191: Saturday December 6th - The Tony Gargiulo Trophy
190: The Turkey Shoot - 23rd November 2008
189: Sunday October 26th - Barnsby sponsored shoot
 188: Treasurers Shoot October 11th
187: Express Shoot September 28th
186: Saturday September 13th
185: Sunday August 31st – The Saddlery & Gunroom Trophy
184: Saturday August 16th See Notice Board on Day
183: Sunday August 3rd Napier Sponsored Day
182: Saturday 19th July 2008
181: Sunday July 6th Beretta Sponsored Day
180: The Have-a-Go day 21st June 2008
179: Express sponsored Club shoot - Sunday 8th June 2008.
178: Independent Magazines Club Shoot - Saturday 24th May 2008
177: Gamebore Sponsored Shoot - Sunday 11th May 2008 Pictures
176: Shoot Dinner 2008
175: The Wingate Competition (week 2) - 13th April 2008
174: The Wingate Competition (week 1) - 16th March 2008
173: The Eley Shield - Sunday 1st March
172: Suzuki Moto GP Trophy Sunday 17th February
171: Laurona Trophy Saturday 2nd February
170: Saturday 5th January
191: Saturday December 6th - The Tony Gargiulo Trophy
Ok so where were you all? I suppose it must have been the Christmas shopping, or maybe you were all still suffering from the snow and rain soaked shoot last time, but only 12 brave souls were in evidence this week to contend the Tony Gargiulo Trophy.
Courtesy of Clive and Burt the set-up was different this week with a rare on-report driven pair in the pit to sort out the men from the boys. The rabbit on the next stand was followed by that tantalisingly close incomer that looked so easy and close enough to throw rocks at. Well, maybe we would have done better with the rocks because we didn't do much good with cartridges!!!
Life got a bit simpler with the battue and the out-gowers but then the teal at the top pit brought us back to reality and produced a few laughs and much crying! Quite a bit of it coming from Barry who was proudly sporting his brand new Peratzzi for only its second outing.
We'll save his embarrassment by not revealing the score but you may find an almost new Peratzzi on Ebay tonight!!
The scores were about our usual average for the club, but notable this week were Bradley in 3rd place with 32 and a much improved Bert in 4th with 30. Paul shot a 38 but taking the silverware was Stuart with 42.
Hopefully with the shopping out of the way, the fairy lights all repaired (again), a few carol singers told to murder Good King Wenceslas elsewhere and Santa about to bring us yet more socks, we'll see a few more of you at the shooting ground on the 21st December. TTFN.
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190: The Turkey Shoot - 23rd November 2008
The Biggin Hill ecosystem didn't let us down; whilst the rest of Kent had an attractive dusting of snow the shooting ground was blessed with low cloud, wind, snow, sleet and eventually rain. Needless to say it didn't stop the mad and insane turning out for the annual turkey shoot. It was interesting to see the bewilderment in the new members faces when they realised that there was something different afoot, and their look of sheer terror when they saw the first salvo of clays in the air!! As usual it was just a "simple" 2 man flush that, in deference to the weather, was reduced to using only 5 traps and a couple of "normal" stands. Unfortunately the conditions completely changed from the time the traps were set-up which resulted in a mainly un-shootable flush!!
There were a lot of very wet people who were just glad to get the ordeal over and to get back into the clubhouse!! The scores were diabolical but Andy and Stuart managed to come in third, Patrick and Bradley a very creditable second and surprise, surprise the combination of Bob and Paul took first place with a combined score of 47. Our thanks to Howard for the Christmas Fare prizes and also to Bob and Andy for setting up in such adverse conditions. The thought for the week however has to be to wonder if the York household likes turkey!
The next shoot is the Tony Gargiulo trophy on Saturday the 6th December 2008. See you there.
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189: Sunday October 26th - Barnsby sponsored shoot
On a very wet day, following a very blowy night, all the fair weather shooters stayed fairly and squarely tucked up in their beds. However they missed a treat that those of us who did venture out were delighted with; a Bert special layout.
Simplicity was the key but each stand had a bit of a twist. A straightforward following pair of 90's beside the pit caught many shooters out and even the slow high crosser was temptingly easy...........to miss....... as was the rising bird followed by the daisy cutter that could hardly be seen for a fraction of a second in the in the gloom; Then, to add insult to injury, there was a following pair of low, fast outgoers on stand one that were oh so easy......until it was your turn to shoot!
For the damp souls that did stay the course there was the satisfaction of slagging off the wimps that didn't arrive and enjoying a shoot that we were able to return some half reasonable scores.
Bob took the trophy with 39, well he will when Paul brings it back(!), closely followed by Andy, whose excuse this week
for not beating Bob was that he wasn't shooting with his own gun; then Graham, Stuart, Bradley, Brendan & Tom W.
The next shoot on the 8th November is the Chris Wallace Memorial Shield. Hopefully Paul will bring back the trophy for us to see before he wins it again...............or will someone break his remarkable run of success.
Safe shooting and see you there.
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188: Treasurers Shoot October 11th
Pictures
Courtesy: Terry
On Saturday we held the Treasurers Shoot This is normally shot on a Sunday in August , despite this, there was a large turnout and the sun graced us with its presence, as did Terry.We had The normal 50 bird set up. The pair under the tower proved elusive the first being a driven quatering bird which needed a spotter as it dissapeared into the brush in the far paddock, this was followed by the infamous "flighimg rabbit". Scores wewre High with a number of people scoring 35. However shooting a very steady round in Third spot was Tom W. second was "birthday boy" Brian I. and close behind that was the amazing Paul G Congrats to Paul. It was nice to see a few new faces together with a number taking their safety lesson prior to joining the club.
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187: Express Shoot September 28th
Our thanks to Grayham, Aggy and Paul for setting up a very "interesting" shoot this week. The intent was to give us something different and they definitely succeeded! There were the usual Rabbit and incomer, the impossible teal but then there were the rest.Stand 1 was a real surprise with one of the on-report outgoing pair appearing from behind the hedge. Not only was it going like stink but it was a 90 as well!!! After that there was an "easy" mini and standard from the manual trap but then, in the pit, there was the simultaneous quartering pair from behind.So all in all we got different. The question now is did we really want it? Looking at the scores, probably not!!!Paul made a very plausible 36 to beat Tom W and Stuart respectively into 2nd & 3rd, while in joint 4th were Dan, Bob and Andy. (all other scores subject to disbelief)Still, as ever, there's another shoot to look forward to in a fortnight's time and again, as ever, we'll all do better next time, won't we?!!!!
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186: Saturday September 13th
Our thanks to Grayham, Aggy and Paul for setting up a very "interesting" shoot this week. The intent was to give us something different and they definitely succeeded! There were the usual Rabbit and incomer, the impossible teal but then there were the rest.
Stand 1 was a real surprise with one of the on-report outgoing pair appearing from behind the hedge. Not only was it going like stink but it was a 90 as well!!! After that there was an "easy" mini and standard from the manual trap but then, in the pit, there was the simultaneous quartering pair from behind.
So all in all we got different. The question now is did we really want it? Looking at the scores, probably not!!!
Paul made a very plausible 36 to beat Tom W and Stuart respectively into 2nd & 3rd, while in joint 4th were Dan, Bob and Andy. (all other scores subject to disbelief)
Still, as ever, there's another shoot to look forward to in a fortnight's time and again, as ever, we'll all do better next time, won't we?!!!!
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185: Sunday August 31st – The Saddlery & Gunroom Trophy
Report & Pics : Stuart
Whilst Thor was tuning his hammer in the early gloom over Biggin Hill the 2 indestructibles, Bert and Brendan, were battling through the wind and rain to get Bert’s latest diabolical layout in place……..and diabolical it was.
The only respite this week was a straightforward overhead 90 in the pit, and the incomer that formed part of the simultaneous rabbit and incoming pair. Even the rabbit flew for the first few meters and then refused to be broken when it did roll on the ground.
Stand 2 had a vicious curling away bird from the top pit that drew more advice than any I have seen for a while; but as usual it was all conflicting and next to useless as we all struggled to even chip the damn things.
The simultaneous (yes simultaneous!) crossing pair from the left needed massive concentration to keep focussed on the one bird and not let your eye wander to the other as they crossed. A following pair would have been bad enough but Bert was not in the mood to take prisoners this week!!
We obviously need some more of these judging by the expletives!!!
Scores this week will bring down the MarGate averages but the best of the week were Patrick with 26, Brian and Bradley with 27, Bob with 30, Stuart on 33 and, yes you guessed it,
Paul takes away the silverware with an outstanding 39.
Our thanks, as always to Rose for the sustenance, all the helpers and especially Pam for just putting up with us all.
See you all in a fortnight’s time, which gives just enough time to ponder the affirmation, “may all my clays fly to the same place that my gun is pointing”……………..then, you just have to remember to pull the trigger!!!! TTFN
Top 184: Saturday August 16th See Notice Board on Day
Saturday was a practice day, so not to be technical George had the idea of setting up a not too difficult layout
with about 5 gunsand 20ish competitors
'Compakt' as it is well known- (not so sure about the spelling though) is not that complicated From each stand a combination of birds are allotted coming from different stands around the field, one would think what a nightmare for everyone concerned, shooters, trappers, supporters, etc. but thanks to Stuart who had designed a nice bit of kit,
that connected to all the electric traps, a lot of problems were solved very ingeniously, unfortunately due to work commitments, Stuart missed out on the shoot, which went well once you had over come traps 3,5, and 2 or any combination of those!! Report & Pics Terry
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183: Sunday
August 3rd Napier Sponsored Day
The Biggin Hill micro-climate threatened all morning to dampen the spirits of a larger than usual number of shooters but held off to remove any hope of using the weather as an excuse for the scores.
On the agenda for the day were 5 simple stands that held the potential for some high scores whilst punishing the unwary. Stand 1 was an incoming pair and stand 2 was a standard and 90 from under the tower. Stand 3 started to test us with a following crossing pair from the right and then the battue proved to be a lot quicker than they looked. To
finish off there was an overhead pair from the pit.
The average score for the day was high, which will give a boost to the MarGate competition, but the leaders on the day were give a master-class by Paul.
Patrick, with a very respectable 36, was beaten into 6th place by Brendon in 5th, Bob in 4th, Dan 3rd and Stuart in 2nd; but way out in front Paul owned the day by dropping only 3 birds over the whole shoot.
Yes that’s right congratulations to Paul on a BHCPSC record score for a Sunday shoot of 47! Now if that’s not throwing down the gauntlet to win the yearly shield outright this year I don’t know what is!!!
P.S. Don’t forget that, courtesy of George and Barry E, at the next Saturday shoot we will be introduced to Compak Sporting for the first time at BHCPSC; so if you want some interesting shooting that’s just a bit different be there!
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182: Saturday
19th July 2008
Yet another Bert special layout this week saw the inclusion of a 30 bird Snooker shoot with, surprisingly, definitive rules! The red was a pair of standards from the manual trap and the colours were thrown from the tower. The green ball was a standard, brown was a battue and the blue was a rocket powered mini. The scores were not good and Steve
Davies would have been appalled!!
Whilst board 1 did the Snooker shoot with two other stands, board 2 did something completely different by using all 5 traps available to shoot a 50 bird card. Why remains a mystery, but it is suspected that with the F1 practice and the open both on the television people were keen to get away and settle into their armchairs for the afternoon!!
This made any pretence of getting comparative scores across everyone impossible but no one seemed too bothered!
What did elude everyone was how the scoring for the snooker shoot was calculated. (yes I did say we had "definitive" rules!) After about the 3rd stewards' enquiry and the 99th method of calculation Bradley seems to have won the snooker shoot and Andy the overall 50 bird shoot.
Well done to everyone. T hanks to Bert and new member Colin for giving us some excellent targets and, as ever, our thanks to all of the willing volunteers who helped put away.
Whilst the next Sunday shoot is yet to come, George is hoping to give us a taste of Compak sporting at the next Saturday shoot. No promises, but watch this space.
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181: Sunday
July 6th Beretta Sponsored Day
A Bob and Andy "special" layout awaited a serious number of shooters this week with some downright evil targets. Included were battue appearing from over the hedge for all of a microsecond (well it seemed like it!) and an outgower from the pit which nearly scalped all but the very shortest of us. For Barry it was easy, and it is said
that he just swatted the clays on the way past to save cartridges!!!
Some respite was given with a combination incomer and outgower on stand 2 and the rabbit and outgower from the tower, but even they evoked some serious expletives as the usual excuses flowed; wind, rain, last nights curry...
they were all there!
The scores weren't that spectacular, but surprise, surprise, on the day that he set up, Bob was the top scorer with a very creditable 37 to win a Beretta cartridge bag.
He was not too closely followed by Paul (34), who took home a cleaning spray and Brian (33) with a Beretta cap.
Coming in a very close 4th was Bradley who, with his over and under now run in, is turning in some serious scores. Is he to become our best improver of 2008? Stay tuned!
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180: 21st June 2008 - The Have-a-Go day
Have A Go Day Pictures
With the "Have-a-Go" day doing a roaring trade in the background there were 17 competitors who braved the dodgy looking weather for the club shoot.
With 2 have-a-go stands and a third for lessons, Bert's planning made best use of the remaining equipment to give us a great range of targets.
Nothing was impossible but there were some simple looking birds that managed to deceive the unwary. The incomer didn't come in as far as it might, the crosser was made difficult by being a simultaneous bird with the rabbit and the overhead 90 in the pit dropped like a stone. Muted mutterings were heard from several stands!!!
It was good to see Jan shooting with us again after 15 months and putting in a very respectable score whilst newcomer Colin made it to joint 4th place. Colin claims not to have shot for 12 years, but with a score like today's has put any membership plans he may have in severe jeopardy!!!!
Joining Colin in joint 4th place were Barry E & Patrick; Bob was 3rd, Paul 2nd and Stuart in 1st.
Thanks as ever for all of our helpers but this week a special mention to Pam for withstanding the usual club members' abuse whilst also dealing with the flood of have-a-goers. If ever there was a shoot in the BHCPSC calendar that Pam needed her outsized gin bottle it is today!!!!J
The next shoot is on Sunday 6th July. See you there.
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179: Express sponsored Club shoot - Sunday 8th June 2008.
A brilliant day greeted all of the shooters, especially those stuck in the traffic jams waiting to get into the Air Fair!!
However when they made it to the ground the concentration was only occasionally interrupted by the odd Chinook, Spitfire, Eurofighter,etc. or indeed the pyrotechnics at the show which added some noisy interest.
Concentration was what was needed though as some of the old favourites still caught out many shooters. Can you believe how many missed an almost stationary rabbit?!! Or indeed a long floater coming in from way down the field.
Still, as ever advice was freely given by almost everyone to everyone else and promptly ignored!!
(probably just as well!!) Coming out on top this week and winning some Express cartridges in the process , were, in reverse order, Bob with 35, Stuart 38, Barry E. 39 and, yes you guessed it, Paul on 41.
Well done to all the shooters, thanks to Ian and Clive for setting up, and also to all those that helped put away. The next shoot is the "have a go day" but don't be put off as we will have extra stands in place.
See you there.
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178: Independent Magazines Club Shoot - Saturday 24th May 2008
A touch of genius inspired George to design the layout this week. Whether it was just getting up at the crack of dawn or he was looking for revenge on other members who have previously set up, he gave us something to think about at every stand. With Ray's assistance on the set-up they gave us several almost extinct BHCPC targets.
Stand one included a rocket propelled crossing standard that just clipped the hedge; then we had Rabbits shot from the tower, a quartering clay from behind and, rarest of them, all we had a driven clay in the pit. Had George had his way the clay would have been aimed directly at the shooter in the stand for a "shoot me or I get my revenge"
moment. Luckily it was pointed out to him that we are trying to increase membership not loose them!!!!
Everyone seemed to enjoy the layout and Rosemary's sandwiches, as ever, were there to give comfort to those who may have enjoyed the shoot, but would have also liked a slightly higher score!!
The scores weren't great but George, in 4th place, was maybe thinking about designing in a greater advantage for himself next time, whilst Andy in 3rd was a full 5 behind Bob, who was just pipped to the post by Stuart on 39.
Our next shoot is on Sunday the 8th June, so we should have some planes to watch as well as shoot at the clays; extra points for the first one to use the planes as the excuse of the week!!!!
See you there.
Results
1st Stuart 39
2nd Bob 38
3rd Andy 33
4th George 27
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177: Gamebore Sponsored Shoot - Sunday 11th May 2008
Pictures: Thanks to Patrick
A brilliant morning saw the shorts (and the knobbly knees) come out once more. With 31 shooters competing clearly the men were all escaping jobs around the home and garden that their partners had planned for a weekend of good weather!
Stuart Mad (as opposed to mad Stuart!) and Barry H. were the first escapees to arrive and set up a great shoot for us all. Included was a following pair of very steep teal, a simultaneous 90 and standard off the tower and an evil pair of battue. There was something for everyone to enjoy and the overall scores were pretty good.
Star of the day was undoubtedly non-member Heinrich, who having left Simone at home doing the chores, was blasting everything out of the sky. The only reason that he didn't make us all look really bad is that he hasn't worked out how to shoot battue yet.
We will be having more battue in the future and on that form Heinrich hasn't improve his chances of having a membership application accepted!!
Thanks to Gamebore for prizes of cartridges with Phil in 4th place (37), Stuart 3rd (38), Heinrich 2nd (39) and this weeks winner with a score of 41 was Paul.
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176: Shoot Dinner 2008
Apologies from Howard
Due to a “senior moment” Howard announced the overall 2008 BHCPSC shoot winner as Stuart Marnoch with Paul Gator second, in fact they both finished on equal points, so its congratulations to both Stuart and Paul.
Howard has arranged another first place trophy along with a bottle of champagne to be presented to Paul at a later date.
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175: The Wingate Competition (week 2) - 13th April 2008
The second week of Wingate competition promised to be fought out on a beautiful spring morning; however the Saddlery micro-climate on shoot days didn’t disappoint, and rather than the Wingate we could have renamed this shoot the “Four Seasons”! From shirtsleeves to quilted coats, then into waterproofs and then, after we were all thoroughly
drenched; the sun came back out whilst we were clearing up.
Still, we can always find something to use as an excuse for the scores and this week it was the black clouds making the black clays invisible!!!! (Good eh?)
Back to the plot. You’ll remember in the last exciting episode there were 9 shooters within 7 points of each other, making today's shoot open to anyone to take the trophy. Bert and Aggy had done their best to give the contenders a mixture of targets; from the relaxed following pair coming in from half way down the field, through the sky rocket
90's in the pit and then rubbing it in with a mini and standard pair off the tower!!! Contrary to Bert's intention for the day there wasn’t anything that was universally seen as easy.
The top scores for the day were Stuart, Paul and Keith but as the Wingate is decided over two shoots the prizes went to the following.
|
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
6th |
|
Stuart |
Patrick |
Brian |
Keith |
Bob |
Dan |
Thanks to Paul for the trophies, to Aggy and Bert for setting up the shoot and for all of the helpers that assisted with packing away.
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174: The Wingate Competition (week 1) - 16th March 2008
The Wingate competition is contested over two shoots and the results calculated by adding the scores together. This week’s part of the competition gave a distinct advantage to the mad, slightly insane and the completely barking as we all got soaked and sloshed around in the worst muddy conditions that we have seen at the shooting ground for a
long time. The fair weather shooters of the club will however have the advantage next time whilst we are all suffering with pneumonia!! Thanks to Bob and Andy who braved the early fog and the worst of the weather to set up a simple but taxing layout that caught out the best of us with some clays that, when we could see them through the rain,
looked a lot easier than they were. The results so far speak for themselves:-
These results will however make for an exciting competition on the 13th April with only 7 points separating the top 9 shooters and all to play for in round two. This week’s other
announcements:
- A big welcome back to Rose to tempt us with her selection of healthy (!) refreshments (that we probably don’t admit to having when we get home!)
- Given that we now have enough support we will be having a club dinner at the Woodman, between Sevenoaks and Ide Hill, on Friday 9th May 2008. Please make sure that you let Paul know and that your name is on the list if you are interested in joining us.
- Today was the last shoot in the 2007/8 MarGate Team Competition – results for all three teams are within 1 point for the year and will be revealed at the club dinner.
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173: The Eley Shield - Sunday 1st March
This week saw the return of an old BHCPSC favourite to initiate all of the newer members into the joys of the Snooker Shoot. The rules are easy (well for some!); from the manual trap the shooter has to break a simultaneous pair of standards. Then he can nominate either a standard from the low trap for one point, a single midi for 2, a
battue from the tower for 3 or a rocket powered mini from the tower for 4. As long as he has a continuous run he keeps nominating but if he misses he has to go back to a standard pair again. Therefore there is a theoretical score of 98 from 26 birds if you get the first pair and then get 24 mini's; needless to say none of us got anywhere near!!
The remaining 24 clays consisted of a tricky simultaneous pair in the pit, a outgoing left and right report pair and some single rabbits; all of which were a welcome relief after the snooker shoot.
As for the results, there were 2 competitions; the Eley Shield for the total clays shot out of 50 and the snooker shoot that also included the accumulated points from the nominated clays. Stuart was top gun with 34 to take the Eley Shield and for the snooker shoot Terry was third, Mark was runner up and BHCPSC's own Hurricane Higgins was
George.
Thanks to Paul for the Snooker Shoot trophies and congratulations to all of our winners.
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172: Suzuki Moto GP Trophy Sunday 17th February 2008
A frosty start for the day as Barry H, Wayne and Chris (Wayne’s son) set up the traps turned into a brilliant shooting day; something that is a real rarity in Biggin Hill on club shoot days. Thirty-two shooters took part in the competition, including more than just a smattering of faces that we haven’t seen in a while. Fair weather shooters or
not, there was a real buzz about the place this morning and it was good to see so many turn up.The targets were a good mix giving everyone something to excel at…………well, maybe not the overhead pair of kamikaze battue from the pit………and maybe not the long right and left crossers caught out the best………..and the incomer and away bird that launched
itself just as you were about to shoot the incomer……….Hmm!
Maybe that was just a tad more difficult to find something to excel at!!!
One thing is sure everyone enjoyed the morning. Coming out on top in joint 5th place were Dan and Dave; in joint 3rd were Barry E and Stuart, in second was Barry H and top gun with 37 was Paul.It would seem that Suzuki Moto GP Trophy has turned into a virtual trophy along
with the any others for the top guns today.
     
Congratulations to all our winners.
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171: Laurona Trophy Saturday 2nd February 2008
Our thanks to Bert and Dan for setting this one up. Prepared as ever, Bert had worked out a layout full of variety to keep us on our toes; Included in this weeks offering was a driven bird shot from the pit, something we don’t see often at the club and indeed if you blinked you wouldn’t have seen it today either!!!
The scores, as ever left a lot to be desired, however a club average of 56% represented a great improvement. Helping with that improvement was “I’ve got a new gun” Bradley, who’s barrels have gone from horizontal to vertical………..something that eludes their owner early on a Saturday morning!!Top guns for the day in reverse order were Bob on 32,
Dan with 33, Barry E, Pat and Stuart all on 34 and Paul, as the winner with 37. Congratulations Paul, and if the Laurona Trophy ever turns up again it will look very handsome on your mantelpiece!!
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170: Saturday 5th January
Quite a few members ventured out for the first shoot of the year and were rewarded with an "interesting" shoot set up by Bob and Dan.
The rabbit and out-goer on stand 1 and the outgoing pair from the tower both made straightforward targets but then the plot started to go badly wrong!! First a pair of high incoming birds caught shooters out, only then to move onto stand 4 where a simultaneous pair of mini's from the tower was almost impossible to shoot.
That just left the pit where an opposing pair of battue flew like a pair of kamikazes overhead.
The scores for today can be relived as fishermen's tales by all as they were hurriedly destroyed (to protect our reputations!!)
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves though, and a small pool shoot was organised where we matched high and low scoring shooters from the day as pairs.
As they say money talks, and boy did we really find out who it talks to today?!! Wayne and Bob went home a bit richer with echoes of "bandit" ringing in Wayne's ears!!
However revenge is sweet and he may just find himself as a AA class shooter all year!!
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