EAST MIDLANDS INTERCOUNTIES ABT

HELD AT NOTTINGHAM & DISTRICT GUN CLUB

ON SUNDAY, 24TH OCTOBER

Damp and windy conditions greeted our ABT teams on the last intercounty shoot of the season.  We have some of the best ABT shooters in the country but in these conditions targets can soon escape both barrels so it had the potential to be something of a lottery.  We were also hanging on to first place position for the East Midlands Directors trophy, a trophy which had managed to elude us for the last 11 years so we were kind of anxious not to blow it.  We had our not so secret weapon in Jack Wilkinson who once again did the business finishing on a superb score of 95 but although there were some good scores and, indeed, some personal best scores from the senior team Jack's was the only score we managed to record over 90.  

Senior Team : John Allenby, Mike Burton, Andy Harvey, Jack Wilkinson, Phil Thomas

It was a different story for the veteran team.  All of them shoot fast so the clays didn't have much of a chance to deviate before they were turned into balls of dust.  This strategy certainly paid off as both Graham Elkington and Brian Wilkinson turned in a 92 followed closely by John Winn on 90 and Dave Shepherd on 86 giving us a team score of 184.  We hoped this might be enough to take veterans but, alas, the Norfolk vets had other ideas, as they came in at the end of the day with 185. 

Veteran team : Dave Shepherd, John Winn, Brian Wilkinson, Graham Elkington

Our Lincolnshire teams have done so well this year, picking up glassware at every single intercounty shoot so it was left to the ladies team to keep this record intact and they did not disappoint.  Saira Boardman put in a more than acceptable score of 87 which made her not only our top lady but also gave her top lady overall.  Georgina Barratt was only persuaded to join the ladies team 2 days prior and had never shot 100 ABT registered before so it was a pleasant surprise to everybody, including Georgina, when she put in a supporting score for Saira of 77 putting the ladies team well clear of their nearest rivals, Cambridgeshire. 

Ladies Team : Jan Stennett, Saira Boardman, Georgina Barratt

However, all was not lost.  With such brilliant individual scores from all 3 categories we were quietly confident that we had done enough to secure the Directors Trophy.  This has since been confirmed - see the link to the East Midlands website for a selection of photographs from all or our successful teams.

Congratulations and well shot to all.