Bucs Fizz

Harper Adams and Oxford Brookes take the limelight at the annual universities showdown at West Midlands.

The Oxford Brookes squad

Harper Adams University’s clay shooting team travelled to West Midlands Shooting Ground with one aim in mind, to retain their BUCS Clay Pigeon Shooting Champions title – and they did it in style, taking the top three positions as well as the team trophy.

HAU’s Tom McGregor shot a tremendous score of 90 ex-100 to win the student high gun prize, closely followed by teammates George Cheer in second with 89 and Jacob Groom on 81, taking third place on countback. 

The Harper Adams men finished first with an impressive score of 340 ex-400, followed by Nottingham in second with 291, with Oxford Brookes taking third place with 284.

Archie Evans, chairman of the Harper Adams shooting club, was keen to thanks the club’s sponsors – Fiocchi, Promatic Traps and Northallerton Shooting & Countrywear. “There is no doubt that their prolonged support helped our men’s teams in the BUCS competition,” he said.

Trophies and medals on display in the clubhouse (Image © BUCS)

In the women’s student competition 2018 champions, Liverpool dropped to fifth place, leaving Oxford Brookes to take the crown. The Oxford Brookes ladies finished on a score of 231 ex-400, followed by Exeter with 200. Nottingham took third place with 181.

In the individual ladies, Lorna Hall of Oxford Brookes took the gold medal with 78 out of 100. Second place was taken by Stephanie Meachen from Leeds and third was Kirsten Vogel from Loughborough.

Ladies high gun Lorna Hall said: “Having competed in this competition for the past three years, these targets were the toughest and most enjoyable I have encountered at BUCS.

The victorious Harper Adams men’s team (W Midlands SG)

“What made this day exceptional for me is that in my final year at Brookes, as OBSC President, I managed to take gold and see my team take gold for the first time ever. I’d like to say well done to our men’s team, who despite the challenging course took the bronze medal.

“The event was excellently run, as it is every year,  so thank you to everyone at West Midlands Shooting Ground and the organisers at BUCS for another great day.”

The alumni competition saw Great Britain shooter Emma Stacey, from University of Bath, winning the ladies with a very strong 89 ex-100. She commented that she was “Very pleased to shoot an 89 ex-100 at the BUCS Championship at West Midlands, winning Ladies Alumni high gun with the overall highest ladies score and the second highest score overall – especially after missing 11 clays on the first 5 stands! So great to be back with my uni team, Team Bath.”

Lorna Hall, ladies high gun (©Oxford Brookes)

In the men’s alumni competition, there was a tie for first place, which eventually resulted in Ed Poore from Imperial taking the prize by countback, with a score of 81 ex-100.

Ali Root, the event lead for BUCS, said “The BUCS Clay Pigeon Shooting Championships 2019 was a great event with one of the largest ever cohorts of students competing. Over 390 students and alumni entered to compete at the championships, which returned to the West Midlands Shooting Ground for another year.

“We allow shooters of all abilities to compete and have the opportunity to represent their institution at this national level competition. The standard of competition continues to develop year on year, and BUCS are delighted to support the students and further their skills as shooters within the UK.”

She went on to thank the team that BUCS work with to help stage the event: “Clare Alger from the CPSA, the officials, course setters and Tom, Deb and all the staff from the West Midlands Shooting Ground.”

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