A light breeze and a brief spring shower mid-morning were the only conditions that threatened to ruin a hugely successful British Schools & Young Shots Championship at West Midlands Shooting Ground on Saturday 25 April, 2015.
Red course
Matthew Beall and his father joked on their way to the ground that it would be funny if he actually won the competition, but he was speechless when it came to picking up the Clive Stanton Memorial Trophy. His score of 44 on the Red course, the toughest of the three layouts, put him three targets ahead of his closest rivals in James Spratt and Paddy McDonnell on 41. To determine the overall Runner Up, these two faced each other in a shoot-off and James took the individual trophy back to Culford School.
It was a tight race in the team competition with just three targets separating the champion school Millfield A Team and Runner Up Warwick A, with the former on 201. Millfield won a Hatsan Escort Youth 20-gauge provided by Edgar Brothers for the school’s team, the perpetual trophy and individual trophies for each team member. Warwick got its revenge in the Old Pupils category after hitting 105 to finish on top.
In the Parent & Child category, Frederick and Richard Williams collected trophies for finishing six targets ahead of Taylor and Jon Hedgecock.
Blue course
This course designed for B teams, Ladies and Cadets produced heated competition, even between squads from the same school. Connor Goodwin and Zachariah Lewis on the Millfield B1 and Millfield B2 teams, respectively, went target-for-target but Zachariah pushed one target ahead and finished on 42ex-50. George Ergatoudis joined Connor on 41 to finish joint Runner Up.
The brand new Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club Award needed its first name engraved on it and Jess Allan hit 40 to do just that. This follows in the footsteps of her brother who won the Clive Stanton Memorial four years ago. Jess also contributed to the Parent & Child win with her father Rob, who combined for 85, 11 targets clear of the next nearest team.
The Cadets saw Jack Nutt finish on top by one target ahead of James Keeping to win the Billy Wells Prize.
The top team on the Blue course again came down to a battle between Millfields, and it was the B1 squad that came out on top with a score of 207.
The Ladies team prizes of Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club memberships and gilets went to Kings High 1.
Black course
There was a good turnout of Under-14s and it was a tight race at the top of the 30-bird course but Max Dolphin finished High Gun with 26 to claim the inaugural BASC Award.
Max represented Ashfold School 1, and he was joined by his teammates on the podium during the team competition after they combined to hit 60.
The Parent & Child category was won by George and Charles Whatton on 51.
To see a list of the winners, download the results by clicking here.
For a full list of all the scores, click here to download the results.
Make sure you watch The Shooting Show TV on Monday at 7.30pm to see footage of the British Schools & Young Shots Championship.
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