On the circuit

Posted on October 19, 2019 by towens — No Comments ↓

This month has seen Mike and Cheryl shoot Sporting, Compak and Fitasc around the country – picking up some silverware along the way

Cheryl won the Ladies at the Compak, beating Amy Easeman (L) in the shoot-off

First up this month for us was a double header, starting with Sporting Targets for their 100 English Sporting. This was a tough shoot with a gentle couple of stands to start, then some very close stuff, followed by some much bigger targets later on.

I shot a 90 here, managing to hit a few of a big teal about half way round, putting me just outside the placings again. Cheryl didn’t like the teal and finished a few behind on 86.

Straight after that, we were at Northampton Shooting Ground. This is always a good shoot and verges on the tough side, but it has plenty of space so targets are always separated from the stands either side, and there is a great mix of targets.

I shot an 88, which was good considering the blustery conditions, finishing just outside the placings and top of the Oxfordshire shooters. There were only a few shooters in the 90s. Cheryl had an unusual off day that afternoon, finishing on 80.

The following weekend was the Perazzi Grand Prix at Mid Wales Shooting Centre on the Saturday. We finished the first course, and had both shot 64, which was a few light.

We grabbed something to eat between the two courses, and were persuaded to shoot the Sportrap in the break. That proved to be a mistake, making us about half an hour later for our second round. As the whole squad shot it, they fitted us in near the end.

Mike atop the podium after winning his class at the Compak at High Lodge

It was probably the toughest Sportrap that we have shot. Special mention must go to Richard Faulds who shot an incredible 96 to take the Sportrap by three ahead of George and Arnie who had made fantastic scores in their own right. None of us saw that score there! Cheryl won the Ladies Sportrap with 83, seven ahead of the next lady.

We both felt drained when we started the second half of the Sporting, and I dropped 11 targets in the first three stands before pulling myself together and only dropping a few on the remaining stands. Cheryl started better, but dropped too many in the rest and we were both disappointed with how we finished.

The Sunday was a two-day Fitasc Sporting selection shoot that you could shoot either the Saturday or the Sunday. We could only shoot it on the Sunday and were greeted with some horrible conditions, with a blustery wind and driving rain.

All of the top scores came from the much calmer Saturday, but Cheryl shot really well for a 90, winning the Ladies and coming joint top of the Oxfordshire shooters with ‘Dave’.

Next was the Compak Grand Prix at High Lodge. This was a great event, and a huge amount of effort had been put in by the team at High Lodge, building new permanent covers on some of the layouts.

This meant that there were six permanent Compak layouts, so only two needed to be changed between the two days to create four new layouts!

They had this covered, with a completely different set of traps being used for the second day, and the effort was appreciated by everyone. Richard was on form again, winning overall by two. Cheryl won the Ladies after an almost faultless display on the tough shoot off with Amy Easeman.
I also won my class, and got to take home some money.

Last up was a registered shoot at Northampton on another tough course, made even tougher when the wind got up in the afternoon. There were some really big targets, with some that varied a lot in the wind and some tough sim pairs.

Cheryl and Mike enjoying some time out at Southwold during the Compak Grand Prix at High Lodge. The curved mirrors are on the pier and the crazy golf is opposite. “We also had the most fantastic fish and chips from a place in the town, and walked down to the front and ate them on a wall overlooking the sea” says Mike.

Cheryl shot really well and finished joint second with a very good 90. After dropping three at the simple first two stands I managed to finish on an 87 – just outside the placing but I was happy with how I recovered.

Next month we’ll be at the World Compak Championships in Galgamasca, Hungary; the British Open at High Lodge; plus Cheryl has two home internationals, in Ireland and at Atkin Grant and Lang.

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