STAFFORDSHIRE Website : NEW TO SHOOTING

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NEW TO SHOOTING?

WELCOME!

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Welcome to the Staffordshire Clay Pigeon Shooting Association

The Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA)

The CPSA is the National Governing body for Clay Target Shooting in England, supporting clay target shooting enthusiasts across the UK. They are based at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley, near Woking, Surrey.

The remit of the CPSA is to manage the sport of Clay Target Shooting for its approximately 25,000 members and the 400 clubs and grounds affiliated or associated with them.

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Who are Staffordshire CPSA?

We are one of seven counties that make up the West Midlands Region of the CPSA. The other Counties being; Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hereford & Worcestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire.

Staffordshire CPSA is run and managed by a small but committed team of clay shooters for the benefit of YOU our fellow clay shooters. You can view details in the ‘Your Committee’ section of this website.

Our key aims and objectives are to:

- promote the sport of clay pigeon shooting within the County

- advise and assist on all matters relating to clay pigeon shooting within the County

- run various County championships for individual shooters across as many disciplines as possible

- select teams across as many categories as possible to compete in Inter County shoots across as many disciplines as possible

- introduce and welcome new shooters to our sport

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How can we help?

Whether you are interested in shooting for the County or in just getting some advice and support on your own shooting journey, you can either message us on Facebook Messenger or complete a short Google form here and we'll do our best to see how we can help you.

None of this information will be published.

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Staffordshire Development Days

As part of our drive to encourage more Women and Juniors to get involved in the sport, Staffordshire CPSA run a series of ‘Development Days’. Each one focuses on a different shooting discipline or range of disciplines.

Among other things, our hope is that such Development Days will boost the pool of talent that we can select from to represent Staffordshire in Inter-County competitions. We ran our first development day, which was for English Skeet, back in May 2022. You can read more about that here.

For our members, it’s an opportunity to try a shooting discipline that may not be their usual first choice but that they might have always wanted to try. 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.

A member of the Committee or one of our top County shooters in each discipline will be there on the day of each shoot to help with some mentoring and coaching.

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What’s the Story?

Whatever your standard and shooting discipline, we're always eager to know more about your shooting and it would be great if you could tell us by filling in a short Google form. We'll then publish some on our social media and website.

Details and the link to the form are on our website here.

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Staffordshire County, West Midlands Area, Inter-County and Clubman Events

Staffordshire County Championships are organised by Staffs CPSA Team Managers and are individual shooting events, available for all those who are CPSA registered to shoot.

Staffordshire shooters can compete to win County badges and Trophies in four categories: Seniors, Veterans, Ladies and Juniors and in many of the shooting disciplines, including; Automatic Ball Trap (ABT), All Round (AR), Down The Line (DTL), English Skeet (ESK) and English Sporting (ESP).

A full list of fixtures is available on our website here.

A £2 levy will normally be applied to all County Championship shoots.

West Midlands Area Championships are organised by the WM Area Committee and can be competed in by any CPSA registered individual.

Staffordshire shooters compete individually against shooters from the other six counties to win WM Area County medals (Gold, Silver and Bronze) in four categories: Seniors, Ladies, Juniors and Veterans in most of the shooting disciplines.

A full fixture list is on the CPSA WM Calendar here.

Inter County Championships are team events where Staffordshire shooters compete against teams from the 6 other counties in the WM Region. Where possible, our Team Managers will select squads to compete in each of the shooting disciplines and in all categories relevant to each particular shoot.

Team Managers will look to select Senior, Ladies, Junior and Veteran teams for the following disciplines; All Round, Down The Line, English Skeet and English Sporting.

In these disciplines, Senior squads will comprise 6 shooters with the 5 best scores to count.

Ladies, Juniors and Veterans squads comprise of 3 shooters with the 2 best scores to count.

County teams must have the minimum "To Count" team members (5 or 2 as above) to enter a team score at any Inter County event. Counties can enter more than their own "A" team but only the "A" team scores will count in the points system for the end of season Lyalvale Trophy. However, teams other than the "A" team can shoot for medals.

FITASC Sporting, Olympic Trap and Universal Trap purely have squads of 6 comprising of any category of shooter, with 5 scores to count. Olympic Skeet and Helice have squads of 3 with 2 to count.

The Clubman competition is an annual event that aims to introduce A, B and C Class shooters to Inter County competition and to ensure all levels of shooter are included as part of the Inter Counties setup. It tests teams of mixed classes against each other.

The team of 12 comprises of 4 x A class, 4 x B class and 4 x C class shooters with a trophy for the winning County in all three categories, as well as an overall "High Gun" trophy for the County with the highest combined accumulative score.

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Classifications

Classification relates exclusively to your proven shooting ability regardless of any other factors.

In total, there are six ability bands or 'classes', depending on which shooting discipline is being shot: AAA, AA, A, B, C and D.

The following disciplines use classes AAA, AA, A, B, C:

All Round, Double Rise, Down The Line, English Skeet, English Sporting, Single Barrel, Skeet Doubles and Sportrap.

The following disciplines use classes A, B, C, D:

Automatic Ball Trap, Double Trap, FITASC Sporting, Olympic Trap, Olympic Skeet and Universal Trench.

Classifications are re-calculated every three months and implemented, as classification issues, on the 1st March, 1st June, 1st September and the 1st December each year. You can see details of all the various issue dates on the CPSA website here.

At all CPSA Championships, competitors will shoot within their lettered classification. In addition, for prizes in categories the winner will be determined by the highest score in that category. Colts can be placed within the Juniors category, providing there is no Colts category at the event in question.

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Categories

Your category is defined solely by your age or gender and is not related to your shooting ability.

The following categories are the recognised CPSA categories:

Colts - under the age of 16 at the time of shooting the event.

Juniors - under the age of 21 at the time of shooting the event.

Seniors - reached the age of 21 and under the age of 60 at the time of shooting the

event.

Veterans - reached the age of 60 at the time of shooting the event.

Ladies - of female gender at birth, or be a male to female transsexual.

Men - of male gender at birth, or be a female to male transsexual.

There are some exceptions to the above – see CPSA General and Technical Rules for further information.

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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.

You can find more information about trophies, including details of previous winners in the trophy section of our website here: https://sites.cpsa.co.uk/staffordshire/trophies

BADGES

There are four badges available:

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

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

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

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Coaching

We don't, as an organisation, offer direct coaching but we can put you in touch with a number of local coaches and Shooting Schools that can help you.

You can also find details of local CPSA qualified coaches on the CPSA website here.

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Glossary of terms

CPSA Clay Pigeon Shooting Association – the national governing body.

Levy A fee (usually £2) added to the standard entry fee at a CPSA registered shoot charged at Staffordshire CPSA Championship and Selection shoots. All levies are re-invested by Staffs CPSA – see our County Levies page for details.

Colt Under 16 years of age

Junior Under 21 years of age

Senior Reached the age of 21 but under the age of 60

Veteran 60 or over

AR All Round

ABT Automatic Ball Trap

CSP Compak Sporting

DR Double Rise

D/T Double Trap

DTL Down The Line

ESK English Skeet

ESP English Sporting