Mitchell Brooker-Smith blows away the Christmas cobwebs with an Olympic clay shooting Skeet win at South Wales 2000.
What better way to celebrate the festive season than South Wales 2000’s Olympic Skeet team Christmas shoot! I’ve been extremely busy these last few months, what with the European Championship in Lonato, then the British Shooting Grand Final and preparation for my first GSCE exam.
The Christmas shoot was something I had been looking forward to throughout the whole year; it’s nice to get together with people from your discipline whose company you really enjoy and just spend the day blasting clays – or at least, those clays that don’t get driven into the ground by the ferocious Welsh mountain wind!
I hadn’t been doing much training beforehand, partly because of my other commitments but also because I generally felt that I wanted to take a break and relax before getting back into competition mode.
I wasn’t too concerned as I was entering this shoot more for the enjoyment rather than being competitive – well, that’s what I told myself on the car journey to the shooting ground! As much as I enjoy the company of the Welsh team, a competition is a competition, and whether it’s big or small I like to try and win everything I enter.
I didn’t start off as I should have done: 20 ex-25 is never the score of my dreams. Still, I remembered it could’ve been worse and just told myself to keep on breaking what I could. After that first round I’d had enough of the sharp, cold wind. The shooting was extremely enjoyable, but the cold really did sap your energy. I felt like a cat that had been drenched in a puddle!
After some time to warm up I carried on, shooting a 22, 21, and another 21. I wasn’t particularly pleased with those scores but considering the conditions I was happy to take an 84 ex-100.
Thankfully that was enough to take high gun for the day. Congratulations to Des Davies taking runner-up on 82, Terry Griff third on 81, as well as the other Welsh team members who came and supported the event. Thank you for allowing me to participate despite being an England team member.
As I write this I’m looking forward to spending some time with my family and friends over the holidays, and doing a bit of training here and there. By the time you read these words, Christmas will feel like a distant memory and we will be well into 2020 – so I hope you had a great Christmas and a happy new year.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to stop and read my articles over the past year. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much I do writing them and competing for them.
I look forward to seeing what 2020 is going to bring and I hope that you will continue to read my articles and share the experiences and the successes with me.
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