layout and both Des and Neil were to shoot this layout again. With the targets being moved out considerably it wasn't going to be as high scoring as previous rounds, Neil finished on 15 but Des went one better on 16 giving Des another Championship title and 7 points. Tanya Faulds took the ladies class with an 83/100 with Carole Sawkins close behind on 79/100, Nigel Frampton took the Veterans once again on 88/100 and there were no juniors present unfortunately. Thank you to all the scorers/ground staff for helping make the event run as smoothly as possible.
 
Helice Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: P Eames
Ladies: N/A
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: N/A
 
The Hampshire Helice Championships were held at A1 Shooting Grounds again, this is mainly due to the fact its the closest ground to us that offers the Helice discipline and they always make us feel very welcomed. Mal Grant, Phil Eames, Carl Miles, Trevor Bell, Andy Stratton and Roger Deacon were the only Hampshire members to make the trip up there. With the World Sporting on at EJ Churchills some people were unable to attend unfortunately but with 33 people in total an enjoyable day was there to be had especially with the weather taking a turn for the better. At the end of the day things were level between Mal Grant and Phil Eames on 17 a piece, so yet another title shoot off was required. Each shooter would step up and shoot two targets as usual but sudden death would apply, this resulted in Mal breaking 7/8 targets with Phil breaking 8/8 giving him the title for the first time. This now puts Phil in a strong position on the Supreme Championship leaderboard.
 
ABT Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: S Heath
Ladies: J King
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: T Gentili

 

The Hampshire ABT Championships were once again held at Fareham Clay Target Club, the weather was looking good although there was a slight wind and the sun fading in and out made lense choice a bit differcult. The day got on its way with Ben Gordge, Luke Elliott & Sean Heath all posting 24/25 on there first layouts, it was becoming apparent though that B layout was definately harder to see with the mix of sun and tree's as a backdrop. By the 75 bird stage it was all to play for with most people having atleast one bad layout and there were only 3 clays dividing alot of people, it was going to come down to whoever had B layout to finish and more importantly who could straight it. Ron King and Sean Heath were going on for a possible 93/100 with Phil Eames now having played catch up, along with Roger Deacon, Tony Gentili, Ben Gordge and Luke Elliott still chasing hard for the title. Sean held his nerve to finish 91/100 with Ron and Phil finishing on 90/100, Roger had a superb finish to end up on 89/100 with Ben and Luke not being so fortunate and ending the day on 86/100. Tony Gentili had a clear lead in the Veterans category with Nigel Reynolds being the next closest a couple behind, and the Ladies title went to Jayne King who finished on 72/100. This was Sean's second title this year and he earnt another 7 points in the race to win the Supreme Championship Title, which is starting to get very interesting especially as the Helice Championship is next.

 
 
FITASC Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: D Sturgess
Ladies: C Sawkins
Juniors:C Gorsuch
Veterans: N Frampton
 
The Hampshire FITASC Championships were held on Good Friday at Southdowns Gun Club, the Southdowns staff kindly awarded us a premium fixture date all to ourselves which we will hopefully continue to keep for following years. Each of the four layouts were carefully thought out and the scores reflected this with a good percentage around the 20/25 mark and only a few 25 straights. The weather was kind to us once again with spring sunshine but still a bit chilly in the shade at times. They received 85 entries to the event and 29 of these were Hampshire shooters, giving us once again a well attended championship. Des Sturgess took the lead early on with John Heagren having a nightmare start to the day pretty much taking him straight out of the running for the title. Neil Lockton, Phil Buxton, Roger Deacon, Phil Marks and Trevor Bell all started off well and by the end of the second layout there was still everything to play for. Neil went on to straight the Valley Bottom layout and Des continued a very consistant run of scores. By the last layout Des and Neil had both pulled away from the pack and were tied on 69/75, both posted 24/25 on the final layout resulting in yet another title shoot off. This was to be decided on the Well layout behind the club house, and with the shoot positions being moved it was new targets for both parties. Des shot 21/25 to Neils 19/25 earning Des the title once again and ownership of the new trophy for its first year. In the Veterans there was a tight battle between Nigel Frampton, Steve Watts, John Heagen and Andy Shore. By the end of the day only one target seperated them with Nigel and John tied on 87 to Steve and Andy's 86, however no shoot off was required as John had left the ground giving Nigel the title. Ladies was won by Carole Sawkins who had a consistant day finishing on 75/100 with Jane Hughes finishing on a credible 60/100 at her first Fitasc championship. Connor Gorsuch took yet another Juniors title with 87/100, proving how much of an all round shot and up and coming talent he is. Thank you to the Southdowns ground staff for making it a very welcomed and well run event, and also to everyone that stayed for the shoot off and presentation after a very long days shooting.
 
 

Single Barrel Championships 2014

Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: R Faulds 
Ladies: T Faulds
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: B Coupe
 
The Hampshire Single Barrel championships were held at Owls Lodge Shooting School on Saturday 12th April alongside the Double Trap to encourage people to shoot both disciplines on the same day. The Single Barrel was the slightly more popular event with 24 Hampshire and 10 Berkshire entries attending. Neil Lockton led the day on a 43/50 but on the next squad was Andy Gordge, last years champion hoping to defend his title especially from his son Ben. They both shot consistant and once again tied but this time on 45/50 taking the lead. Roger Deacon came as close as you can to finishing on 48 but somehow ended up on 44 missing out by one clay to tie and Brian Coupe standing adjacent to Roger finished up on the same score. Later in the day Luke Elliott turned up to have a crack at it especially as he straighted this event in weeks previous at the All Round. He didn't disappoint puttng in a 46/50 to take top spot, however Richard Faulds was booked on the last squad so nothing was certain. He took up his peg and proceeded to miss the first two targets giving hope to Luke but this was about the extend of his mistakes as he finished on a credible 47/50 to take the title and another 7 Supreme points. Tanya Faulds took the Ladies title but didn't have it all her own way as there were another two ladies present, and Brian Coupe took the Veterans title on a strong 44/50. Thank you once again to the staff at Owls Lodge and to everyone attending this double fixture and staying until the end.

 

Double Trap Championships 2014

Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: R Faulds
Ladies: T Faulds
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: N Frampton
 
The Hampshire Double Trap championships were held at Owls Lodge Shooting School on Saturday 12th April alongside the Single Barrel. With the weather on the turn now we had near perfect conditions with the odd bit of breeze/wind thrown in, but its still not quite warm enough for shorts yet. We had 17 Hampshire members make the trip to shoot what used to be a very low attended shoot, some years nobody even turned up proving the move to Owls Lodge being the correct one. Berkshire held their championships and shared yet another fixture with us making it a very well attended and enjoyable day. With nobody really having shot the new Double Trap sequence it was wide open for anybody to have a good day and pick up some points. Roger Deacon led the way putting in a 44/60 with Phil Eames one behind on 43, and Nigel Frampton putting in a leading Veterans score and the only other person to make it into the 40's. This stayed the same throughout the day until Mr & Mrs Faulds sneeked off up the track to have ago themselves, being they have no involvement in target setting these days as Chris does all the hard work for them, they are perfectly within their right to have a crack at a title or two aswell. Richard put in a 53/60 with Tanya finishing on 32/60 making it another husband & wife victory, this also gets Richard off to a late start for the Supreme Championship with a full 7 points.

 

All Round Championships 2014

Hampshire Champions:
Seniors: RA King
Ladies: J King
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: D Holmes
 

The All Round championships were held at Fareham Clay Target Club on a very sunny Mothering Sunday, Berkshire also held their own championships sharing the fixture once again. A small break down on the ABT put a slight hold on proceedings but the FCTC ground staff soon had a speedy resolve and got things under way. Ron King led the way early on with a 24 at ABT with Neil Lockton matching this on the Sporting layout. Roger Deacon, Phil Eames & David Holmes were all shooting well, and by the 50 bird stage there was quite a few people bunched up at 46/50 with Ron still leading by 1 target. Luke Elliott finished better than he started with a straight at Single Barrel and a 24 on the Skeet to end him up on a respectable 92. Carl Miles also finished well ending up on 91, but Ron made sure that he could never be caught by putting in a perfect Skeet score that even surprised himself, this sat him at the top on 95. Jayne King had a good start also putting in a 21/25 at ABT, she was shooting the Sporting well up until the last stand, but unfortunately the sun got the better of her as it did with many others. Jayne still took the Ladies title though making it a husband & wife victory. David Holmes just managed to stay ahead of the ever consistent Rick Stala who is a specialist at All Round winning it numerous times, this gave David the Veterans title finishing him on 87/100. Ron not only won the Seniors title but also the FCTC Presidents cup again and also picked up another 7 Supreme Championship points. Thank you again to all the members attending the event and staying for the prize giving at the end of a long day. 

Olympic Trap Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions
Seniors: RA King
Ladies: N/A
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: T Gentili
 
The Olympic Trap Championships were also held at Owls Lodge Shooting School on Saturday 8th March alongside the Olympic Skeet Championships. The 50 bird competitions are starting to prove far more popular at the moment, these allow shooters the chance to shoot two disciplines on the same day that they probably wouldn't usually shoot. The numbers speak for themselves as last year only 3 people attended the 100 bird NCSC fixture, this year 28 shooters attended the OLSS 50 bird fixture! Out of the 28 entries 23 were Hampshire shooters, again these attendances from our county shooters is most definately on the up, and I really do hope this continues as it adds to the atmosphere and competition on the day. There certainly seems to now be a number of people chasing the Supreme Champion title early on, but with only your top 7 scores counting and 10 more competitions to go, it is not to late to start getting on the leaderboard. Again like the OSK we were blessed with great weather and this certainly helps the scores. Phil Eames put an early lead in by being the only person in the 40's but this was soon matched by Ron King and Mal Grant. A couple of people looked so close to taking the lead with Ron dropping his very last bird for a 42/50, and Tony Gentili shooting 20/25 and with one bird down and almost his second round complete, he had a disaster of a finish to leave him on another 20/25 finishing him on 40/50. This put Tony out of the shoot off position but did still gain him another Veterans title. So we had yet another shoot off on our hands, with Ron, Phil and Mal all still at the ground and tied at 41/50 it was game on. Ron never looked like he was going to miss but one got away finishing him on 24/25, with Mal finishing on 20/25 and Phil on 17/25. 
 
Olympic Skeet Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions
Seniors: N Lockton
Ladies: N/A
Juniors: N/A
Veterans: PF Oldring
 
The Olympic Skeet Championships were once again held at Owls Lodge Shooting School. With clear blue skys and the sun shining for a change, we were hopefully in for an enjoyable days shooting. We had a total of 19 entries into the event with 15 of them being Hampshire shooters, so this meant a full 7 supreme championship points were available at what used to be one of the lesser attended fixtures. I really do hope these attendances keep up throughout the year as we seem to be going from strength to strength at the minute, and it is very encouraging to see crowds of people attending these shoots and staying until the end for prize giving. Alfie Oldring led the way early on with a 36/50 which was low by his standards as he unfortunatley injured his back the day before. This score however remained the highest until Neil Lockton returned the same score resulting in a tie, but unfortunately because Alfie had left the ground and wasn't present for a shoot off Neil took the title, Alfie did however take the Veterans title and runner-up spot. The next highest score was 31/50 which was a three way tie between Roger Deacon, Phil Eames & Ben Gordge, so not exactly a high scoring day but definately an enjoyable one. Once again a big thank you to Owls Lodge Shooting School and to all shooters attending the event.
 
 
Universal Trench Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions
Seniors: A Gordge
Ladies: C Sawkins
Juniors: C Gorsuch
Veterans: T Gentili
 
This year the Universal Trench Hampshire Championships were held at Owls Lodge Shooting School. Last year this event had 3 entries at the National Clay Target Shooting Centre in Bisley, this year it had 27 entries of which 22 were Hampshire. So for once we had a proper competition on our hands, the weather wasn't the most favourable with a mixture of sun, rain and wind which is to be expected this time of year. The day got off to a flying start with Ben and Andy Gordge both posting 46/50, Sean Heath came close to matching it with a 24 on his first round but then let a couple to many slip away to finish 44/50 along side J Pope. This then meant we had to have a shoot off between father vs son/ex-chairman vs current chairman. They both started off well, but the pressure started mounting and mistakes were starting to get made. After the 25 targets they had managed to tie yet again on 20/25! So single barrel sudden death it was, Ben stepped up and missed his first target out leaving it to Andy, who wasn't going to miss the opportunity of winning his first championship of the year. Andy has just recently changed to a Beretta DT10 and it was certainly a change worth making! Well done and thank you to all that attended the shoot and stayed for the shoot off and presentation.
 
Double Rise Championships 2014
 
Hampshire Champions
Seniors: S Heath
Ladies: C Sawkins
Juniors: C Gorsuch
Veterans: N Frampton
 
The Hampshie Double Rise Championships were also shot at Owls Lodge Shooting School alongside the UT championships on the 8th February. It certainly shows that by reducing the ammount of targets shot, running two championships on the same day and making it a Saturday fixture the attendance to these shoots has increased massively. We had 25 entrants of which 20 were Hampshire members, all battling it out for the second championship title of the year and trying to collect some Supreme Champion points along the way. Ron King shot a 17/30 on his first round and in the 5min interval between rounds something happened as he then took his position back up and shot a 27/30! In windy conditions with the targets jumping about this was an exceptional score putting him straight to the top of the leaderboard on 44/60. However Sean Heath wasn't going to let a second title slip away in the same day, and shot two consistant rounds finishing one better on 45/60 to take the Double Rise title. Ron was left in the runner-up spot with Andy Gordge finishing in third place, both Andy and Sean are now leading the Supreme Championship on 12 points a piece. Thank you to everybody that attended and hopefully this is just the start of things to come. Next up is the OT & OSK on the 8th March at OLSS again, so hope to see you all there.