**********************************************************************

LATEST NEWS

**********************************************************************

💥 Single Barrel County Championship – 7 July 2024 💥

See our Single Barrel team page: https://sites.cpsa.co.uk/staffordshire/single-barrel-team

Delighted to report that our County Champion for 2024 is Craig Nightingale whose brilliant 99ex100 saw him finish 6 ahead of Dave Malpass with John Simmons and Colin Heathcote sharing third place. 

Valerie-Anne Barrow, Craig Nightingale and Colin Heathcote

Some consolation for Colin Heathcote was taking the Veterans title.  And many congratulations to our new Single Barrel and DTL Team Manager, Valerie-Anne Barrow who shot out of her boots to take the Ladies title, ahead of Carole Wilson and Nicky Pleavin.

A big thank you to David Brent and Ranton for looking after us and running a smooth event and of course, as always, to the referees too.

Staffs County Champion: Craig Nightingale

Veterans Champion: Colin Heathcote

Ladies Champion: Valerie-Anne Barrow

Well done to everyone who shot today and thank you for your continued support of shooting in Staffordshire.

Steve Kilner – Chairman

**********************************************************************

 ABT England Selection Shoot at East Yorkshire CSG - 15-16 June 2024 

See our ABT team page: https://sites.cpsa.co.uk/staffordshire/automatic-ball-trap-team

Fine performances from a couple of our top Staffordshire shots in the third England selection shoot over the weekend at East Yorkshire CSG.  Adam Gutteridge hit a magnificent 100 straight on the Saturday and followed it up with 96 on Sunday to finish joint second with Cory Doble of Durham on 196, just two off Matt Panter and Ian Woodhead. 

Adam Gutteridge

Ray Sutton shot 97 and 96 for a 193 and share of top spot in the Veterans category with Nicholas Harris of Lancashire.

Ray Sutton

Good luck to all of our Staffs ABT shooters taking part in the English Open at Nuthampstead on 20-21 July.  The ABT Home International will be taking place at Fauxdegla on 6th-7th September 2024.

**********************************************************************

💥 ESK Staffordshire County Championship – 9 June 2024 💥

See our ESK team page: https://sites.cpsa.co.uk/staffordshire/english-skeet-team

As befits the way this summer is going, it was not quite the same sunny day that we had last year.  Plenty of cloud with a stiff cool breeze made it tricky conditions for all concerned.

Credit then to both Kian Maher and Martin Walmsley who shot superbly to tie for High Gun on 98ex100.  This meant the dreaded shoot-off and congratulations to Kian Maher who just edged it and therefore once more successfully defended his title as Staffordshire English Skeet Champion for 2024. Well done Kian!

Sadly, of course, we no longer have Craig Macho with us to defend his Veterans trophy.  That trophy will now be retired with Craig as the last winner.  A new trophy will be purchased and delighted to report that the first recipient of this will be Arthur Salt who shot a fine 91.

Joining Arthur on the same score was Archie Tromans who, not content with recent success as our new Super Sporting Junior Champion, took the ESK Junior title.

Arguably one of the best performances of the day though came from our new Ladies Champion, Cheryl Maher.  For those who don’t know, yes, she is Kian’s mum 😊 

Cheryl’s only just taken up shooting and this was her first competition.  A phenomenal 89 saw her take the Ladies trophy home.  They’ll need a bigger trophy cabinet in the Maher home at this rate!

Great shooting Cheryl and same to all our winners.  Some very good scores out there today from everyone.

As always, a big thank you to Doveridge for doing a great job with hosting the event and to the referees.  And a special thank you to ESK Team Manager, Kate Poyser who not only shot a splendid ESK PB but did a great job in drumming up support for the event.

Staffs County Champion: Kian Maher

Veterans Champion: Arthur Salt

Ladies Champion: Cheryl Maher

Junior Champion: Archie Tromans

Well done to everyone who shot today and thank you for your continued support of shooting in Staffordshire.

The Inter County Championship is at Doveridge on Sunday 1^st September.  Kate will be in touch in due course with all those selected to represent Staffordshire.

Steve Kilner – Chairman

**********************************************************************

Super Sporting Staffordshire County Championship - 1 June 2024

The inaugural Staffordshire Super Sporting County Championship took place at Garlands shooting ground today. The course was challenging, as you would expect for a county level competition courtesy of Steven Lovatt’s The Clay Shooting Company, but enjoyable with some brilliant shooting on display.

There was a strong turnout of Staffs shooters, so THANK YOU to all of you for your support and thanks to Steve and his team for another smooth day of shooting great targets.

The results are as follows:

Joint High Gun: Archie Tromans with Tim Hatton

A superb 90ex100 from both of them.

Senior champion - Timothy Hatton

Junior champion - Archie Tromans

Ladies champion - Elena Hastilow

Veteran champion - Mark Byng

Congratulations to all our new champions

We will be in touch to arrange presentation of County champion badges and trophies!

Full results on the CPSA website: https://is.gd/8TYLfT

We are very pleased to see this exciting format so well supported in Staffordshire and look forward to seeing you at the remaining English Sporting Staffs county selection shoots.

A reminder that these are Sunday 30 June at Doveridge, Saturday 20 July at Mickley Hall, Sunday 11 August at Garlands (also the WM Area Championship) and Sunday 8 September at Garlands (also the Staffs County Championship)

Neil Hastilow – Super Sporting Team Manager

**********************************************************************

Upcoming events in June

We have a busy month coming of CPSA registered events and Championships coming up in June.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

Saturday 1st June

Super Sporting - Staffordshire County Championship at Garlands.

Please contact The Clay Shooting Company to book your place.

info@theclayshootingcompany.com

07342 338390

Sunday 2nd June

Down The Line - 100 registered at Ranton Clay Target Club.

Please contact Ranton to book your place.

info@theclayshootingcompany.com

Sunday 9th June

English Skeet - Staffordshire County Championship at Doveridge.

Please contact Doveridge to book your place.

info@doveridgeclaysports.co.uk

01889 565986

Thursday 20th June

Super Sporting - 100 registered at Garlands.

Please contact The Clay Shooting Company to book your place.

info@theclayshootingcompany.com

07342 338390

Sunday 23rd June

English Sporting - 100 registered at Garlands.

No need to book – just turn up and shoot.

Thursday 27th – Saturday 29th June

FITASC Sporting - Staffordshire County Championship at Mickley Hall Shooting School.

Please contact Mickley Hall to book your place.

admin@mickleyhall.com

0800 7720058

Sunday 30th June

English Sporting - Selection Shoot #6 at Doveridge.

info@doveridgeclaysports.co.uk

01889 565986

In addition to these local events, there are several major competitions taking place nationally:

FITASC - England Team Selection shoots 1st-2nd June at High Lodge SG, Suffolk and on 15th-16th June at Southdown SG.

English Sporting - England Team Selection shoot 6th and 8th June at Owls Lodge Shooting School, Barton Stacey.

Automatic Ball Trap - England Team Selection shoot 15th-16th June at East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground.

English Skeet - England Team Selection shoot 22nd -23rd June at Eriswell Lodge.

The CPSA DTL Weekend and Double Rise Competition 6th-8th June at Bywell Shooting Ground.

See: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../dtl-weekend-and-double-rise

Sportrap and Super Sporting - English Open 19th-23rd June at Barbury Shooting School.

See: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../english-open-sportrap-and...

Olympic Trap English Open 29th-30th June at Nuthampstead Shooting Ground.

Good luck to all those who'll be taking part in some of the above mentioned events. Get out there, shoot well and enjoy!!

Steve Kilner - Chairman

**********************************************************************

Helice/ZZ: Staffs County, WM Area & Inter Counties – 18 May 2024

A team of Paul Bailey, Marcus Iddon and Richard Wright headed to Rugby & District Trap Club on Saturday for the annual Helice (also called “ZZ”) Inter County championship. This included the WM Area and Staffordshire County Championships.

You can learn more about Helice shooting here https://www.cpsa.co.uk/disciplines#HEL

It was a great day of competition in the warm May sunshine. Just like last year, it was a close contest between Paul and Marcus for County Champion. This time it was Paul Bailey who took the title with an excellent 21ex24, ahead of Marcus on 19ex24. This also gave Paul the Silver medal in the WM Area, only missing out to Warwickshire’s Jonti Spilman by one target!

County Champion: Paul Bailey

Veteran Champion: Marcus Iddon

The combined scores of the Staffordshire team meant that we were tied on 40 with Warwickshire with the latter taking the Gold after a shoot-off. Congratulations to Warwickshire CPSA and to our boys on getting a terrific Silver.

Steve Kilner – Chairman

**********************************************************************

 English Skeet Staffordshire County Championship 

Sunday 9th June at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure

Are you interested in shooting English Skeet ?

Would you like to test your skills against other Staffordshire ESK shooters?

Do you fancy the chance to walk away with a shiny trophy?

Would you like to have the opportunity to shoot at the ESK intercounties in September being part of the team to show other counties why Staffordshire are the best?

If you answered YES to any of those questions then WE NEED YOU!

We need Seniors, Veterans, Ladies and Junior ESK shooters to come along and compete against other Staffordshire shooters.

Trophies will be available for the winners of each category on the day. Shooting in the County Championship is part of the selection criteria for the Intercounties shoot in September, also being held at Doveridge.

The ESK County Championship will be held at Doveridge 9th June.

Please give contact Doveridge to book you slot.

Cheers

Kate - ESK team manager

**********************************************************************

ESP English Open at Doveridge: 1-5 May 2024

The sun has set on another CPSA English Open. Our congratulations to Mark Winser who put in a frankly, staggering 119 on the final day to claim the trophy. Tremendous shooting, Mark

Thank you to the CPSA for everything they did over the five days and for bringing this event to just across the border in Derbyshire. I think we can all agree that Doveridge have hosted a terrific competition. Thank you to Clive, Jo, Michael and everyone on the team there and, very importantly, to all of the referees. And of course, thank you to each and every one of you from Staffordshire who took part.

Class and category leading scorers for Staffordshire:

High Gun – Jack Whitehouse and Eric Weston 110

AA Class – James Ward 103

A Class – Keith Hodgkinson 103

B Class – Syd Phillimore 101 – and 3rd overall in the competition- well done, Syd!

C Class – Lucy Christie 89

Super Veteran – Keith Hodgkinson 103

Veteran – Eric Weston 110

Junior – Archie Tromans 98

Ladies – Lucy Christie 89

Disabled Sitting Runner-up – Paul Bailey 83

There is a round-up of the final day of action of the CPSA Facebook page and website: https://is.gd/F5bp1B

Hope you’ve all enjoyed it and it has given you the hunger to get out there and have a great summer of shooting. Our next ESP selection shoot is at Garlands on Sunday 26 May. See you there!

**********************************************************************

💥 Staffordshire CPSA Annual Achievement Award 💥

Martin Butcher (Vice-Chair), Martin Walmsley, Steve KIlner (Chairman)

The Staffordshire CPSA Annual Achievement Award is a trophy that the Committee awards to someone who has had a truly outstanding season in their chosen discipline(s).

As you can see in one of the photos, there are some serious names on that trophy.

Following a short break, in 2023, the Committee unanimously decided that we once more had a very worthy recipient.  That person is Martin Walmsley. 

Among his many achievements last year, Martin won BOTH the prestigious CPSA UK English and Welsh Opens when competing against the very best skeet shooters in the country. 

He followed this up by gaining a third England cap.  A truly phenomenal performance.  A true county man, Martin was part of the Staffordshire ESK team that won a brilliant Gold at the West Midlands Area Inter Counties in August. Martin also took the WM Area Skeet Doubles title and was runner-up to his good friend, Kian Maher in the Staffordshire County Championship.

  

Martin continues to represent his sport, county and country to the highest standards.  Already this year he’s defended his Skeet Doubles title and won Bronze in the WM Area Skeet.  He will be taking part in the first England Selection Shoot this weekend and we wish him all the best of luck in going for England cap number four.

Once again, many congratulations Martin and here’s to another great year!

Steve Kilner - Chairman

**********************************************************************

English Skeet WM Area at Doveridge - 14 April 2024

ESK WM Champion, Kian Maher & Bronze medalist, Martin Walmsley

A great contest at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure with 59 competitors taking part, the majority from across the region.

Another blustery day didn't stop Kian Maher from holding his nerve to put in a near perfect 99, giving him both WM Area High Gun and Junior titles, as well as a win in AA class. Phenomenal shooting, Kian

Martin Walmsley tied in second on 98 and narrowly lost out to Paul Stokes to take a fine Bronze.

Charlie Carden shot 91 to take third in B class and Les Beardmore was joint third in C class with 82. Well done both!

**********************************************************************

Olympic Trap WM Area & Inter Counties at Fauxdegla - 14 April 2024

Adam Gutteridge - OT WM Area Champion 2024

Our Staffordshire squad of Adam Gutteridge, Ian Hull, Martin Osbourne, James Sutton, Ray Sutton, Darren Wood came home with a terrific Bronze medal – well done lads!

And to top off a great day, Adam Gutteridge saw off some very strong competition to take a terrific WM Area Gold with 92ex100. Absolutely brilliant, Adam

Our sincere thanks to Mike, Debbie and all the team at Fauxdegla International Clay Shooting Centre for running another excellent competition.

**********************************************************************

💥 ABT England Team Selection Shoot #1 at Bisley - 6&7 April 2024 💥

Adam Gutteridge representing England in a Home International
 

The National Clay Shooting Centre at Bisley hosted the first ABT England selection shoot of the season with 80 competitors taking part. Another great performance from Adam Gutteridge who has represented England before and put in two consistent days to finish on 188ex200 - joint sixth overall and just two off high gun.

Strong showings too from our two Veterans who took part, Martin Osborne and Ray Sutton who finished on 176 and 170 respectively.
Well shot, guys 💪

Wish them all well for the next selection shoot which is at Nuthampstead Shooting Ground on 18-19 May.

**********************************************************************

💥 ESK Doubles - WM Area Championship at Doveridge - 7 April 2024 💥
 

  

Kian Maher and Martin Walmsley

In what were insanely windy conditions, Martin Walmsley put in an impressive 94ex100 to take the Gold, three ahead of Kian Maher who bagged a great Silver, as well as Gold in Juniors.

Excellent shooting from Staffordshire’s dynamic Skeet duo! 👏👏

**********************************************************************

 DTL West Midlands Area Championship - 31 March 2024 

Colin Heathcote

Holmes Chapel Shooting Ground hosted the DTL West Midlands Area championship. Luckily we had a break from the rain, which was much appreciated by the 95 competitors.

Staffordshire’s Colin Heathcote shot a superb 99/296 to tie with Dan Price of Hereford & Worcester. This meant a nail biting shoot off.

Congratulations went to Dan, who secured the gold medal and DTL West Midlands Area Champion.

Colin secured the silver medal and a gold medal in the veterans. Many congratulations Colin on a successful championship.

Also, having a great championship from Staffordshire were Craig Nightingale, Adam Gutteridge, Chris Holden, Rob Olden, Richard Stubbs, John Simmons, John Owen, David Brent and Philip Terry.

Valerie-Anne Barrow, DTL Team Manager

**********************************************************************

 FITASC England Selection Shoot at Garlands - 31 March 2024 

Staffordshire's Tim Simmons in action

A great couple of days of competition saw Scotland’s Ben Husthwaite take high gun with 96. There were some fine performances from Staffordshire, with Tim Simmons our top shot on 93 and Brett Hand 92. SuperVets, Steve Williams and James Hand hit 87 and 85 respectively with Veteran Andrew Price also scoring 85.

**********************************************************************

 ABT at Ruby & District - 31 March 2024 

Staffordshire's Luke Hambleton

Congratulations to Richard King of Dorset who took high gun with 95.  Staffordshire’s Luke Hambleton was second with 92, Ian Hull third on 91 and Darren Wood fourth with 89.  Great shooting!

**********************************************************************

 Leah makes Team GB squad for Italy 

Leah Southall has been selected to represent British Shooting in the Olympic Trap Women’s Junior team at the upcoming European Championships in Lonato, Italy from 15^th to 27^th May.  Good luck Leah!

**********************************************************************

 ESP Selection Shoot #2 at Mickley Hall - 9 March 2024 

Our second Staffordshire selection saw Ed Harrison put in a fantastic 97 to tie for High Gun with Cheshire’s Nick Beavis and also take the win in AA class.

James Ward and Martin Butcher tied for third with 95. Jack Whitehouse, Charlie Carden and Charlie Tavernor all broke the 90 mark.

Top Veterans were Tim Howell and Shaun McNamara, tied on 86.  Lewis Sones also hit 86 to take top Junior and a win in B class.  Lauren Oakes was our top Ladies shot with 81.

Our next ESP selection will be held this coming Sunday 28th April at Garlands. No need to book.  Just turn up and shoot!

Martin Butcher, English Sporting Team Manager

**********************************************************************

ESP Selection Shoot #1 at Doveridge - 3 March 2024

Staffordshire High Gun, Jack Whitehouse

Staffordshire CPSA English sporting selection shoot No1 was held yesterday at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure.

Firstly, I would like to thank Clive and his team for their considerable hard work laying on this selection shoot for Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

It was a very good technical set of targets, which I think was challenging but fair to kick off the season, and tested not only our target reading but concentration also.

Congratulations go to Jack Whitehouse who was Staffordshires high gun on the day. Finishing on 91/100

The shoot was hindered a little at times due to mechanical problems, but the team worked tirelessly to overcome those issues so we could all complete the shoot. Doveridge have already identified areas they wish to change in readiness for future selection shoots. We all wish to thank you for your patience when encountering any delays.

A very big thank you to all for making the effort to come along and participate. We saw a very large turnout, including competitors from as far as Yorkshire and Essex.

The selection shoot tables have been published and are over on our Facebook page.

Our next ESP selection will be held this coming Saturday 9th of March at Mickley Hall Shooting School. This will be a squaded event so please contact Mickley Hall directly to book your place.

Shoot well and have fun.

Martin Butcher, English Sporting Team Manager

**********************************************************************

 Closure of Kingsley Moor SG - 28 Feb 2024 

As some of you will have seen, Kingsley Moor Shooting Ground have announced that they will be closing whilst some refurbishment work is undertaken.

No news yet on how long this will take or if the ground will re-open for shooting.  If we hear anything on that front, we'll let you know.

For now, this means that the third ESP selection shoot, originally scheduled for Sunday 24 March at Kingsley will now be taking place on Sunday 28 April at Garlands.

For now, registered shoots in the county will, of course, continue with The Clay Shooting Company at Garlands. And plenty of others available. See the CPSA website for details of grounds across the West Midlands region: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/clubs

**********************************************************************

Young Shot Kian in Pull! magazine

Brilliant to see one of our top English Skeet shots, Kian Maher featured in the March issue of Pull! magazine, the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association member's magazine.

Kian is one of the very best Junior ESK shots in the country and it's rewarding for Kian, his family and his coach David Beardsmore for him to be in the "Young Shots" feature.

Well done Kian!

You can access your digital copy of Pull! here: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/magazine

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA AGM and 2024 Committee

The Staffordshire CPSA Annual General Meeting was held at Aston Marina on 18th January.

Your committee for 2024 is as follows:

 

Chairman – Steve Kilner

Vice-Chairman – Martin Butcher

Treasurer – Valerie-Anne Barrow

Secretary – Kate Poyser

Clubman Manager – Paul Bailey

Ladies Shooting Representatives – Valerie-Anne and Kate

Trophy Manager – Matt Pickford

Committee Member – Ian Hull

Committee Member – Neil Hastilow

Website Manager – Steve Kilner

 

Steve Kilner has been unanimously elected as Chairman for 2024.

 

The following disciplines managers were selected:

All Round - Steve Kilner

Automatic Ball Trap - Ian Hull

DTL - Valerie-Anne Barrow

English Skeet - Kate Poyser

English Sporting - Martin Butcher

FITASC - Steve Ward

Helice - Paul Bailey

Olympic Trap - Ian Hull

Single Barrel - Valerie-Anne Barrow

Super Sporting - Neil Hastilow

Universal Trench - Ian Hull

 

I should like to place on record my sincere thanks (and those of all on the Committee) to Ian Hull for the terrific job he did as Chairman. I would also like to thank my fellow committee members for all of their support, our sponsors Solware Ltd and Lyalvale Express Ltd and last but not least, everyone who shot for and supported Staffordshire during a very successful season.

Staffordshire continues to be a County that encourages and supports its members and participates in and frequently wins events. In 2023, we won Senior team Gold in 6 disciplines: All Round, ABT, English Skeet, FITASC, Olympic Trap and Universal Trap and medals in Down The Line and Helice, helping us to retain the prestigious Lyalvale Shield. We also won medals in 3 Veterans and Juniors events. A great achievement by both shooters and team managers.

There were some standout individual performances at numerous local, area and national events as well as international recognition for Adam Gutteridge in ABT, Martin Walmsley and Kian Maher in English Skeet, Josh Bennion and Tim Simmons in English Sporting and Leah Southall in Olympic Trap. Their success is something we should all be proud of.

I am looking forward to making 2024 another terrific year of shooting for everyone in Staffordshire, across all disciplines and categories. This can only be achieved with the support of a great committee as well as, YOU the people of Staffordshire who will go out there, shoot and compete.

If you have any questions or if you would be interested in shooting for the County, do get in touch through FB Messenger.

Very best wishes

Steve Kilner

Chairman - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

💥 Staffordshire retain Lyalvale Shield - 11 January 2024 💥

ESP Team Manager, Martin Butcher receives the Lyalvale Shield

from CPSA Chairman, John Martin

Delighted to report that Staffordshire have retained the prestigious CPSA West Midlands Area Lyalvale Trophy for 2023.  This is the premier team trophy for the WM region, contested among the seven counties: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hereford & Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire. 

It maintains our proud record with now 19 wins since 1987. Points are awarded at each of the Senior team Inter-Counties championship events over the season; one point for finishing first, down to seven points for seventh.  The county with the fewest points is the overall winner.

Steve Kilner receives the Gun Up Trophy from John Martin

In the Senior competition, Staffordshire won Gold in All Round, ABT, English Skeet, FITASC Sporting, Olympic Trap and Universal Trench.  These results also helped us to take the Gun Up Trophy.  Elsewhere, in the three Category trophies, we had a terrific result in the Veterans, tying with Hereford & Worcester.  We improved in Juniors from 5^th last year to joint runner-up this year.  We dropped from 4^th to 6^th in Ladies but did remain on the same points as last year.  Myself and Martin Butcher attended the AGM and were proud to accept the trophies on behalf of Staffordshire CPSA.

A big thank you to all of the team managers who ran championship events and put the squads together; All Round (Steve Kilner), ABT, DTL, OT & UT (Ian Hull), English Skeet (Kate Poyser), English Sporting (Martin Butcher), FITASC (Steve Ward) and Helice (Paul Bailey). 

Lastly but most importantly THANK YOU to everyone who shot for Staffordshire last year.  This success is your success and is something we can all be proud of.

The new season will soon be upon us and we’ll be going for it again in 2024.

Steve, Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

ESP at Garlands – 5th November 2023

Some great shooting on display at Garlands with The Clay Shooting Company on Sunday. Staffordshire's Jack Whitehouse was on fire, taking overall High Gun with a tremendous 96, two ahead of Phil Smith from Hereford & Worcester. Tim Hatton also broke the 90 mark.

Jack Whitehouse

Brothers Jack and Archie Tromans had a great day out. Jack took top spot in A class with 88. Archie was top Junior and joint winner of B class with 78 – great shooting, guys!

You can view all the scores here: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../english-sporting.../114157

Steve and the team are running a Supersporting event at Garlands this coming Thursday 9 November.

You will need to book in advance - text Steve on 07342 338390 to secure your place!

Practice is also available this Thursday, Friday and Saturday with catering available.

**********************************************************************

Paul Bailey - Disabled Shooter of the Year!

The Disabled Shooters Group recently held their AGM at Sporting Targets.

Delighted and extremely proud to see that Staffordshire's PAUL BAILEY has been awarded Disabled Shooter of The Year!

Paul is a familiar face on the CPSA shooting circuit and his unquestionable talent as a terrific all round shooter, coupled with his encyclopaedic knowledge of clay pigeon shooting makes him such an invaluable member of our sport, as well as the Staffordshire Committee.

Along with numerous personal achievements, including Disabled Sitting Champion at the ESP British Open, Paul had another excellent year with Staffordshire, as part of our Gold-winning team in the ESK Inter Counties and winning Bronze in the ZZ Inter Counties. As Team Manager, he also steered Staffordshire to Senior Team Gold in Olympic Trap and to overall team success in the WM Area Clubman competition.

Well done, Paul - here's to more success for you and the teams in 2024!

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

WM Area Inter County ESP & Sportrap at Garlands – 1 Oct 2023

Congratulations to our Staffs squads who were at Garlands for the last Inter County championship of the season. The Senior team of Gary Armitt, Martin Butcher, John Dale, Ed Harris, Gav Heath and Jack Whitehouse all shot well but narrowly missed out on the medals. Congratulations to Warwickshire for taking the Gold, ahead of Derbyshire and Cheshire and of course, to everyone in Team Staffordshire for a great effort.

Our Veterans team of Mark Byng, Keith Hodgkinson and Tim Howell, along with our Ladies team of Vic Gallimore, Olena Hastilow and Lauren Oakes all shot really well but also narrowly missed out on the medals this time.

But delighted to report that our Juniors of Lewis Beardmore, Neil Foxley and Archie Tromans came home with a terrific Bronze medal – well done guys!

Some other notable individual performances came in both the English Sporting and Sportrap.

In the ESP, Jack Whitehouse was our County High Gun with 95, overall joint runner-up and just one off overall HG. Derek Longmore hit an excellent 83 to win B class. Our top Lady was Lauren Oakes with 69. And Archie Tromans had a great day out, hitting 80 to finish joint third in Juniors and B class.

In the Sportrap, Phil Bailey was stop Staffordshire shot with 90, closely followed by Team Manager, Martin Butcher with 87 – great shooting!

Our sincere thanks to all the referees and to Steve Lovett and his team at The Clay Shooting Company for running an excellent competition with a lot of hard work on what turned out to be a bit of a soggy day.

Last but no means least, a BIG thank you to our Team Manager, Martin Butcher for getting the teams organised and running the selection shoots throughout the year. Cracking job.

You can view all the scores on the CPSA website.

ESP: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../english-sporting.../114019

Sportrap: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../sportrap-garlands.../114020

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Olympic Trap European Championship - Osijek, Croatia

A simply BRILLIANT Bronze for British Shooting Team GB’s Tegan Hart, Maddie Purser and our very own Leah Southall in the OT Women's Junior event at the recent ESC European Championship in Croatia.

The young trio shot an excellent 193/225 in qualification to face Turkey in the Bronze Medal match. Safe to say that it was every bit as close and dramatic as you would expect, with Team GB holding their nerve to take the Bronze by a score of 7-3.

Terrific performance from Team GB – well done Teghan, Maddie and Leah - Woop! Woop!

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA 1000 Lyalvale Express

Power Gold Cartridge Raffle Draw - 21 Sept 2023 

Gary Armitt, flanked by Marcus Iddon and Martin Butcher

We had a total number of 547 individual raffle entries and using a random number generator to select a number, the winner of this year's raffle is...... Gary Armitt 

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART!

Big thank you also to our sponsor of the prize Lyalvale Express Ltd and Marcus Iddon.

And a special thank you to ESP Team Manager, Martin Butcher for putting this all together, ably assisted by Kate Poyser.

Martin has now finalised his squads and will be publishing tomorrow the full list for the Inter Counties at Garlands on 1st October.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

ABT National Inter Counties - 17 Sept 2023

More success for Team Staffordshire at the weekend.

Our WM Area Gold medal-winning ABT team took part in the National Inter Counties at the weekend and came away with a terrific SILVER medal.

Well done to everyone in the squad - terrific achievement

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

💥 ESP Staffordshire County Championship – 17 Sept 2023 💥

The announcement that you will all have been waiting for! For 2023 we have a new overall County Champion, along with 3 new champions in Ladies, Veterans and Juniors:

 2023 County champion 

Gav Heath 91/100

Ladies Champion

Lauren Oakes 71/100

Veterans Champion

Tim Howell 84/100

Juniors Champion.

Ben Mason 82/100

Many congratulations to all our winners today, it was a very well attended and well contested competition. I would like to thank everyone for their support and attendance throughout the selection series.

Our sincere thanks go to Steve Lovett of The Cay Shooting Company for facilitating the shoot and previous shoots. More information will follow during the course of this week.

Thanks again everyone!

Martin Butcher, ESP Team Manager

**********************************************************************

ESP Home International

Congratulations Team England!!

Fantastic set of results, across the board at the ESP Home International at Sporting Targets, England winning in all Categories

As to be expected, it was clearly a stiff course. High Gun was Alan Harris of Scotland with 92ex100 with Martin Myers of England on 90 the only two to break the 90 mark.

Josh Bennion

Both our Staffordshire boys shot superbly to break the 80 mark with Josh Bennion 85 and Tim Simmons 81.

Tim Simmons

Great shooting guys and well done to Team Manager Phil Easeman and everyone on Team England

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

WM Area Inter-Counties All Round - 10 Sept 2023

Archie Tromans (Junior), Steve Kilner (Team Manager), Lewis Beardmore (Junior),

Martin Butcher & Jack Rowley (Seniors), Lucy Christie, Gill Grealey & Olena Hastilow (Ladies)

Full results: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../all-round-doveridge.../112692

Another GOLD winning performance from Team Staffordshire!

Great day at Doveridge with the WM Area Inter-Counties All Round.

Once more the Staffordshire squads did us proud.

Senior Team: Jack Rowley, Gav Heath, Tim Simmons, Steve Williams, Phil Bailey

and Martin Butcher (not in picture)

In the Seniors, our squad of Phil Bailey, Martin Butcher, Gav Heath, Captain Jack Rowley, Tim Simmons and Steve Williams put in a massively impressive 458ex500 to take Gold, ahead of Shropshire with 440 and Warwickshire on 432.

Gav and Phil tied for overall WM Area Champion, both hitting a blistering 98 with Gav Heath only taking the title on count-back on the DTL. Steve Williams shot an 85 to take the WM Area Veterans Gold - well done, Steve!

Veterans Team: Peter Critchley, Martin Finn & Mark Byng

In the Veterans, we went one better than last year with the ever-green Mark Byng, Peter Critchley and Martin Finn taking joint SILVER with Derbyshire, just 5 behind Hereford & Worcester.

 

Junior Team: Lewis Beardmore, Archie Tromans & Ben Mason

Pictured with Rod Davies, WM Area Secretary

The Junior squad of Lewis Beardmore, Ben Mason and Archie Tromans had a brilliant day out, taking a magnificent GOLD medal. All shot well but Ben Mason was the standout performer, his 90ex100 winning the WM Area Junior Gold.

Ladies Team: Olena Hastilow, Gill Grealey & Lucy Christie

It was a tough day for our Ladies squad of Lucy Christie, Gill Grealey and Olena Hastilow who shot their hearts out but narrowly missed out on a Bronze this time, finishing fourth. But massive credit to all three of them. Some counties didn’t field a team, so they can be very proud of their efforts and it’s something to build on for next year.

Big thank you to Jo, Clive and everyone at Doveridge for doing a cracking job organising this, our thanks to all of the referees, without whom, we’d have no competition, to Rod Davies and Stuart Thomas from WM Area and to Elite Logo's 4u Solware Limited. and Lyalvale Express Ltd.

Last but by no means least, to Valerie who has done a phenomenal job with organising the Staffs team polo shirts.

As Team Manager, I can only say how proud I am of each and every one of my team today – thank you!

Steve Kilner – All Round Team Manager

**********************************************************************

 Squads for WM Area Inter-Counties All Round - 10 Sept 2023

Looking forward to the WM Area All Round Inter Counties at Doveridge. We had a terrific day out at Fauxdegla last year.

Staffordshire CPSA All Round Squads 2022

Once again, I’m delighted to have four cracking squads in place:

SENIORS

Phil Bailey

Martin Butcher

Gav Heath

Jack Rowley (Captain)

Tim Simmons

Steve Williams

VETERANS

Mark Byng

Peter Critchley

Martin Finn

LADIES

Lucy Christie

Gill Grealey

Olena Hastilow

JUNIORS

Lewis Beardmore

Ben Mason

Archie Tromans

Development Squad

Jon Bowker

Neil Hastilow

Steve Kilner

Gary Tromans

Jack Tromans

Good luck to every single one of you on the day. Enjoy it and as always, I know you’ll do yourself and Staffordshire proud.

Steve Kilner – All Round Team Manager

**********************************************************************

ESK Home International at Jersey - 1-2 Sept 2023

More success for two of our top English Skeet shots, Martin Walmsley (Seniors) and Kian Maher (Juniors) at the recent Home International at Lecq Clay Target Club on Jersey.

  

Many congratulations to Team Manager, Julie Havill for all her hard work and to her magnificent squads for a tremendous few days of shooting. Everyone did their bit to contribute to a highly successful tournament for Team England

You can see details of all the results here: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/englandteam/disciplines/englishskeet

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

💥🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ESK Home International – 1-2 September 2023 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 💥

Lecq Clay Target Club - Jersey

The English Skeet Home International is taking place on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd September at the picturesque Lecq Clay Target Club on Jersey. It’s a cracking venue for a home international and we are very proud to have two of Staffordshire's finest in the England squad, managed by Julie Havill.

We’re delighted that Martin Walmsley will once more be donning his England blazer and it’s also brilliant to see Junior, Kian Maher receiving his first England call-up.

    

Martin Walmsley                                                    Kian Maher

Good luck to Julie and all of those who will be representing Team England on Jersey.

Steve – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

WM Area Clubman Competition at Mickley Hall – 26 August 2023

A great day of shooting at Mickley Hall with the WM Area Clubman competition. Well done to everyone who took part today from Cheshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and, of course Staffordshire, across the A, B and C classifications. Some terrific shooting on display.

Delighted to report that Staffordshire took the Overall Team win with 1002/1200!!

Derbyshire came second on 964 with Cheshire a close third with 961.

Staffordshire achieved wins in both B and C categories with our A squad runners-up to Cheshire by just 6 targets.

Some notable individual performances for the County today. Jack Tromans was Staffordshire High Gun with a tremendous 91. Junior, Neil Foxley was second for Staffordshire and runner-up in B class with 89 - great shooting Neil! And Matt Pickford shot superbly to take the top spot in C class and third overall for the County.

But every single member of every squad played their part today. We really hope you enjoyed the opportunity to represent Staffordshire and congratulations! But the same goes to every County shooter - the Clubman is a great competition and hopefully, a really fun day.

A big THANK YOU to our Team Manager, Paul Bailey for putting all the squads together – no easy task! Also, Gill at The Cafe at MHSS. She is doing a great job of keeping everyone well-fed and watered. Please give her Facebook page a follow and get down there – the food and hospitality is exceptional.

Last, but no means least, a massive thank you to Lara, Scott, Phil and everyone at Mickley Hall Shooting School for putting this shoot on today. Never easy to organise all this but they did an absolutely tremendous job – thank you!

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

English Skeet: WM Area Inter Counties - 20 Aug 2023

Another busy day of shooting for Team Staffordshire with two Inter-County events: the English Skeet and the Down The Line. More on the latter to come later. But there was success for both!

The ESK took place at Doveridge with Warwickshire taking Silver with 472 and Cheshire Bronze with 464 – well done to everyone who shot in those squads

But I’m delighted to report that our Staffordshire Senior squad of Paul Bailey, Martin Butcher, Kian Maher, Jack Tromans, Gary Tromans and Martin Walmsley took a magnificent GOLD medal with a blistering 482ex500. That is some achievement when up against the calibre of teams from across the region.

The team score was helped in no small part by not only superb 99s from Martin Walmsley and Kian but also a first ever 100 straight from Jack Tromans As a reward, we had to shoot Jack’s hat. Being nice, we did allow Jack to take the hat off first.

Jack Tromans hit 100 straight for the Senior team

In addition to the Senior success, our Junior team of Ben Mason and Archie Tromans then did the business with a combined 178ex200 to take a brilliant SILVER.

Delighted to say that we also had a Ladies squad of Kate Poyser and Carole Wilson and Vets squad of Bob Barnsley and Arthur Salt who all acquitted themselves well and did the County proud.

A big THANK YOU to Kate Poyser for getting the squads together and doing another cracking job as Team Manager.

And as always, our sincere thanks to Doveridge for putting on a terrific event and all of the referees.

Last but by no means least, a special thank you to Valerie-Anne Barrow for doing an amazing job in sorting out the Staffordshire team polo shirts, our thanks to Elite Logo's 4u for producing the shirts - terrific job, guys And everyone from Team Staffordshire would like to thank our sponsors Solware Limited. and Marcus Iddon at #Lyvaleexpress .. Everyone really did look the business! Showed off their gold medals beautifully

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

 Down The Line: WM Area Inter Counties - 20 Aug 2023 

2023 Staffordshire DTL squad

Many Congratulations to the Staffordshire DTL Senior and Veterans teams who took part in the West Midlands Inter Counties DTL Championship at Holmes Chapel Shooting Ground on Sunday. A great day of shooting and some excellent results!

The Seniors came home with a terrific Bronze medal, narrowly missing out to Derbyshire who took Silver after a shoot-off. Great shooting also from the Cheshire team who took the Gold.

DTL Senior Team

The Veterans team were in top form and took a brilliant Gold medal.

There was also an outstanding individual performance from Adam Gutteridge who took overall High Gun with a superb 100/296 

Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations to all of the county, class and category winners.

Special thanks to our DTL Team Manager, Ian Hull and to Holmes Chapel for putting on a great shoot.

See Facebook post from Holmes Chapel Shooting Ground:

Today was the West Midlands Inter Counties DTL Championship and the sun was out and shining. It was good to see some new faces and we had some lovely compliments about our ground during the day, which is much appreciated . We hope you all enjoyed the day and enjoyed our facilities of which we try and make the best we can.

Congratulations to all our winners!!!!

**********************************************************************

💥 All Round Staffordshire County Championship – 19 Aug 2023 💥

Massive thank you to everyone who came out on a sunny but breezy day to shoot the Staffs All Round County Championship.  Really hope everyone enjoyed the day.  The wind certainly made for some testing targets, not least on the English Skeet round but…..at least it’s the same for everyone!  An excellent turn out with 41 people shooting the competition.  I'm very grateful that so many people stayed behind for the presentation of trophies. 

Delighted to report that our All Round Staffordshire County Champions are as follows:

Senior and County Champion – Jack Rowley

Veteran – Shaun McNamara

Lady – Gill Grealey

Junior – Kian Maher

Jack Rowley - County and Senior Champion

 

Shaun McNamara - Veterans Champion

   

Gill Grealey - Ladies Champion                          Kian Maher - Junior Champion

Some closely fought competition in almost every category, not least for overall high gun and County Champion where Jack’s superb 91ex100 edged out Shaun by one target.  Runners-up in Seniors were Adam Gutteridge and Phil Bailey who both hit 89.

The Veterans was the only category with a clear winner, thanks to Shaun’s outstanding 90.  Stephen Williams was a worthy runner-up and Mark Byng third.  In the Ladies, Gill saw off some strong competition from Olena Hastilow, Valerie-Anne Barrow and Carole Wilson. In the Juniors, Kian Maher and Archie Tromans had shared the 2022 trophy but this time around it was Kian who took the trophy by just one clay – well done, Kian and great shooting from both of you.

A very sincere “thank you” to Jo, Clive and all the staff at Doveridge for hosting the championship.  And a special thank you to the fine team of referees, without whom we couldn’t run these events.  Look forward to seeing you all in 2024 and some of you on Sept 10^th for the Inter-Counties!

Steve Kilner, All Round Team Manager

**********************************************************************

Craig Macho

Everyone at Staffordshire CPSA was saddened to learn of the pass of Craig Macho on 18 August 2023.  It came as a great shock to us all when we heard the terrible news of his untimely passing.

Craig was an incredibly popular person on the CPSA shooting circuit with many friends, both in Staffordshire and beyond. He will be dearly missed.

Our thoughts and deepest sympathy are with all of his friends and family. Staffordshire CPSA dedicates our ESK Senior Gold and Junior Silver medals to Craig.

We hope to do something to properly recognise Craig's contribution and will announce details in due course.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

💥 All Round Staffs County Championship at Doveridge - 19 Aug 2023 💥

 

A reminder that we have our penultimate County Championship of the season this Saturday – the Staffordshire All Round Championship at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure.

📅 Saturday 19th August
🏠 Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure
☎️ 01889 565 986
💻 enquiries@doveridgeclaysports.co.uk
🖱 https://www.doveridgeclaysports.co.uk/

100 targets: 25 Single Barrel DTL, 25 ABT, 25 English Skeet, and 25 English Sporting.

Contact Doveridge directly to book your place.

The Staffordshire AR County Champion in each category will also automatically be selected to represent the County in our Inter Counties team, providing they make themselves available and pay the levy. The Inter Counties Championship also takes place at Doveridge, on Sunday 10th September.

Good luck to everyone taking part and we look forward to seeing you there.

Steve – All Round Team Manager

**********************************************************************

💥 Ladies Clay Shooting League at Mickley Hall - 12 Aug 2023 💥

 

Delighted to see another great turnout for the latest Ladies Clay Shooting League competition at Mickley Hall Shooting School.

The weather was kind (for a change!) and although the breeze made it a tricky shoot at times, the rain stayed off and the sun even shone 😀
Congratulations to everyone who took part and in particular the top 3 shooters on the day.

There was some great shooting on display from everyone and, as ever, it's as much about enjoying it and learning, as anything else.

Sincere thanks to Mickley Hall Shooting School for hosting the event on what was an exceptionally busy day - as always, they did a brilliant job. And last but by no means least, a big THANK YOU to Kate Poyser and Miles Machin for doing a cracking job in organising the shoot.

It's great to be supporting the Ladies Clay Shooting League and to see shooting for women thriving in Staffordshire as well as the whole WM region and beyond. We hope you all enjoyed the day. Next one is on Saturday 9th September at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure. See you there!

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

 FITASC County Championship - 9th-12th August 2023 

Mickley Hall Shooting School once more hosted our County FITASC Sporting championship, along our pals from Cheshire CPSA.

An excellent turn out over the four days during which the weather Gods were pretty kind to us, which hasn't always been the case this summer!

Delighted to report that our County winners for 2023 are:

Overall Staffs County Champion: Darren Park

Senior County Champion: Steve Ward

Veterans County Champion: Darren Park

Junior County Champion: Lewis Sones

Ladies: No Entry

Steve Ward - Senior County Champion

Congratulations to all the Staffs shooters for taking part, putting in some excellent scores and no doubt, a few "PB's" into the bargain.

Our thanks, as always, to all the team at Mickley Hall for doing a cracking job in hosting the championship.

Congratulations also to the Cheshire CPSA winners:

Overall County Champ - Steve Randles

Vets County Champ - Miles Machin

Senior County Champ - Steve Randles

Lady County Champ - Lucy Earl

Junior County Champ - N/A

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

OSK – British Shooting Shotgun Series – Round 4

Simon Cox, father of young Ollie Cox reports on a cracking weekend for Ollie and Staffordshire’s Olympic Skeet shots in round 4 of the British Shooting shotgun series……….

“At the age of 13, Oliver Cox has been shooting Olympic Skeet for just over 12 months, being trained at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure by Michael Gilligan. Ollie is already excelling in his chosen discipline. He is part of the GB Pathway scheme and shooting in his first full competitive season.

This weekend was round 4 of the Shotgun Series and Ollie, shooting in the Junior Men’s category, shot another PB of 103/125. He finished second in the Junior Men’s section, shooting his first final and finishing 4th overall.

Ollie then got to watch his Coach Mikey Gilligan tie the Senior Men's shooting 122/125 and then shooting 55/60 to win the final.”

Thanks, Simon and great shooting Ollie!

Also delighted to report on more success for Dominic Cooper who finished fourth and made the men’s Senior final and Annabelle Lane who finished third in Ladies. Great shooting everyone

Many thanks to Simon for the report and photos!

Steve – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

DTL - Staffordshire County Championship - 6 August 2023

A fabulous day of shooting at Ranton Clay Target Club with the Staffordshire DTL County Championship.

Thrilled to report that our DTL County Champions for 2023 are as follows:

County: Dave Malpass

Veteran: Ray Sutton

Ladies: Carole Wilson

Junior: No entry

Many congratulations to Dave, Ray and Carole and to all those who took part. We hope you all had a cracking day!

And a big thank you to Ranton for doing a great job hosting the championship.

**********************************************************************

DTL - Staffordshire County Championship - 6 August 2023 

GOOD LUCK to everyone shooting the Staffs DTL County Championship this Sunday at Ranton Clay Target Club.

Thankfully, the weather is looking a lot brighter on Sunday than it is tomorrow.

Contact Ranton directly if you’re still interested in booking a place: rctc.booking@gmail.com or call 01785 223621 / 07764 361690.

Enjoy the shoot and good luck!

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire Olympic Skeet

Olympic Skeet is a discipline that hasn't featured much here of late and apologies for that, especially to those who actually shoot it.

As it turns out, Staffordshire currently has THREE outstanding talents in this discipline. We may even have some more that we don’t even know about!

Dominic Cooper is shooting superbly and has done for some time, having come up through the ranks as a Junior, including winning the English Open OSK Junior title in 2018. He then capped a terrific first year as a Senior by winning the OSK British Open in 2019. Dominic recently had success at the British Shooting Shotgun Series OSK event at Fauxdegla International Clay Shooting Centre as well as winning at Doveridge back in May. He’ll be representing England at the OSK Home International at Fauxdegla on 12 August. A fantastic achievement. Good luck Dominic!

Dominic Cooper

We also have Annabelle Lane, one of the top OSK women in the country. Like Dominic, Annabelle has come through the Junior ranks and continues to go from strength to strength. She has put in some awesome performances this year, including at the UK Championships held at Doveridge back in May where won a great Silver.

UK Championships at Doveridge

And last but by no means least, we have an exceptional young Colt coming through the ranks with young Ollie Cox already competing in and achieving success. Ollie took part in the recent WM Area and Inter County OSK event at Gloucester Clay Shooting Club where he won a brilliant Bronze.

Ollie Cox

It would be great to do more to support and promote Olympic Skeet shooting in the County but to do that, we need your help. We have a very small Committee (all voluntary and all with very busy day jobs) and there are a LOT of different shooting disciplines that we genuinely try our very best to feature and support.

If anyone would like to join the Committee as a Team Manager or maybe just as a voice for OSK shooting, please drop us a line in Messenger and we can have a chat about doing this

Best wishes

Steve – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

CPSA Champion of Champions at The Game Fair – 29th July 2023

Great effort from Jack Whitehouse who competed for Staffordshire in the CPSA 'Champion of Champions' event at The Game Fair.

A good course of 50 targets with Jack up against some stiff competition from across the country. In spite of a valiant effort, Jack didn’t make the final, which was contested between Billy Baughan, Nick Portlock, Matt Hance, Aaron Harvey & Nathan Skinner. Many congratulations to the winner, Nick Portlock of Gloucestershire CPSA with 22/25 in the final.

Many thanks to Martin Butcher for the photos and videos well done again to Jack for taking part and giving it a great shot. 

**********************************************************************

CPSA Champion of Champions at The Game Fair – 29th July 2023

The CPSA 'Champion of Champions' competition invites top-shots from across England to compete for the title. Each CPSA County Committee puts forward their County Champion to test themselves on The Game Fair sporting course. The top five scorers from all the County Champions are then invited for a spectacular shoot-off in the arena.

We’re delighted that this year, Jack Whitehouse will be representing Staffordshire as our Champion! I’m sure you’d all like to join me in wishing Jack the very best of luck on Saturday.

Jack started shooting at the age of 14 when his grandad took him to Kibworth Gun Club to have a go. He immediately got the bug! Jack had a handful of lessons but learnt and then honed most of his skills by travelling around the country and shooting with his dad and grandad. He made the England team in 2014 and won numerous ESP Junior titles on route.

Returning to shooting after a short break, Jack had a stellar year in 2022, winning both the Staffordshire County Championship and WM Area Sportrap.

Jack has continued his success in 2023 as one of Staffordshire’s highest ranked ESP shots, achieving a AAA classification and consistently appearing around the top of the leader board for shooters in the West Midlands region. He also recently contributed to our Gold medal-winning success in the Inter Counties FITASC team.

So once again, good luck Jack! Enjoy the day and whatever the outcome, we know you’ll do yourself and Staffordshire proud.

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

FITASC WM Area & Inter County Championship - 22-23 July 2023

 TEAM STAFFORDSHIRE RETAIN THE TROPHY! 

L to R: Darren Park, Steve Ward, James Ward and Phil Bailey

(Tim Simmons and Jack Whitehouse not pictured)

Very pleased to report that the Staffordshire FITASC team of Steve Ward (Captain and Team Manager), Phil Bailey, Darren Park, Tim Simmons, James Ward and Jack Whitehouse have retained their trophy, winning the FITASC Inter-Counties at Westfields with a tremendous score of 441/500, a combined average score of 88. This put them a full 21 targets ahead of runners-up Warwickshire CPSA and third place Cheshire CPSA.

A note from a delighted Team Manager, Steve Ward:

“Great 4 layouts, which shot differently for everyone and shows just how good Steve Lovatt is as a course setter.  For Staffordshire to win by a clear 21 targets is amazing. 

My sincere thanks go to my fellow team members Phil Bailey, Tim Simmons, Daz Park, Jack Whitehouse and James Ward.

A final note to say that we don’t have many up and coming FITASC shooters in Staffordshire, so if there is anyone interested, please contact Staffordshire CPSA and we can help get you involved.”

Further success to report with a terrific GOLD for Phil Bailey in the WM Area champs – well done, Phil!

Our congratulations to Steve and everyone on the team for doing us proud again with another outstanding performance.

Finally, our thanks, as always, to Steve Lovatt and the The Clay Shooting Company team for putting on a terrific shoot.

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair & Secretary

**********************************************************************

FITASC WM Area & Inter County Championship - 22-23 July 2023

GOOD LUCK to everyone taking part in the WM Area FITASC Championship over the weekend at Westfield (run by The Clay Shooting Company).

In particular, best of luck to Team Staffordshire who will be looking to repeat their Gold medal-winning success of 2022.

Have a great shoot and if nothing else, fingers crossed with the weather!

Staffordshire 2022 Gold medal team - L to R: Steve Ward, Tim Simmons, Darren Park, Josh Bennion, Roger Grimshaw (reserve), Sam Ward. (Andrew Price not pictured)

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA Trophies and Badges

As we’re about halfway through the season, it’s a good time to clarify the Committee’s position on trophies and badges.

TROPHIES

The Staffordshire CPSA Trophy Manager is responsible for the purchasing and distribution of all County Championship trophies in conjunction with the Treasurer and Team Managers, as appropriate.

It is the aim of the Committee to have trophies available in all disciplines and categories. Historically, there have been a number of disciplines with categories where no more then one or two people have competed and no trophy has been available. If there is no pre-existing trophy, a minimum of three entrants in Veterans, Ladies and Juniors are required for a new trophy to be purchased. But if we have a trophy, we’re more than happy to issue one. Please note: you must pay the appropriate levy in order to be eligible to win a trophy.

We aim to give out the trophies at the appropriate Championship shoots but where this isn’t possible, a mutual date/venue will be agreed with the recipient.

 

BADGES

There are four badges available:

County Champion badge – issued to the overall County champion for that year in each discipline you compete in and win.

Category-specific County badge – where contested, issued to the County Championship winners in each category: Senior, Veteran, Ladies and Junior.

Staffordshire County Team badge – issued to whoever represents Staffordshire at an Inter County team event. You only receive this badge once, not each time you shoot for the County.

Staffordshire Clubman Team badge – issued to whoever represents Staffordshire in the annual WM Area Clubman competition.

Hope that helps and if you have any further questions, please do contact the Committee.

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

DTL Staffordshire County Championship – 6 August at Ranton CTC

 

Our friends at Ranton Clay Target Club are kindly hosting the Staffordshire DTL County Championship on Sunday 6th August 2023.

 

Email Ranton directly rctc.booking@gmail.com at or call 01785 223621 / 07764 361690 to book your place

Please let Ranton know the time and peg number you would like. You will then receive a confirmation email confirming your start time and peg number.

It should take about 2 hours to complete the competition.

A £2 Staffordshire CPSA levy will be applied to this shoot.

Enjoy the shoot and good luck!!

Steve – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA English Sporting

selection shoot #7 on 23 July 2023 

Sunday 23rd July will see our penultimate selection shoot which is the seventh in the series, held at Kingsley Moor Shooting Ground.

Entry is open from 10:00am to 1:00pm, so if you're thinking of doing a double, you can start early at Kingsley and go on from there.

£2 levy applies which includes entry to the Staffordshire Lyalvale Express Power Gold Cartridge Raffle Draw.

Our final selection shoot of the series is on Sunday 17th September at Garlands. This will include the Staffordshire County Championship.

Good luck to everyone taking part!

**********************************************************************

DOWN THE LINE TEAM MANAGER WANTED

YOUR COUNTY NEEDS YOU!

Staffordshire CPSA are looking for a DTL Team Manager.

We already have our County Championship in the diary, taking place on Sunday 6th August at Ranton Clay Target Club. It’s a great opportunity to encourage friends to come along and take part.

We then have the Inter Counties Championship, taking place at Holmes Chapel on Sunday 20th August.

We need your help in putting together a Senior squad (6 shooters with 5 scores to count) and ideally, squads for Veterans, Ladies and Juniors (3 shooters with 2 scores to count).

You could, of course, use the County shoot on 6th August as a selection shoot to determine your squads. If you need any help, there are people on the committee, and no doubt others, who can assist.

You can find out more about Team Manager duties on our website here: https://sites.cpsa.co.uk/staffordshire/team-managers

Please drop us a line on Facebook Messenger if you’re interested in taking on this important role.

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

All Round Staffordshire County Championship 

 Saturday 19 August at Doveridge

**PLEASE NOTE: THIS HAS MOVED FROM THE PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED DATE OF 12 AUGUST**

All Round is a mixture of disciplines combined in one overall round. It consists of 100 targets and is shot in sequence as follows: 25 Single Barrel DTL, 25 ABT, 25 English Skeet, and 25 English Sporting.

So, it’s a great way to test your ‘all round’ shooting ability!

Saturday 19th August

Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure

01889 565 986

enquiries@doveridgeclaysports.co.uk

https://www.doveridgeclaysports.co.uk/

Contact Doveridge directly to book your place

The Staffordshire All Round County Champion in each category will automatically be selected to represent Staffordshire in our Inter Counties team, providing they have paid the levy and are available. The Inter Counties Championship takes place on Sunday 10th September, also at Doveridge.

Good luck to everyone taking part and we look forward to seeing you there.

Steve Kilner – All Round Team Manager

**********************************************************************

 Ladies Clay Shooting League 

Attention ladies! Are you looking for a fun and challenging outdoor activity? Look no further than the latest Ladies Clay Shooting League event at Mickley Hall Shooting School on Saturday 12th August.

Join us for a day of shooting, socializing, and friendly competition with other like-minded women. Whether you're an experienced shooter or a complete beginner, this event is designed for all skill levels.

Our expert instructor will provide guidance and support, ensuring that you have a safe and enjoyable experience.

Not only will you have the chance to improve your shooting skills, but you'll also have the opportunity to make new friends and connect with other women who share your interests.

Book your place now www.ladiesshootingleague.co.uk 

80 targets. Cost is £48 to enter the competition. Coaching is included. (Does not include cartridges)

All meet at 9.30am.  All squads out at 10:00 am onwards each starting on different stands.

Name your shoot buddies you want to shoot with when entering (max of 6).

You will receive a competitor email in the week prior to the event.

**********************************************************************

Automatic Ball Trap WM Area & Inter County Championship 

 Garlands SG - 15 & 16 July 2023

A GOLDEN DAY FOR TEAM STAFFORDSHIRE!

Full list of scores: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../automatic-ball-trap.../113220

Absolutely delighted to report on a hat-trick of wins for Staffordshire at the ABT WM Area and Inter County Championship. The event was staged over two days at Garlands Shooting Ground, brilliantly hosted and organised by The Clay Shooting Company.

In the WM Area, our congratulations to Graham Evens of CPSA Shropshire whose near perfect 99ex100 gave him a worthy Gold medal. But great to see our own Darren Wood (96) taking Silver and Adam Gutteridge (93) Bronze with Ian Hull just one behind in fourth.

In the Vets, Colin Heathcote took Silver as did Gill Grealey in the Ladies – excellent shooting from both of you.

This put Team Staffordshire in pole position to retain our Inter Counties title. With a combined 461ex500 the Senior team of Adam Gutteridge (Team Captain), Ian Hull (Team Manager), Paul Cockle, Richard Lees-Styler, Mark Wright and Darren Wood finished a full 37 clays ahead of Derbyshire (424) and Warwickshire (417) to take the Gold

In the Veterans, the team of Colin Heathcote, Martin Osborne and Ray Sutton put on a fine show to take top spot with 181/200. To complete a tremendous hat-trick of team wins, our Ladies squad of Lucy Christie, Gill Grealey and Carole Wilson smashed a brilliant 141/200.

Well done to everyone who take part and who represented Staffordshire so superbly. As always, special thanks to Ian Hull for doing a cracking job as Team Manager. And lastly but by no means least, to Steve Lovatt and the team at The Clay Shooting Company for putting on a great event.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

 ESK One Hundred Straight Club at Nottingham - 16 July 2023 

More success and great shooting again from our Staffordshire County English Skeet Champion, Kian Maher.

As Kian writes:

"Shot the One Hundred Straight Club today at Nottingham. 97ex100. Come away with Junior high gun, 1st in a two man team with Leon New and a 1st in the 5 man team with Tom Clifford, Martin Walmsley, Leon Gill and Neil Orr. Had to do a shoot off for double A class with Tom. We both shot a perfect 25ex25 but unfortunately I dropped a low bird on pairs in the shoot off. Well shot Tom. Thanks to everyone at Nottingham for putting on a great day."

This lad is a credit to himself and the County and it's so good to see him going from strength to strength.

Well done Kian!

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Olympic Trap: WM Area and Inter County Championships - 9 July 2023

On Sunday, Fauxdegla International Clay Shooting Centre once more hosted the OT West Midlands Area and Inter County Championships.

Delighted to report that the Staffordshire team of Ian Hull (Team Manager), Adam Gutteridge, Martn Osborne, Jamie Sutton, Ray Sutton and Darren Wood put in a terrific combined score of 425 ex 625 to take the GOLD medal , ahead of Warwickshire CPSA and Cheshire CPSA, who took Silver and Bronze respectively.

Benjamin Killian of Warwickshire tied with our own Darren Wood for individual WM Area Gold and High Gun with 93ex100. Adam Gutteridge was also in superb form, hitting a fine 90 to share Bronze with Graham Evans of Shropshire.

Well done to everyone who took part and all the teams - it was a great competition. Visit the Fauxdegla Facebook page for the full results or the CPSA website: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../olympic-trap-fauxdegla.../112684

A big THANK YOU to Mike and Debbie Faux at Fauxdegla International Clay Shooting Centre for being such brilliant hosts, as always.

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Leah makes OTR England squad - 4 July 2023 

Great achievement for one of our County shots, Leah Southall to be selected for the England Olympic Trap Ladies team

Good luck when the time comes, Leah - have a great tournament!

**********************************************************************

Single Barrel Staffordshire County Championship – 2 July 2023

Well done to everyone who took part in the Single Barrel Staffordshire County Championship at Ranton Clay Target Club today.

Weather was kind, which is always a bonus and there was a good turnout with 23 entries.

Congratulations to Dave Malpass who successfully defended his title with a superb 92ex100.

The trophy winners were as follows:-

County Champion: Dave Malpass

Lady County Champion: Gill Grealey

Veteran County Champion: Colin Heathcote

Full results at https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../single-barrel-ranton.../113020

**********************************************************************

World English Sporting Clays Championship – 1-8 July 2023

GOOD LUCK to everyone from Staffordshire taking part this week in the World English Sporting Championships at E. J. Churchill Shooting Ground. It promises to be a superb competition with top shooters from all over the world involved.

The event alternates every year between the CPSA in England and the National Sporting Clays Association in the USA and includes English Sporting, Super Sporting and World Sportrap competitions.

You can follow all the results and a daily report on the CPSA website: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/news

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Helice Staffs County, WM Area and Inter County Championship 

 24 June 2023 

2023 Champion, Marcus Iddon

We've been taking part in the Helice Inter County championship at Rugby & District Trap Club today. This has also included the WM Area and Staffordshire County Championships.

You can learn more about Helice shooting here https://www.cpsa.co.uk/disciplines#HEL

Our new County Champions are as follows:

County and Veteran: Marcus Iddon

Senior: Paul Bailey

Congratulations to Marcus and Paul!

Martin Butcher, Marcus Iddon and Paul Bailey

The combined scores of the Staffordshire team of Paul Bailey, Marcus Iddon and Martin Butcher helped them take a Bronze on the Inter County competition – well done, guys!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

  Martin and Kian make ESK England Squad - 19 June 2023  

Following the second England Selection Shoot at Nottingham Clay Shooting Ground, we're chuffed to bits to see that both Martin Walmsley (Senior) and our Staffs Champion, Kian Maher (Junior and new cap) have been picked by Team Manager, Julia Havill to represent England a the home international in Jersey on 1-2 September.

We at Staffordshire CPSA are very proud of you! They'll be the first to thank friends and family for their support but ultimately, it's down to their hard work and dedication. Well done guys and good luck in Jersey.

Steve - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Double Rise Staffordshire County Championship – 4 June 2023

Well done to all those who took part in the Double Rise Staffordshire County Championship at Ranton Clay Target Club today.

Another hot and sunny one in the heart of the County.

Some great performances from our county shooters with the trophy winners as follows:-

County and Veteran Champion: Colin Heathcote

Ladies County Champion: Gill Grealey

No entry in the Juniors category.

Full results at https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../double-rise-ranton-clay.../113018

For those new to Double Rise (DR), it is shot like DTL, but two targets are thrown at the same time, one going right and one left. More info at: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/disciplines#DR

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

English Skeet Staffordshire County Championship – 4 June 2023

It was another gloriously sunny early summer’s day at Doveridge with 29 people turning out to shoot both the Staffordshire and Derbyshire ESK County Championships.

Many congratulations to Kian Maher who successfully and brilliantly defended both his trophies from last year to be the Staffordshire English Skeet Champion for 2023. Not only did he defend but he defended in style, hitting a magnificent 100!

Kian’s ton meant that he once more took the Junior and overall Champion trophies. Terrific shooting, Kian.

Martin Walmsley took the Staffs runners-up spot with 97, with both Craig Macho and Martin Butcher hitting 96. Craig’s score was enough to enable him to defend his Veteran title.

Congratulations also to our new Ladies Champion, Carole Wilson.

As always, a big thank you to Doveridge for doing a great job with hosting the event and to the referees, especially on such a hot day.

Steve – Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffs CPSA

**********************************************************************

PULL! MAGAZINE – ISSUE: JUNE 2023

CPSA members should shortly be receiving the latest Pull! Magazine on their doormats. If you’re a member, you can also access a copy online by logging into your account here https://www.cpsa.co.uk/login

We’re delighted to see one of the UK’s top English Skeet shots, Staffordshire’s Martin Walmsley beaming out on the front cover, proudly displaying the trophy from his recent English Open win. There’s a full write-up on page 18, as well as mention in the usual Staffs regional section on pages 50 and 52.

As always, there are details of upcoming events, as well as lots of interesting features and articles, across all the disciplines. Worth mentioning that there’s a good piece on Regional and County levies on page 5 – read it if you’ve ever wanted to know why you’re asked to pay them. Also an important article on shooting courtesy and etiquette and most importantly, respect for referees. Remember, without them, we’d have no sport.

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire ABT County Championship - 21 May 2023

A terrific County Championship with Adam Gutteridge defending his title as Staffordshire CPSA Automatic Ball Trap County Champion for 2023.

ABT County Champion - Adam Gutteridge

Adam was pushed all the way by Ian Hull with both hitting 93/100. This meant a shoot-off with again nothing to separate them as both hit 23/25. In the end, it came down to the equivalent of the dreaded penalty shoot-out with targets shot as single barrel. Adam hit 15 to Ian’s 14 to take the trophy be the closest of margins. Great shooting from both.

It was just as close in the Veterans category with Ray Sutton and Colin Heathcote both hitting 90, Ray taking the trophy on count back having hit 24 in his final round.

ABT Veteran Champion - Ray Sutton

Congratulations also to Gill Grealey who was once more Staffordshire Ladies champion, with Lucy Christie runner-up and Carole Wilson third.

ABT Ladies Champion - Gill Grealey

Lucy Christie also successfully defended her Staffordshire Junior title.

Thank you to all those who took part - hope you all enjoyed the day.

Senior County Champion: Adam Gutteridge

Veteran County Champion: Ray Sutton

Lady County Champion: Gill Grealey

Junior County Champion: Lucy Christie

Full results at https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../automatic-ball-trap.../112784

Many thanks to Steve Lovatt and The Clay Shooting Company for putting on great shoot.

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

ESK Welsh Open at Fauxdegla - 7 May 2023

Following on from King Charles on Saturday, we were treated to a second coronation on Sunday with Martin Walmsley being crowned 2023 Welch Open Champion at Fauxdegla International Clay Shooting Centre

Martin hit a terrific 99 to tie with Welsh shooters Mark Davies and Nigel Hodson. After a shoot off, Martin and Nigel were still both tied on 24/25. So, it came down to sudden death pairs with Martin bagging a composed, ice cool 4/4 in the Spring sunshine with Nigel missing his second target. Great shooting Martin

Not only this but the competition saw more success for Kian Maher – his brilliant 98 making him Junior High Gun. Well done Kian!

Great shooting by both

Steve KIlner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

 CORONATION OF KING CHARLES III - 6 May 2023 

Staffordshire CPSA would like to send our best wishes to His Majesty King Charles III on the day of his Coronation.

GOD SAVE THE KING!

**********************************************************************

Universal Trench – Staffordshire County, WM Area & Inter Counties 

 30th April 2023

Another terrific day for Staffordshire's shooters, this time down in the trenches…..the Universal Trenches to be precise . Fauxdegla hosted the CPSA Staffordshire County, West Midlands Area and Inter County UT championships.

In the WM Area, a brilliant performance from Adam Gutteridge saw him once more take Gold and overall High Gun with 95ex100. This was backed up by Ian Hull and Ray Sutton sharing the Bronze with Craig Miles (Hereford & Worcester). This also gave Ian Hull an excellent Gold in the Veterans. Great shooting guys!

UT County Champion - Adam Gutteridge

No surprise that this put Team Staffordshire in pole position to take the Inter Counties. Delighted to say that Staffordshire defended their title, finishing on on 447ex500 to take Gold.

Many congratulations to Team Manager Ian Hull and his team mates, Adam Gutteridge, Richard Lees-Styler, Martin Osbourne, Ray Sutton and Darren Wood.

Staffs County Champion was Adam Gutteridge, Veteran Champion was Ian Hull with Gill Grealey taking the Ladies title.

Last but no means least, our thanks to Mike and Debbie Faux and all of the team at Fauxdegla Shooting Ground for putting on a great shoot.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair & Secretary

**********************************************************************

English Skeet English Open – 28th-30th April 2023

The ESK English Open at Nottingham Clay Shooting took place over the course of the last three days. Huge Congratulations to Martin Walmsley who enjoyed another terrific weekend, nailing one of only four “straights” of 100/100 in the whole competition out of 205 shooters. Terrific, consistent shooting.

Martin went into the shoot-off today, showing nerves of steel to edge out Pete Chester after both had cleared another 25.

Great shooting Martin - we're chuffed to bits for you.

Well done also to Kian Maher who finished fourth in Juniors - as always, a fine effort Kian.

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

 Olympic Trap Staffs County Championship - 22 April 2023 

A terrific Staffs OT Championship at Doveridge today with a great turnout of the County's top OT shooters. Delighted to report that our County Champion for 2023 is Marcus Iddon.  His score of 44/50 edged out reigning champion Ian Hull (42) to take the overall High Gun and Veterans trophies.

Marcus Iddon and Ian Hull

GREAT SHOOTING MARCUS! 💥👏👏

Ian matched him nearly all the way to take runner-up spot with Peter Read third on 41. Adam Gutteridge was the highest placed Senior with 40/50, whose score was matched by Veteran Colin Heathcote.

Sadly, no Ladies or Juniors entered this year so if you’re in that category, come along next year and give it a go!

Many congratulations to everyone who took part – we hope you all had a great time. Thanks again to Team Manager, Paul Bailey for all his work organising a great shoot and to Doveridge for putting this on for us.

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

ABT First England Team Selection Shoot – 8-9 April 2023

More success last weekend for Staffordshire shots with Adam Gutteridge having a cracking weekend in the ABT.

Adam was taking part in the first England ABT selection shoot, at Nuthampstead Shooting Ground, along with a number of other shots from Staffordshire who all performed well over the two days.

Adam shot 95 on Day 1 and then followed this up with an even better 98 on day two, giving him a winning 193/200.

Great shooting Adam and we hope to see you representing England once again at the home international in September. And good luck to all those from Staffordshire for the remaining two selection shoots.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

Ladies Clay Shooting League at Mickley Hall - 8 April 2023 

Wonderful time had at Mickley Hall Shooting School supporting The Ladies Clay Shooting League today. Cracking day for it too

Great work by Miles Machin and Kate Poyser putting on the shoot and so good to see so many women from across the WM Region taking part. The Ladies Clay Shooting League is a great way for women to get involved in the sport - whatever your level of shooting or experience, it's welcoming and inclusive. So get in touch if you're from Staffordshire and would like to get involved. Our Ladies Shooting reps, Kate Poyser and Valerie-Anne Barrow (pictured below) will be very happy to help.

   

Founder of the Ladies Shooting League, Miles Machin with Kate Poyser & Valerie-Anne Barrow

A big thanks again to Miles, Kate and everyone at Mickley Hall Shooting School and to everyone at the Ladies Shooting League who came along and shot today.

Steve, Vice-Chair and Secretary

**********************************************************************

 CPSA Annual Awards 2023 - 11 March 2023 

Room set up for the Awards

A great night was had by all who attended the CPSA Annual Awards at St George's Park.

Some of the Staffs Committee on the red carpet

Many congratulations to Lincolnshire CPSA for winning the CPSA Committee of the Year award.

We gave it our very best shot and it was an honour to be nominated, alongside Cheshire CPSA.

Our sincere thanks to EVERYONE who voted for us. We shall keep doing everything we can to represent shooting in Staffordshire as best as we possibly can. There is always next year.

Staffs CPSA on the big screen

**********************************************************************

 Staffordshire win Lyalvale Trophy - 8 March 2023 

L to R: Steve Kilner, Valerie-Anne Barrow, Martin Butcher

Delighted to report that Staffordshire have once again won the CPSA West Midlands Area Lyalvale Trophy for 2022.  This is the premier team trophy for the WM region, contested among the seven counties: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hereford & Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.  Staffordshire have a proud record, winning the Lyalvale 18 times out of the last 36 since 1987, although it’s out first win since 2016.  Our thanks to all on the WM committee who run and organise all of the Inter-County events.  They do a terrific job, especially in what is a very congested calendar. 

Points are awarded at each of the Senior team Inter-Counties championship events over the season; one point for finishing first, down to seven points for seventh.  The county with the fewest points is the overall winner.

Staffordshire won Gold in All Round, Automatic Ball Trap, FITASC and Universal Trench, Silver in English Sporting and Bronze in English Skeet, Helice and Olympic Trap.  These great set of results also helped us to take the Gun Up Trophy!  Elsewhere, we improved in nearly every other category, up from 4^th to 2^nd in Gun Down and from 7^th to 4^th in both Ladies and Veterans.  We remained 5^th in Juniors although significantly narrowed the game on those above us, finishing just 3 points behind Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire.  Room for improvement but thanks to your help, we’re getting there!

Gun Up Trophy and Lyalvale Trophy

A big thank you to all of the team managers who ran championship events and put the squads together; All Round (Steve Kilner), ABT, DTL & UT (Ian Hull), English Skeet (Kate Poyser), English Sporting (Lara Dale), FITASC (Steve Ward) and Helice and Olympic Trap (Paul Bailey).  And lastly but most importantly THANK YOU to everyone who shot for Staffordshire last year.  This success is your success and is something we should all be proud of.

The new season is nearly upon us, so no time to rest.  We’ll be going for it again in 2023.  

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA 

**********************************************************************

CPSA Annual Awards 2023

VOTE HERE: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/awardsvoting

We are BUZZING to be shortlisted for the CPSA County Committee of the Year. It's an honour to be recognised in this way and we're proud to see our name up there with Cheshire and Lincolnshire.

We wouldn’t be in this position without your support. Please kindly vote for Staffordshire https://www.cpsa.co.uk/awardsvoting and spread the word with your fellow shooters

Voting closes 31 January and you can see a full list of all the nominees here: https://is.gd/Lrx9P1

Good luck to all the finalists!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary – Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA Fixtues 2022-23 

Please see our updated fixtures for the 2022-23 season.........

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire Ladies Day – 28th January 2023

We held our inaugural Staffordshire Ladies Day at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure today and what a splendid day it was too!

In chilly but dry conditions, an excellent turn out of shooters demonstrated their prowess with a shotgun across a range of disciplines; ABT, English Skeet, DTL Single Barrel and English Sporting.

  

Our sincere thanks to Carole and Valerie-Anne who did a great job in pulling this all together and making it, what we hope was an enjoyable day for all.

We are also indebted to Martin Butcher, Ian Hull, Sean McNamara and Steve Ward who provided expert coaching and terrific support on the day.

Lastly, our gratitude, as always, to our friends at Doveridge for hosting us.

We are already looking forward to the next one

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

 English Sporting Selection Shoots 2023 

A message from your new ESP Team Manager, Martin Butcher

I am delighted to be your Staffs CPSA English Sporting Team manager for the 2023 season.  Following on from the great job that Lara Dale did, I will once more be running selection shoots for the 2023 season.

This will be for all categories: Senior, Veterans, Ladies and Junior.

After listening to members, we are running the shoots over four separate grounds to bring greater choice and freedom.

In order to qualify to represent Staffordshire at this year’s Inter-County championship, you must:

 Take part in at least 3 of the 8 selection shoots in the series.

 Shoot at least 2 different grounds but these can be any 2 of your choosing.

 Be available to shoot for the county at the Inter County championship at Westfields on Sunday 24^th September.

 Be CPSA registered.

 

For the selection shoots, there will be 8 in total this year, including the Staffs County Championship, with your best 3 scores to count.

Points will be calculated from Staffordshire’s High Gun at every shoot. Tables will be released throughout the year so everyone can keep track of the process.

Dates and venues are as follows:

 

Saturday 25th February           -       Mickley Hall

Sunday 19th March                 -       Garlands

Saturday 1st April                    -       Mickley Hall 

Sunday 30^th April                     -       Doveridge

Sunday 28th May                    -       Kingsley Moor

Sunday 18th June                   -       Garlands

Sunday 23rd July                    -       Kingsley Moor

Sunday 17th September          -       Garlands (Staffordshire County Championship)

 

Our sincere thanks to Lara Dale at Mickley Hall, Steve Lovatt at The Clay Shooting Company, Clive Bramley at Doveridge and Miles Machin at Kingsley Moor for their help in facilitating these selection dates.

We encourage ALL shooters and anyone who has not done county shoots before to come along and take part. It’s a great experience and they are open to all.

If anyone has any questions regarding this year’s selection criteria or the teams, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me via the Staffordshire CPSA Facebook page or by email at staffscpsa@outlook.com

 

Many Thanks – SHOOT WELL AND HAVE FUN!

Martin Butcher, Staffs CPSA - English Sporting Team Manager

Staffordshrie Inter County ESP Senior Team 2022

**********************************************************************

 Staffordshire CPSA Annual General Meeting 2023 

The Staffordshire CPSA Annual General Meeting was held at Aston Marina on 23rd January.

Your committee for 2023 is as follows:

 

Chairman – Ian Hull

Vice-Chairman – Steve Kilner

Treasurer – Valerie-Anne Barrow

Secretary – Steve Kilner

Clubman Manager – Paul Bailey

Ladies Shooting Representative – Valerie-Anne Barrow and Kate Poyser

Membership Secretary – Martin Butcher

Trophy Manager – Kate Poyser

Website Manager – Steve Kilner

 

Congratulations to Ian Hull on being unanimously re-elected as Chairman for 2023.

Ian and all of the Committee would like to place on record our sincere thanks to everyone who helped and supported us in 2022.

 

The following disciplines managers were selected:

 

All Round:                 Steve Kilner

Automatic Ball Trap:  Ian Hull    

DTL:                          Position vacant

English Skeet:           Kate Poyser     

English Sporting:       Martin Butcher

FITASC:                    Steve Ward

Helice:                       Paul Bailey

Olympic Trap:            Paul Bailey

Single Barrel:            Ian Hull

Universal Trench:      Ian Hull

The committee looks forward to 2023 being another great year of shooting for everyone in Staffordshire.

If you have any questions or if you would be interested in shooting for the County, do get in touch through FB Messenger.

Very best wishes

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

HO! HO! HO! - MERRY CHRISTMAS! - 23 Dec 2022 

Wishing all of you and our friends in the shooting community, both in Staffordshire and beyond a Very Merry Christmas

Plenty of great places to shoot in and around the County during the festive period. Hope you all stay safe, keep well and can avoid Santa's 'Naughty List' for just another 24hrs - you've almost made it!

**********************************************************************

WELCOME RED HALL CLAY CLUB! - 8 Dec 2022 

Welcome to the County’s newest English Sporting shooting ground, set in the beautiful north Staffordshire countryside: Red Hall Clay Club

As some of you will already have seen, Red Hall Clay Club is a brand new shooting ground for you to enjoy. A lot of work has already gone into this and it's looking great.

Their first two shoots are this Sunday, 11th December and then on Boxing Day.

Full fixture list to be confirmed in due course.

CPSA registered shoots will start in January.

WHERE: Red Hall Lane, Audley, Stoke-On-Trent, ST7 8AX

WHEN: First two shoots are Sunday 11th December and Monday 26th December 10.00am-3.00pm

BOOKING/PAYMENT: No need to pre-book – just turn up and shoot. It's a 100 target shoot and the cost is £38. Pay by cash or card.

CARTRIDGES: Plastic or Fibre

REFRESHMENTS: Available on site.

REFEREES : Will be fully refereed once the ground starts running CPSA registered events from January.

Get along if you can and lend Lee and his team your support.

Follow them on Facebook at Redhall Clayclub and on Instagram at redhallclayclub.

Contact Red Hall Clay Club if you have any questions

See you there!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary – Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

💥 Neil Foxley receives ESP Junior Trophy - 5 Dec 2022 💥

 

Great to catch up with Neil Foxley at the weekend at Mickley Hall Shooting School and present him with the trophy for the Staffs ESP Junior champion.

Neil was the joint Junior winner with Archie Tromans.  The two will share the trophy until the 2023 championship.

Well done Neil and Archie and look forward to seeing you both competing for more silverware next year.

**********************************************************************

 All Round Staffordshire County Championship - 15 Oct 2022 

Thanks to everyone who took part in the AR County Championship at Doveridge today.  The sun shone for most of the day, although the wind made it tricky, as reflected in the scores with some people feeling they probably left a few out there.  Still, it was a strong competition and we’re grateful that 33 shot it – thank you!

The Staffs All Round Senior Trophy

Delighted to report that our All Round Staffordshire Champions are as follows:

Senior and County Champion – Gavin Heath

Lady – Valerie-Anne Barrow

Veteran – Shaun McNamara

Junior – Archie Tromans and Kian Maher

Archie Tromans - Joint Junior Champion receiving the trophy from Steve Kilner

Valerie-Anne Barrow - Ladies Champion

Gavin put in a cracking score of 90 to take the title with Gary Tromans and Phil Bailey joint runners-up on 88.  Defending champion Jack Rowley was one of only 3 people to hit scores of 20+ across all four disciplines (along with Gav and Gary), tying for third with Adam Gutteridge.

But there were some cracking scores out there today, across the board.

We’ll get the trophies engraved and presented to the various winners who weren’t with us at the end.

A big thank you to Jo and Doveridge for hosting the championship.  As always, they did a great job.  And a special thank you to the referees, without whom we couldn’t run these events: K Barningham (Single Barrel), Steve Owen (ABT), Bill Bates (ESK) and Sam (ESP).

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary – Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

ESK Welsh Open at South Wales SG - 25 Sept 2022 

A couple of great performances last weekend from our English Skeet boys at the Welsh Open.

Martin Walmsley, Kian Maher and Tom Clifford (Nottingham)

Martin Walmsley finished joint High Gun on 99ex100, only missing out on the title to Peter Chester following a shoot-off.

Kian Maher shot 98 to finish joint 3rd overall as well as first in Juniors and A class.

Brilliant shooting from both of you!

**********************************************************************

Leah Southall on BBC Radio Stoke - 20 Sept 2022 

Leah Southall was featured again on BBC Radio Stoke this week, talking about a fantastic season shooting Olympic Trap, more trophy success, shooting for Team GB and finishing as Junior lady British Champion for 2022.

If you click on the link and scroll to 36.15 you'll be able to hear her interview with Lucas Yeomans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cx6rb4

Congratulations on a great season, Leah and we look forward to your continued success in 2023 and beyond.

**********************************************************************

WM Area Inter County ESP & Sportrap at Westfield 

– 11 Sept 2022

 

L to R: Martin Butcher, James Ward, Sam Ward, Phil Bailey and Jack Whitehouse.

Paul Rowbottom had to leave but will receive his medal in due course.

Congratulations and thank you to all those Staffordshire shooters who made the trip to Westfield today for the last Inter County championship of the season.  The Senior team of Phil Bailey, Martin Butcher, Paul Rowbottom, James Ward, Sam Ward and Jack Whitehouse put in an excellent 447 to take Silver.  Well done team Staffs!  Congratulations to Warwickshire who once more took Gold with Bronze for Hereford & Worcester.

Our Veterans team of Mark Byng, Peter Cantrill and Tony Thompson, along with our Junior Team of Lewis Beardmore and Neil Foxley all put in good performances but we narrowly lost out in the medals in those categories.  Lara Dale was our sole Ladies representative and she shot a fine 82 to finish third overall in Ladies.

New cap, Neil Foxley with the Staffordshire Team badge

Some other notable individual performances came in both the English Sporting and Sportrap.  In the ESP, Martin Butcher’s 95 saw him finish top of AA class, third overall in a field of 270 and High Gun from the WM Region.  In the Sportrap, Jack Whitehouse also hit 95 to finish top of the pile.  Great shooting from both.  Martin narrowly lost out in the 25 target shoot off of the highest scoring team member from each county.  Les Beardmore took a win in C class with an excellent 80 and Ryan Murrell finished joint 4^th in B class, as did Jack Tromans in A class.

Martin Butcher with the Staffordshire High Gun trophy

Thank you to Team Manager Lara Dale for getting the teams organised and running the selection shoots throughout the year.  And to all the referees and to Steve Lovett and his team at The Clay Shooting Company for running an excellent competition.

You can view all the scores on the CPSA website.

ESP: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/scores/fixture/english-sporting-westfield-shooting-ground-20220911/109761

Sportrap: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/scores/fixture/sportrap-westfield-shooting-ground-20220911/109762

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

21 April 1926 - 8 September 2022

**********************************************************************

 All Round Staffordshire County Championship 

 POSTPONED

Following the very sad news of the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, as a mark of respect, we have taken the decision to postpone the All Round County Championship, originally scheduled to take place at Doveridge on Saturday 17^th September. 

We will publish details of the revised date for this event as soon as we are in a position to do so.

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

English Sporting Inter Counties Championship 

GOOD LUCK 🤞 to Team Manager, Lara Dale and all those who will be representing Staffordshire at the upcoming CPSA ESP West Midlands Inter Counties at Westfield this Sunday. I know everyone will give it their best shot 💥

A reminder that the shoot itself is open to ANYONE. Shooting starts at 9.30 and last entry is 2.30. As always, it's being run by The Clay Shooting Company and you can turn up on the day and shoot: pre-booking is NOT required.

There is also a Sportrap shoot taking place (you can shoot both ESP and Sportrap on the day) but you DO need to pre-book. Full details of available times are on The Clay Shooting Company FB page.

For the Inter Counties teams there will be a 25 bird shoot off for the highest scoring team member from each county at the end of the day. The winner of this shoot off will win £400 made up of £200 from West Midlands CPSA and £200 from Steve Lovatt. Great gesture - thank you!

Good luck again and COME ON TEAM STAFFORDSHIRE 💪

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

British Open Sporting & Sportrap - 30 Aug-4 Sept 2022 

First of all many congratulations to Wiltshire's Sam Usher on a terrific win in the ESP British Open. A 69ex75 on Finals day saw him into the 25 target Super Final where he won by 2 clays. Great shooting Sam

Some great performances from our Staffordshire shots......

Jack Whitehouse - British Open 3rd in AA Class

Brett Hand - overall tournament High Gun for Staffordshire

Josh Bennion - 3rd overall for Staffordshire

Lucy Christie - British Open Lady Junior Runner Up

Phil Harper - qualified in C Class for Finals Day

Well done again to everyone from Staffordshire who took part - great to see you all out there and doing the County proud.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

British Open Sporting & Sportrap - 30 Aug-4 Sept 2022 

A top 5 days of shooting this week with qualifying taking place in the CPSA British Open ESP competition at Barbury Shooting School. There have been some outstanding performances from our County shots. Reports suggest that it’s been a great course to shoot but a stiff test too, so anyone who stood up and had a crack at it can pat themselves on the back.

A phenomenal 49 of you travelled to Wiltshire to take part in the British Open - a tremendous effort. WELL DONE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU

Josh Bennion was our leading County scorer with 108ex120. Closely followed by Sam Ward on 105 with Jack Whitehouse and Brett Hand both with 104. Chris Daniels, Phil Bailey and Steve Ward all broke the 100 mark – terrific shooting

Veterans, Keith Hodgkinson, Peter Critchley and Stephen Williams all hit a cracking 98. Lucy Christie put in a tremendous performance to finish as top Staffs Lady and Junior on 87. Great shooting, Lucy!

In B Class, John Dale continued his fine form, finishing in the top 10 with 97. Peter Cantrill (94) and Mark Byng (92) also both broke the 90 mark in the same classification.

In C Class, Philip Harper had a fine day, hitting 89 to finish 5th in his class with Lucy Christie not far behind on 87.

Invited back for the tomorrow’s 75 target final from Staffordshire are; Josh Bennion, Brett Hand, Jack Whitehouse, Philip Harper and Lucy Christie. GOOD LUCK tomorrow!

You can view all the scores and tables on the CPSA website here: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../british-open-sporting.../5823...

Steve Kilner – Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

 English Skeet: TON UP FOR KIAN! 💯 - 28 August 2022 

Great shooting today from our current ESK County Champion, Kian Maher - 100 straight at Nottingham Clay Shooting Ground.

BOOOOOOOM - Well shot Kian! 💥💥💯💥💥

**********************************************************************

English Skeet: WM Area Inter Counties on 21 August

 

 

ESK Manager, Kate Poyser has finalised her squads for the upcoming WM Area Inter Counties at Doveridge Shooting Ground on 21st August.

The following shooters will be representing Staffordshire:

Seniors: Adam Gutteridge, Kian Maher, Ben Mason, Jack Tromans, Martin Walmsley and David Whieldon

Reserves: Martin Butcher and Gary Tromans

Ladies: Sue Cooke and Kate Poyser

Juniors: Lewis Beardmore and Archie Tromans

Veterans: Craig Macho and Arthur Salt

 

Down The Line: WM Area Inter Counties on 21 August

 

 

DTL Manager, Ian Hull has finalised his squads for the upcoming WM Area Inter Counties at Holmes Chapel Shooting Ground on 21st August.

 

The following shooters will be representing Staffordshire:

 

Seniors: Ian Hull, Richard Lees-Styler, Dave Malpass, Craig Nightingale, Mark Southall and Andrew Statham

Ladies: Gill Grealey, Rachel Rollason and Carole Wilson

Veterans: Alan Grealey, Martin Osborne and David Waring

 

Good luck Team Staffordshire in both the English Skeet and Down The Line competitions this weekend! 🤞🤞

 

**********************************************************************

English Skeet British Open at Eriswell Lodge: 12-14 August

L to R: Leon Gill, Martin Walmsley, Kian Maher, Tom Clifford and Sonny Bowman

Great to see more success for Staffordshire’s ESK shots, this time at the British Open at Eriswell Lodge this weekend.

Martin Walmsley with 98 and our current County Champion, Kian Maher with 96 helped take the 5 man team trophy, along with Tom Clifford (Nottinghamshire), Leon Gill (Nottinghamshire) and Sonny Bowman (Northamptonshire).  Great shooting guys!

Massive congratulations also to Tom Clifford who took the overall British Open Championship.

This topped off a good few weeks for Kian who came first in Juniors at the recent Morton Classic in Scotland.

Steve Kilner - Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Automatic Ball Trap: WM Area Champion - Luke Hambleton

Following on from Staffordshire’s team and individual success at last weekend's Clay Pigeon Shooting Association ABT WM Area and Inter County Championship, Staffordshire CPSA Chairman, Ian Hull had the pleasure of presenting Luke Hambleton with the WM Area Champion Cup, his Gold medal and badge.

Luke put in a superb score of 96/100 to take the title. The Force is with you, Luke! (or something like that 😀)

**********************************************************************

SUN'S OUT!..............GUN'S OUT! - 12th August 2022 

Plenty of CPSA registered shooting taking place this weekend, across all disciplines.

Whether you're an experienced shot or completely new to the sport, there's something for you.

If you're looking for a fixture in your area, best place to go is the CPSA Website What's On page (https://www.cpsa.co.uk/events) where you can select Fixtures and search by a range of options.

Fixtures for the West Midlands region can be found here: https://is.gd/w7TMem

Another tip is to follow the likes of The Clay Shooting Company on Facebook as well as the pages of your favourite grounds and add their websites to your "Favourites". That way, you should never miss out on what's going that's local to you or that you're particularly interested in.

HAPPY SHOOTING!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Down The Line: WM Area Inter Counties on 21 August

DTL Manager, Ian Hull has finalised his squads for the upcoming WM Area Inter Counties at Holmes Chapel Shooting Ground on 21st August.

The following shooters will be representing Staffordshire:

Seniors: Ian Hull, Richard Lees-Styler, Dave Malpass, Craig Nightingale, Mark Southall and Andrew Statham

Ladies: Gill Grealey, Rachel Rollason and Carole Wilson

Veterans: Alan Grealey, Martin Osborne and David Waring

Good luck Team Staffordshire!

**********************************************************************

Automatic Ball Trap: WM Area and Inter County Championship 

 Garlands SG - 6&7 August 2022

Delighted to report on another GOLD medal-winning performance from Staffordshire's Senior team in the CPSA ABT WM Area and Inter County Championship.

The event was staged over two days at Garlands Shooting Ground, brilliantly hosted and organised by The Clay Shooting Company.

In the WM Area, a terrific 96/100 from Luke Hambleton saw him take the title of WM Area Champion and Gold medal. This was backed up by Silver for Staffordshire's Richard Lees-Styler with 95. Darren Wood with 93 narrowly missed out on the Bronze by one to Ben Stubbins of Derbyshire.

This put Team Staffordshire in a great position to retain their Inter Counties title. With a combined 459ex500 the Senior team of Adam Gutteridge, Ian Hull, Richard Lees-Styler, Andrew Statham, James Sutton and Darren Wood saw off a strong challenge from Warwickshire and Shropshire to take the Gold

 

L to R: Ian Hull, Adam Gutteridge, Darren Wood, Richard Lees-Styler, Andrew Statham

(not pictured: James Sutton)

In the Veterans, the team of Colin Heathcote, Martin Osborne and Ray Sutton had a great day, taking Gold with 179/200.

L to R: Rod Davies (WM Area Secretary), Colin Heathcote, Ray Sutton, Martin Osborne

To complete a SUPERB hat-trick of team medals, a Ladies team of Lucy Christie, Carole Wilson and Gill Grealey smashed it with 139/200 to take Silver. Brilliant shooting from all of you.

Well done to everyone who take part and who represented Staffordshire so superbly. Big THANK YOU to Ian Hull for doing a cracking job as Team Manager and bringing home another GOLD

Special mention also to Carole Wilson who did a great job in putting together a scratch MEDAL-WINNING Ladies team

L to R: Carole Wilson, Lucy Christie, Gill Grealey

Last but by no means least, Steve Lovatt and his fab team at The Clay Shooting Company did a great job hosting the event (as well as an ESP shoot on the Sunday) - THANK YOU!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - CPSA Staffordshire

**********************************************************************

Olympic Trap - Super Leah Strikes Silver

Nordic Championships, Finland - 1-5 August 2022

Staffordshire's Leah Southall was representing Team GB for the first time at Olympic Trap, taking part in the Junior Ladies team at the Nordic Championships in Orimattila, Finland last week.

Leah qualified with a fine PB of 109/125 to see her into the Junior ladies final. Having had a slow start, things really kicked into gear and Leah shot superbly to make it into the Gold medal match, finishing with a brilliant Silver medal in her very first international final. A fantastic achievement, Leah

Sadly, Leah has suffered a small fracture in her wrist after a fall and will be in plaster for the next few weeks. I'm sure everyone in Staffordshire CPSA would like to wish Leah a speedy recovery so she can get back to doing what she does best - smashing targets and doing us all proud.

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

English Skeet Doubles: Martin hits a ton! - 7 Aug 2022

No, we're not talking about driving.....or darts.....but Skeet Doubles!

It's been a great few days of shooting for Staffordshire.

First up, many congratulations to Martin Walmsley who took the long road all the way to Eriswell Lodge in Suffolk to shoot in their CPSA registered Skeet Doubles tournament which included the Cambridgeshire County Championship.

Martin once more did the County proud by putting in a cracking performance to hit a phenomenal 100/100 - his first straight in Skeet Doubles.

Top shooting Martin!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair & Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

 Sam Ward takes third at Champion of Champions

at The Game Fair - 30th July 2022 

A brilliant 3^rd place finish for Sam Ward who represented Staffordshire in the prestigious CPSA 'Champion of Champions' competition at The Game Fair.

The event invites top-shots from across England to compete for the title of "Champion of Champions". Each CPSA County Committee puts forward their County Champion to test themselves on The Game Fair sporting course. The top five scorers compete in a shoot-off in the arena.

24 competitors took part in the 50 ESP qualifying round with Sam Ward (Staffordshire) with a high score of 49ex50, Michael Cyffin-Jones (Shropshire), Cheryl Hall (Oxfordshire), Ron Chipman (Yorkshire), & Ben Hollamby (Kent) making it through to the 5 shooter 25 Sportrap final.

Sam, Cheryl & Michael all tied on 20ex25 to force a shoot-off for 2nd & 3rd place. Ben, however, shot extremely well in windy conditions to win outright with 22ex25.

The shoot-off for 2nd & 3rd place then saw Sam & Michael tie again on 8ex10 with Cheryl missing out to finish 4th with 7ex10. A further sudden death shoot-off followed with Sam missing one target and Michael hitting both to secure the Runner-up spot.

As Sam wrote.........

"Made the journey to The Game Fair this morning to compete on behalf of Staffs for the Champion of Champions event. I was really pleased to have shot 49/50 in the qualifying event meaning I was the top qualifier going into the 25 target Sportrap Final!! Once the final was over I headed into a 3 way shoot off for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place with a score of 20/25. After the shoot off myself and Michael Jones were still tied, meaning a sudden death shoot off! Congratulations to Mike for taking second place after the shoot off and Ben Hollamby for winning the champion of champions outright on a great score of 22/25!

I‘m chuffed to have finished on the podium in 3rd place and would like to say a massive thanks to Zoli Shotguns UK for all the help and support since getting my hands on my Zoli Kronos!! And also to the best cheerleader Lara Dale for supporting me all day! Also thanks to Staffordshire CPSA for the opportunity!"

Great shooting Sam - well done! 

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Helice Staffs County, WM Area and Inter County Championship 

 30 July 2022

L to R: Ian Hull, Paul Bailey and Martin Butcher

Been a great day for our Staffordshire shooters. Following on from Sam Ward's success in the Champion of Champions event, we've been taking part in the CPSA Helice Inter County championship at Rugby & District Trap Club. This has also included the Staffordshire County Championship as well as the West Midlands Area Championship.

You can read more about Helice shooting on the CPSA website here: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/disciplines#HEL

Delighted to report that our new County Champions are as follows:

County: Martin Butcher

Senior: Paul Bailey

Veteran: Ian Hull

Many congratulations to Martin, Paul and Ian

Martin Butcher also secured a brilliant Bronze medal in the West Midlands Area. Martin is relatively new to the discipline, so this really is a terrific achievement.

Martin Butcher - WM Area Helice Bronze medalist 2022

And then, to top it all.......Team Staffordshire won a Bronze Medal in the Inter County!!

Well done to everyone who take part and who represented Staffordshire so superbly. A big thank you also to Paul Bailey for doing a cracking job as Team Manager

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Secretary, CPSA Staffordshire

**********************************************************************

💥 Staffordshire Shooters make England Team - 7 July 2022 💥

Delighted to report that three Staffs shots have been selected for the Automatic Ball Trap (ABT) England team for the 2022 Home International taking place on 2nd and 3rd September at ICTSA National Shooting Grounds in Galway, Republic of Ireland.

The three include our very own Staffs CPSA Chairman, Ian Hull, along with Darren Wood and Ray Sutton.

    

      Ian Hull                                          Darren Wood

Massively proud of all three of you and GOOD LUCK to everyone representing Team England when the time comes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

**********************************************************************

 ABT County Championship - 19 June 2022 

Another cracking County Championship with Adam Gutteridge defending his title once more as Staffordshire ABT County Champion for 2022 as well as taking overall High Gun for the day in a field of 42 shooters. Congratulations, Adam!

Ian Hull (Chairman) presenting Adam Gutteridge with the ABT Staffs County Champion Trophy

Adam's cracking score of 96ex100, kept him 5 ahead of our County runner-up, Ian Hull, with Darren Wood and C Heathcote sharing third, the latter taking the Veterans title.

Congratulations to Gill Grealey who was once more Staffordshire Ladies champion, with Lucy Christie runner-up and Carole Wilson third.

To add to this, Lucy Christie took the Staffordshire Junior title - well done Lucy!

Congratulations to all those who took part - hope you all enjoyed the day.

 

Senior County Champion and overall High Gun: Adam Gutteridge

Lady County Champion: Gill Grealey

Junior County Champion: Lucy Christie

Veteran County Champion: C Heathcote

 

Full results at https://www.cpsa.co.uk/scores/fixture/automatic-ball-trap-garlands-shooting-ground-20220619/109083

Many thanks to Steve Lovatt and The Clay Shooting Company for their hard work and putting on a cracking shoot 👏💥

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair and Joint Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

💥 World Shooting Para Sport World Cup - 7-12 June 2022 💥

The first World Cup of the season has kicked off in Chateauroux, France featuring Staffordshire and British Shooting star Paul Bailey.  Paul begins his campaign tomorrow in the Shotgun PT1 - Mixed Trap Seated competition.

The competition runs from 7-12 June, and is the biggest ever World Cup, featuring more than 270 athletes from 50 countries.

The competition also offers qualification slots for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

You can follow the live results here ➡️ https://www.paralympic.org/shooting/results

GOOD LUCK PAUL AND TEAM GB!!

Everyone in Staffordshire will be absolutely rooting for you!

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA ESK Development Day - 28 May

  

Smashing time at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure for our first CPSA ESK Development Day.

A very big THANK YOU to our top ESK Junior, Kian Maher for all his expert advice and coaching today. Also, to his mum Cheryl Maher for all her help and support (and the photos!), and not least with Premier Guns Doveridge - thank you guys! And not least, very importantly, to everyone who came along and took part.

Great turn out and lovely to watch you all shoot and enjoy some fun in the sun. Look forward to doing it all again

**********************************************************************

 England Olympic Trap Selection Shoot - 22 May 2022 

  

More terrific shooting from one of our top trap shooters, Leah Southall 

Leah's score of 173/200 is a fine score at the best of times but to do it in an England Selection Shoot is exceptional. 6th overall and 1st in Ladies, Juniors and her class - brilliant!

Well done, Leah - you continue to do yourself, your family and Staffordshire proud

**********************************************************************

All Round WM Area, Inter County & World Championships - 15 May 2022

Staffordshire All Round Squad 2022

Another GOLD winning performance from Team Staffordshire!

Terrific day of shooting in the WM Area, Inter County and World Championship All Round at Fauxdegla Shooting Ground.

Huge congratulations to Jack Rowley for being not only High Gun and West Midlands Area Champion but also the World Champion.

Jack Rowley - All Round WM Area & World Champion 2022

Staffordshire were not only represented in every Category but delighted to report that we won medals in EVERY Category with Bronze medals in Veterans, Juniors and Ladies with the Seniors winning a magnificent GOLD!

Seniors: Adam Gutteridge, Martin Butcher, Jack Rowley, Dave Winters, Martin Walmsley & Neil Hastilow

  

Ladies: Carole Wilson, Kate Poyser & Olena Price         Juniors: Ben Mason, Lewis Beardmore & Kian Maheer

Adam Gutteridge took WM Area Bronze in the Seniors and the same for Ben Mason in the Juniors.

Phenomenal performance - what a team. One very happy and proud All Round Team Manager - thank you!

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chair & Joint Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

English Skeet - The English Open: 6-8 MAY 2022

More success for Staffordshire shooters over the weekend, this time in one of the country's major English Skeet competitions of the year, The English Open.

Held over three days at Dartford Clay Shooting Club, the competition saw the best ESK shooters from across the country competing.

Delighted to report on some terrific shooting and success for both Kian Maher and Martin Walmsley with Kian finishing 4th in the Juniors and the pair of them then winning the team event in a squad that included Sonny Bowman (Northants), Tom Clifford (Notts) and Becky Clarey (Durham).

Well done Kian and Martin - continuing to do Staffordshire proud with your Skeet shooting.

**********************************************************************

Leah makes GB UT Ladies team - 8th May 2022 

Delighted and very proud to report that Leah Southall has qualified for the GB Ladies Team at the upcoming European Championship of Universal Trench. The Ladies team includes Kath Bright, Sue Bate and Mary Rowley (reserve).

The event will be taking place at Maribor, Slovenia from 24th to 26th June.

Staffordshire wish you all the very best, Leah - we'll all be cheering you on from here!

**********************************************************************

ESP Staffordshire County Selection Shoot - 8th May 2022 

A reminder that the fourth Staffs ESP Selection Shoot is at Kingsley Moor Shooting Ground and will take place on Sunday 8th May.

You will need to take part in 3 shoots in total with at least one being from each ground (Garlands and Kingsley Moor). If you do not wish to pay the £2 levy on the day, that score will not go forward to team selection. The league table will be posted on Facebook and ESP team pages of the website following each shoot.

If anyone has any questions regarding the selection procedure or the league table, please do not hesitate to contact the ESP Team Manager, Lara Dale at laradale@icloud.com.

Good luck to everyone taking part

**********************************************************************

 

 Universal Trench Inter-Counties & WM Area Championship - 24 April 2022 

Back Row: Darren Wood, Adam Gutteridge, Mark Wright

Bottom Row: Richard Lees-Styler, Andy Statham, Ian Hull

MORE SUCCESS FOR TEAM STAFFORDSHIRE! 

A cracking day for Staffordshire's shooters in the UT West Midlands Area and Inter County champs at Fauxdegla Shooting Ground.

Adam Gutteridge

In the WM Area, a terrific performance from Adam Gutteridge saw him take Gold  with 96ex100. This was backed up by Silver  for Staffordshire's Gareth Stanford-Iddon with Darren Wood sharing the Bronze  with John Reilly (Warwickshire). This also gave Darren Wood a share of Gold  with John Reilly in the Veterans.

Darren Wood

As you can imagine, this put Team Staffordshire in pole position to take the Inter Counties. Delighted to say that Staffordshire went one better than last year, finishing on on 439ex500 to take Gold, ten clear of Cheshire CPSA with the Silver and Warwickshire CPSA taking the Bronze.

Many congratulations to Team Manager Ian Hull and his team mates, Adam Gutteridge, Richard Lees-Styler, Andrew Statham, Mark Wright and Darren Wood 

And of course, our special thanks go to all of the team at Fauxdegla Shooting Ground for putting on a great shoot.

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chairman & Joint Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

English Sporting  

WM Area & England Selection Shoot - 9 & 10 April 2022 

Another fine day of shooting at Westfield last weekend in the CPSA West Midlands Area Championship and England Selection Shoot with a great set up from Steve Lovatt and The Clay Shooting Company.

Always good to see some success for Staffordshire shooters.......

The Area Champion was a tie between Chris Biddlecombe and Nicholas Portlock (both of Gloucestershire CPSA) and our own Phil Bailey of Staffordshire who all hit 92ex100. Great shooting, guys.

And Lewis Sones had a cracking day, taking the WM Area Junior Gold as well as a win in C class, matching his previous PB with a terrific 75.

Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations to all of the winners.

You can view all the scores on the CPSA website from Saturday here and from Sunday here.

Lewis Sones - ESP WM Area Junior Champion 2022

**********************************************************************

 FITASC Inter-Counties & WM Area Championship 2022 - 27 Mar 2022 

TEAM STAFFORDSHIRE RETAIN THE TROPHY!

L to R: Steve Ward, Tim Simmons, Darren Park, Josh Bennion, Roger Grimshaw (reserve), Sam Ward

(Andrew Price not pictured)

Delighted to report that the Staffordshire FITASC team of Josh Bennion, Darren Park, Andrew Price, Tim Simmons, Sam Ward and Team Captain, Steve Ward have retained their trophy, winning the FITASC Inter-Counties at Westfields with a super score of 421 . This put them 16 ahead of runners-up Cheshire CPSA.

Further success to report with a terrific Silver for Darren Park in the WM Area champs Brett Hand tied with Paul Batchelor and Miles Machin to take a well-deserved Bronze

Congratulations to Steve and all the team for doing us proud again with another outstanding performance.

A big thank you to Lara Dale for the photos And of course, our special thanks go to Steve Lovatt and the The Clay Shooting Company team for putting on a terrific shoot.

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chairman & Joint Secretary, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA Development Day – English Skeet

Saturday 28th May

Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure

https://www.doveridgeclaysports.co.uk/

As part of our drive to encourage more Women and Juniors to get involved in the sport, Staffordshire CPSA will be running our first ‘Development Day’ on Saturday 28th May at Doveridge. The focus for this one will be on English Skeet. Among other things, our hope is that this will boost the pool of ESK talent that we can select from to represent Staffordshire in Inter-County competitions.

For you, it’s an opportunity to try a shooting discipline that may not be your usual first choice but you might have always fancied giving it a go.

Anyone who is CPSA registered and Staffordshire based is welcome to come along but we are particularly keen for Women and Juniors to get involved. To that end, for the FIRST TEN WOMEN OR JUNIORS that register, we will cover the cost of up to 50 clays per person.

Our Staffordshire County ESK Junior champion, Kian Maher will be there on the day to help with some mentoring and coaching.

Drop us a line here or on Messenger to register your interest by Monday 23rd May.

**********************************************************************

ESP Selection Shoots: Update - 16 Mar 2022 

Following on from the second selection shoot at Kingsley Moor on Sunday, apologies for the delay but we're waiting for the scores to be published on the CPSA website before issuing the updated points table.

If you took part in the shoot, you can view your score on the Kingsley Moor website https://www.kingsleymoorsg.com/ but we have to wait until they're officially published by the CPSA.

Meanwhile, the THIRD SELECTION SHOOT will take place at Garlands on Sunday 3rd April with the 4th shoot on 8th May back at Kingsley Moor. Please remember that you will need to take part in 3 shoots in total with at least one being from each ground.

**********************************************************************

Helice Shoot at Garlands - 12 March 2022

Ever fancied shooting Helice or 'ZZ' as it's sometimes called?

The Clay Shooting Company are now running registered shoots at Garlands Shooting Ground. First one took place yesterday and we're very grateful to Martin Butcher for sharing some photos as well as some great videos of our "Helice Hot-Shot" Paul Bailey.

The next shoot is on Saturday 2nd April and includes a GB Selection shoot. Contact The Clay Shooting Company to book.

**********************************************************************

Interview on BBC Radio Stoke - 9 March 2022 

If you missed this evening's interview with Staffordshire CPSA Vice-Chairman, Steve Kilner on BBC Radio Stoke, click on the link and scroll through to 51.00.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bpcq68

Our thanks, as always, to Phil Bowers and BBC Radio Stoke for giving us a chance to plug the sport locally.

**********************************************************************

 Important update: ESP Selection Shoots 

A reminder that our second English Sporting selection shoot is taking place on Sunday 13th March at Kingsley Moor Shooting Ground.

An update on the qualification criteria for team selection:

With selection shoots now only taking place at Garlands and Kingsley Moor, we will still require 3 scores but they cannot all be at the same ground.

So, you can have 2 from one ground but must have 1 from the other.

Good luck!

**********************************************************************

ESP Selection Shoot at Garlands - 6 March 2022 

Well done to everyone who shot the first English Sporting selection shoot on Sunday. Many thanks to Steve Lovatt and The Clay Shooting Company for organising a great shoot.

Congratulations to Sam Ward and Timothy Howell who were top Staffs shooters on the day, both tying second with 90. Full tables will be published in due course.

Full results are on the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association website: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../english-sporting.../106668

The second selection shoot will take place at Kingsley Moor Shooting Ground on Sunday 13th March.

To qualify for the Staffordshire teams at the Inter-County championship on 11th September, you must:

- Take part in at least 3 of the 6 selection shoots.

- Be available to shoot for the county on the date of the Intercounties championship.

- Be Clay Pigeon Shooting Association registered.

**********************************************************************

 Winter Series at Nottingham & District GC - 20 Feb 2022 

Kian Maher shot the final shoot of the English Skeet Winter Series at Nottingham and District Gun Club. With a score of 97, Kian came away with a terrific win in Juniors.  Well done Kian!

Kian would like to thank his sponsors, Premier Guns Doveridge, his coach David Beardsmore, and a big shout out to Carl Smith and his team for a great winter series.

**********************************************************************

UPDATE - Staffordshire English Sporting Selection Shoots

After the weather put paid to the first planned selection shoot, this will now take place at Garlands next Sunday:

Sunday 6th March 2022

Garlands Shooting Ground

01827 383300

info@theclayshootingcompany.com

https://www.theclayshootingcompany.com/

The second selection shoot will take place at Kingsley Moor Shooting Ground on Sunday 13th March.

Following the closure of the Red Hall ground, the remaining four shoots will be split between Garlands and Kingsley - dates will be announced in due course.

A reminder that to qualify for the Staffordshire teams (Seniors, Ladies, Veterans and Juniors) at the Inter-County championship on 11th September, you must:

- Take part in at least 3 of the 6 selection shoots.

- Be available to shoot for the county on the date of the Intercounties championship. We will advise the date as soon as this has been scheduled.

- Be Clay Pigeon Shooting Association registered. If you are not registered follow the link to join: https://www.cpsa.co.uk/membership/category/full/1

Points will be calculated from Staffordshire’s High Gun at every shoot. Tables will be released throughout the year so everyone can keep track of the process.

Good luck!

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire County, Area and Inter County Championship Dates 

We have rearranged the English Skeet County Championship for Saturday 4th June at Doveridge Clay Sports & Leisure.

You can see a full list of fixtures for the County & West Midlands Area (individual events) and Inter County (team events) both by chronological date order as well as alphabetically by discipline on our Fixtures page here.

Please note that all fixtures are subject to confirmation and that grounds may sometimes have to re-schedule. If any need to be re-scheduled, we'll update YOU as soon as WE know

A reminder that it is out intention and hope to field teams in the majority of Inter County events, across all categories (where applicable). Where appropriate, we will run selection shoots but if this is not possible, we will be looking for expressions of interest to shoot for the County, especially from our Junior and Ladies shooters.

**********************************************************************

Double Rise - West Midlands Area Championship

 Date: Sunday 13th February

 Venue: East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground

Many congratulations to Staffordshire's Dave Malpass for taking home a Bronze medal at the first Championship event of the season. Great shooting, Dave!

Many congratulations also to Staffordshire shooter David Waring. A superb Silver medal in Vetrans

You can view all the scores here https://www.cpsa.co.uk/.../double-rise-east.../106448

Steve Kilner, Vice-Chairman & Joint Secretary - Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

2022 Clubman Competition 

Delighted to announce that the popular Clubman competition will be returning this year.

Details are still to be finalised but the plan is that the event will take place at Garlands Shooting Ground with the help of our friend Steve Lovatt and The Clay Shooting Company.

It will be a 100 bird English Sporting layout with a 12 person County team. Each team will be made up of 4 x A class, 4 x B class and 4 x C class shooters with the top 3 in each class to count for the overall team prize.

The cut-off point for determining your classification will be advised in due course.

Qualification for the Clubman competition will run alongside the English Sporting selection shoots with Paul Bailey managing the Staffordshire Clubman team.

**********************************************************************

 

HELICE - COME AND HAVE A GO!

Helice aka: "ZZ" is a great Clay Pigeon Shooting Association discipline that's well worth having a crack at if you've never tried it.

The Clay Shooting Company are planning to run a "Have a go" day as well as a pool shoot next Saturday 26th February at Garlands Shooting Ground.

First registered competition is then scheduled for Sat 12th March.

Full details on the post below.

NOTE: THESE EVENTS ARE STRICTLY PRE-BOOK ONLY!

Text 07342 338390 to register.

The Staffs County Championship as well as the Area and Inter County champs are all currently scheduled to take place on Saturday 30th July at Garlands Shooting Ground.

Contact Paul Bailey if you're interested in shooting for the County.

**********************************************************************

West Midlands Area Calendar 2022

The dates for this year's West Midlands Area and Inter County Championships have been published on the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association West Midlands Region Website: https://sites.cpsa.co.uk/west-midlands/calendar

Our thanks to Rod Owen Davies and the West Midlands committee for their work in putting these together.

**********************************************************************

Staffordshire CPSA Annual General Meeting 

The Staffordshire Clay Pigeon Shooting Association Annual General Meeting was held online on 10th January.

Pleased to report that your committee for 2022 is as follows:

Chairman – Ian Hull

Vice-Chairman – Steve Kilner

Treasurer – Valerie-Anne Barrow

Secretary – Steve Kilner and Valerie-Anne Barrow

Committee Member – Paul Bailey

Committee Member – Ian Grant

Committee Member – Neil Hastilow and Martin Butcher

Committee Member – Kate Poyser

Congratulations to Ian Hull and a particular warm welcome to our new committee members; Ian Grant, Neil Hastilow and Kate Poyser.

Ian Hull and all of the Committee would like to place on record our sincere thanks to outgoing Chairman, Adam Gutteridge. Adam did a great job last year and brought his usual enthusiasm and passion for shooting to the role.

Everyone on the committee looks forward to 2022 being another successful and enjoyable year of shooting for Staffordshire.

As always, we're keen to hear from you. If you have any questions or if you would be interested in shooting for the County, do get in touch through FB Messenger.

Very best wishes

Steve Kilner and Valerie-Anne Barrow

Joint Secretaries, Staffordshire CPSA

**********************************************************************

Clay Pigeon Shooting Association Annual Awards

    

Voting is currently open for the CPSA Annual Awards.

You can see full details of all the nominees and cast your votes here.

Delighted to see Staffordshire shooters represented in two categories:

Coach of the Year (sponsored by Browning)

Brent Woodard

Emerging Shooter of the Year (Sponsored by GMK Beretta)

Leah Southall

Anyone with CPSA membership can vote and you should vote for who you think the winner should be in each category but that said, we would of course be delighted to see our Staffs shooters getting your support!

Good luck to Brent and Leah and to all the nominees.

**********************************************************************

Planning for 2022 - YOUR COUNTY NEEDS YOU!

With the county championship season now over, the Committee are looking at how we can develop in 2022.

Staffordshire has a long tradition of competing and winning, particularly in certain disciplines. Going forward, we want to maintain this but MOST IMPORTANTLY we want to be inclusive and field teams across as many categories and in as many disciplines as we can. In order to do so, we need as big a pool of shooters as possible. This is where YOU come in.

There are four categories in Inter-Counties events:

Seniors, Veterans (age 60 or over at time of shoot), Ladies and Juniors (under the age of 21 at time of shoot)

Drop us a line on Messenger and we’ll make a note of your interest. We can’t guarantee of course that you will shoot for the County. Where there is a sufficient pool of availability our intention will be to run selection shoots. If that’s not practical, we will look to select based on CPSA averages at the time of selection or on who has been first to make themselves available.

Key points to note:

• We need county shooters, of all CLASSES, all ABILITIES and all DISCIPLINES

• You don’t have to regularly shoot that discipline – you may not have shot it at all!

• You DO have to be keen to shoot for your County.

• You DO have to be available to shoot on the day of the event (dates will be published as soon as available)

If you need support/guidance getting to grips with a new discipline, again, please contact the committee and we can put you in touch with shooters/team managers who will be very happy to provide help and support.

We are also very keen to hear from anyone who would like to be considered as a Team Manager.

**********************************************************************

 Top Staffordshire Skeet Shooter on BBC Radio Stoke 17/11/21 

Delighted to have one of our English Skeet shooters, Martin Walmsley on BBC Radio Stoke.

Martin talked about his sport as well as his recent success at the Belvoir ESK Championship where he hit a superb 100 straight!

Many thanks to Phil Bowers at BBC Radio Stoke for his continued support and well done Martin!

**********************************************************************

 Staffs Veteran finally gets his badge! - 3 Oct 2021 

You'd never guess it to look at him but this is VETERAN Staffordshire CPSA English Sporting County Champion, Tony Thompson receiving his badge.

Great to see the young fella looking so happy and Nick Beavis reminding us that there are two more badges to hand over: Senior and Ladies 

**********************************************************************

Home International FITASC Championships - 26 Sept 2021 

Josh ends his season with a bang!

Many congratulations to Staffordshire's Josh Bennion who was taking part in the FITASC Home International championships at Glaims Castle in Scotland.

Fantastic shooting throughout a long season and a fine way to end it with Josh claiming not only the highest Junior score but also the highest overall England score after a shoot-off with Roy Cherry.

Helped by Josh, the England team claimed Gold in the Juniors. The Ladies team were also in fine form with a terrific win .

The Senior team ran the hosts, Scotland close, being pipped to Gold by 524 to 520 .

Our congratulations to everyone who took part

You can see the full scores here http://englishsportingclays.co.uk/fitasc/home-international

**********************************************************************

World Shooting Para Sport 

 Para Trap Championships - 24th Sept 2021 

Well done Paul Bailey!

Paul proudly represented Great Britain (and Staffordshire!) as he competed in the Shotgun PT1 - Mixed Trap in the third edition of the WSPS Para Trap championships in the magnificent surroundings of Lake Garda, Italy.

Paul had a great tournament, missing out on the final by just ONE target! Terrific effort.

Huge congratulations to Nikolaou Neofytos (Cyprus) who claimed the win with Oloriz (Spain) winning in PT2 and Italian Emilio Poli equaling the world record to take the win in PT3.

Looks like it was a cracking event. You can view all the results here: https://is.gd/G3eKPx

**********************************************************************

 Staffordshire Ladies English Sporting Team 

YOUR COUNTY NEEDS YOU!

English Sporting Inter Counties Championship at Westfield Shooting Ground.

Sunday 10th October

If you’re female, CPSA registered, can shoot English Sporting (whatever your class) and would like to represent your County, please get in touch.

We’ll give you all the details of what you’ll need to do.

It’s a great chance to have a fun day out and represent Staffordshire.

Alternatively, the shoot is open to everyone and is being run by The Clay Shooting Company. If you'd just like to have a shoot, they're running a 100 reg Sportrap to include the West Midland Area Championship as well as the 100 reg ESP shoot.

**********************************************************************

 46th ABT Home Internationals - 11 Sept 2021 

Brilliant performance from Leah Southall at the Automatic Ball Trap home internationals.

Staffordshire CPSA are massively proud of all of our England shooters, and especially our Staffordshire ones. So a hearty WELL DONE to Leah, Ian Hull and Adam Gutteridge - terrific shooting.

 

Leah speaks about her experience here:

"Great past few days down at Nuthampstead shooting the 46th ABT Home Internationals.

Yesterday I shot an 86/100 (a poor last line destroyed my score), and today I shot an 89/100 giving me a combined two day total of 175/200. This placed me joint 3rd in ladies overall.

Myself, Kath Bright and Mary Rowley were the winning Ladies team as part of the England team, and we were part of the overall winning team too. Congratulations to the rest of the England team who achieved a clean sweep across all of the categories.

It has been a pleasure shooting alongside an amazing England team this year in my first ABT Home International and thank you to Andy Greenwood for being a great team captain and to Paul Chapman for being a great team manager.

Unfortunately the banquet could not go ahead as a shooter has tested positive for covid meaning that everyone had to have a test at the ground this morning, pushing the whole shoot back an hour.

Congratulations to all of the winners over the past two days and I hope to see most of you tomorrow for the British Open.

Thank you to Ed and everyone at the ground for a great run shoot.

Thank you to my sponsors for their continued support.

𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑚 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑑 

The start of 2021 was the hardest time ever losing my mom.

I vowed to her at Christmas that I was going to make the:

Great Britain UT team 

England ABT team 

Which I successfully did, all for you mom xx"

**********************************************************************

 46th ABT Home Internationals - 11 Sept 2021 

Wishing Good Luck to Team England, who are competing at Nuthampstead Shooting Ground in the ABT Home International this weekend.

L to R: Leah Southall, Adam Gutteridge and Ian Hull

Team England will include 3 of our Staffordshire shooters Leah Southall, Adam Gutteridge and Ian Hull. Have a great weekend of shooting.

**********************************************************************

 British Open Sporting & Sportrap 1-5 September 2021

One of the premier events of the shooting calendar is the CPSA British Open & Sportrap championships, this year taking place at E.J. Churchill Swinton Estate in Yorkshire.

A tremendous few days of shooting in the qualifying rounds with some notable highlights from our Staffordshire shots..........

Top County shooter was Tim Simmons (AAA) with a superb 110ex120. He was followed by Jack Whitehouse (AA) on 106 and Jack Tromans (A) on 105.

Also breaking the 100 mark were Sam Ward (105), Chris Daniels (103), Kevin Sherratt (102), Keith Hodgkinson (102), and Josh Bennion (Junior) (101).

Tim, both Jack's, Keith and Josh have all qualified for Sunday's final in their respective categories/classes.

Joining them on Sunday will be the top B class shot for the County, Pete Critchley (99). He was closely followed by Richard Ufton (96) who narrowly missed out on the final.

In C class, both Mark Byng (92) and AR Johnston (89) have qualified.

Top Staffordshire lady was Samantha Hulley with Lucy Christie our highest placed Staffordshire Ladies Colt - great shooting from both

Finally, a special mention to Lewis Sones whose terrific 81 placed him in the top 10 of the Men's Colts and has also qualified him for Sunday's final.

GOOD LUCK to everyone from Staffordshire who is shooting in the final on Sunday And congratulations again to all those we've mentioned for some great shooting on a tough course and to EVERYONE who has taken part and given it a go!

You can see a full list of results and all those who have made Sunday's final on Clay Pigeon Shooting Association website: https://is.gd/1DlZOe

**********************************************************************

 Compak Sporting - British Masters Championship - 8 Aug 2021 

Terrific weekend for one our top shooters, Tim Simmons.

Tim was not only High Gun at the Compak Sporting British Masters at Owls Lodge Shooting School he then went and secured High Gun at the Welsh Open at Dovey Valley Shooting Ground Ltd.

Fantastic shooting Tim - Staffs CPSA are very proud of your efforts

**********************************************************************

 'Champion of Champions' at the Game Fair - 24 July 2021 

Terrific performance from Josh Bennion in the CPSA 'Champion of Champions' event at the Game Fair yesterday.

Sadly, Josh missed out on the final by just one target! But he beat some Terrific shots along the way. Well done Josh and THANK YOU for representing Staffordshire so brilliantly

**********************************************************************

 British Shooting Shotgun Series Round 1 -

Olympic Skeet & Olympic Trap – 20 June 2021

Strong representation from Staffordshire in Round 1 of the British Shooting Shotgun Series at East Yorkshire Clay Shooting Ground this weekend.

In the Olympic Skeet, Lara Dale qualified for the Senior Ladies Final where she put in yet another superb performance to take home a Silver medal

In the Para Olympic Trap, Paul Bailey had an eventual weekend involving his car breaking down, a broken chair and a sore neck....and STILL he made the final and came away with a truly well-deserved Silver

  

And to complete a hat-trick of success, Leah Southall, in her first ever British Shooting competition, not only made it through to the final of the Junior Ladies Olympic Trap but only went and won it!

Congratulations to all three for their inspiring performances over the weekend and good luck for Round 2!

**********************************************************************

Olympic Skeet English Grand Prix - 13 June 2021

The first England selection shoot of 2021 took place at the National Clay Shooting Centre this weekend.

Delighted to report that Staffordshire’s Lara Dale not only came away with Ladies High Gun, but also shot the qualification score for England Selection.

Tremendous performance, Lara - you’re a true Ambassador for your sport and your County

Good luck for next weekend’s 2nd England Selection Shoot at Beverly, from all at Staffordshire CPSA.

**********************************************************************

Josh makes CPSA World English Sporing Team – 8 June 2021

The 2021 England team for the CPSA World English Sporting Championships has been announced and delighted that Staffordshire's very own Josh Bennion will be part of the squad.

The Championships will take place at E.J. Churchill Shooting Ground from 6-11 July 2021.

GOOD LUCK to Josh and all the England shooters.

**********************************************************************

 CPSA English Open Sporting – 23 May 2021

Always enjoy celebrating success for our Staffordshire shooters.

Here is Chris Daniels picking up the trophy for his AA Class win at the CPSA English Open English Sporting 2021 at Barbury Shooting School.

You can read a full write up of the competition and a breakdown of all the winners on the CPSA website here.

Well done to Richard Faulds who takes the trophy once more in the ESP English Open, winning the 6 man shoot-off in some pretty testing conditions, which is fitting as that's been the story most of the week! Congratulations, Richard and to everyone who made the Final, including Staffordshire's Chris Daniels, of course.

There have been some truly terrific performances from our Staffs shots, across all classes over the last few days. This really is a testing competition, as it should be.

Chris Daniels led the way for the County with his final-qualifying 109. Sam Upton and Brett Hand both broke the 100 mark That's some serious scoring.

Josh Bennion, Kevin Sherratt, Sam Ward, Tim Simmons, James Hand, Stephen Williams, Timothy Hatton, Steve Ward, Jack Whitehouse, and Martin Butcher all hit scores in the 90s. Again, that is some going given the standard of the targets and the challenge of the conditions.

Massively proud of you......as we are of all our Staffordshire shooters who took part.

**********************************************************************

 CPSA English Open English Sporting Championship 2021 

Wednesday 19th - Sunday 23rd May

Good luck to everyone taking part in the CPSA English Open ESP Championship at Barbury Shooting School this week, especially our Staffordshire shots 
Enjoy it and shoot well 

**********************************************************************

 Ben Husthwaite Junior Sponsorship Day - 17 April 2021

Staffordshire CPSA would like to congratulate one of our bright young shooting talents, Lewis Sones. Lewis was one of 13 lucky youngsters (from 200 applications) to be selected and benefit from a brilliant junior shooting day at Kibworth Gun Club.

   

The initiative has been launched by Ben Husthwaite and thanks to a lot of work by Ben, some great help from ‘Team BH’ and sponsorship from Webley & Scott (among others) Lewis was able to walk away with a terrific shooting pack worth over £2000, which included a brand new W&S 912XS 12ga shotgun. A total of over £25,000 worth of shotguns and packages were given away on the day, a truly fantastic effort.

It’s great to see this sort of investment in young talent and credit to Ben and his team for putting this together. And of course, massive congratulations to Lewis for being selected. We’ll be watching your journey with interest and of course, supporting you in any way we can along the way.

**********************************************************************