2nd Devon DTL Team Selection Shoot 2022 - Two Counties 8/5/22

The selection process is now well under way to decide the Devon DTL Team for 2022. Today, Two Counties hosted the second of four shoots we use to decide who will go to the South West Inter-counties later in the year, and battle it out for the Team Shield.

To say we were spoilt weather-wise is an understatement. Bright sunshine and a gentle breeze wafting through the ground gave us a taste of what the summer could bring. Absolutely no excuses for not seeing the targets in the sun; they were standing out like orange orbs against the trees (unless you were shooting the few times the clouds rolled overhead, then they were a bit trickier to spot!)

Look carefully, near the middle of the picture!

Very few of them were wind affected, and even then it was nothing major. Richard has done an excellent job of setting them up. All layouts look very similar, and though you have to know where to look to pick them up the best, there’s a huge window to kill them in. You can shoot them sooner, or later, and have all the time that you need to get the job done.

It was showing in the scores too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so much red on the scoreboard down there; it was all over the place, even the odd 25 straight (with barrels) from the lower classes.

Layout 4

I haven’t shot since the Prescott Cup almost a month ago, so I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do. My intention was to just dust off things and see where I’m at before Fauxdegla and Bywell in about 3 weeks time. I had a change of equipment too, as the Krieghoff has a stock issue.

The metal inserts that the pillars for the adjustable comb sit in have started moving, and lifting out of the wood with the recoil of the gun. I’ll be picking up a proper trap stock for it when I’m at Fauxdegla, so it gets to rest in the cabinet for the time being. The weapon of choice then was the Caesar Guerini Invictus III, and it’s obviously trying to tell me something – you’ll see why!

There were no surprises with who was going well at half way (except perhaps in my case!).

Out in front were myself and Simon Ede on the perfect 50/150. Then there was a 2 point gap to a chasing pack of formidable names; Andy Vanstone, Ian Moore, Roger Lewis, all on 50/148; Dave Sleeman 50/147; Mike Bolt 49/147; Chris Smyth 50/146; and Richard Chapple 49/146.

I thought I’d messed it up in my 3rd round. A second barrel, followed a few targets later by a complete miss (where, for some reason, my entire shot routine was rushed and totally different to every other target – the pressure cooker was brewing nicely and I wasn’t exactly comfortable at this point) was unfortunate. But I just thought, “Oh well, that’s that. Everything is working well so don’t change anything.” and soon settled down again.

Knowing who was chasing me, it seemed unlikely I’d be taking home any prize money. That view was reinforced when I had a look at the board to see how everyone else was doing – and wasn’t surprised to see I had no room whatsoever!

Everyone in the lead group shot a 25 straight, except Ian and Mike. Ian lost a target when the clouds came over, dropping the whole ground into shadow. He never saw it leave the trap properly, overcooked his swing to it, and never connected.

I don’t know what happened in Mike’s round, but it was a shame because he was shooting so much better than when I saw him last. Unfortunately, his fade continued and he dropped out of the challenge for the lead.

Inside the clubhouse

After 3 rounds then, it was tighter than ever. Simon was now outright leader with 75/223. Right behind him were Andy Vanstone, Dave Sleeman, and Roger Lewis on 75/222. Then it was myself on 74/221 keeping Chris and his 75/221 company. Richard and Ian were breathing down our necks on 74/220 (for some reason, Richard’s score for the total after 3 rounds is wrong on the scoreboard – it should be 74, not 73).

All I could do now was go out and keep doing what was working for me, and see where I ended up. In my own head, I’d already discounted the possibility of winning anything. I was more than happy with a nice 25/75 to round the day off with. As it turned out, that result was rather important!

Walking into the clubhouse after putting my kit away, I was greeted by numerous “Well shot!” and bits of banter without really knowing why, until Simon shook my hand and told me I was High Gun by 1 point!

My 99/296 was just ahead of him, Dave, and Chris, all on 100/295, and Richard on 99/295. Andy was on 100/294, then Ian on 99/293. Roger had a bit of a whoopsie in his last round, missing 3 targets, but that still left him on a decent score of 97/288.

Here’s the full list of winners from the day:

High Gun

Robert Dietz - 99/296

AA Class

1st and 2nd (4 way tie - add and divide)

Chris Smyth - 100/295

Dave Sleeman - 100/295

Simon Ede - 100/295

Richard Chapple – 99/295

A Class

1st – Oliver Durovic – 98/287

2nd – Stuart Taylor – 97/285

B Class

1st – Roger Lewis – 97/288

2nd – Mike Bolt – 96/285

C Class

1st – Al Dungey – 95/282

2nd – Andrew Harvey – 93/272

Well shot everybody, and thank you to everyone who helped with the running of the shoot, especially Marilyn for dealing with the scores, and Val for handling refreshments.

Malcolm Brown's Knockout board - £1 to enter, pairs are drawn from a bag, whoever shoots a higher score in that round knocks the other out. The winner is the last one left at the end of the day, and gets the pot - in this case, Richard Chapple!

My next outing will be next Saturday (the 14th) when I’ll be at Bradford for the 3rd DTL Team Selection shoot, aiming to repeat today’s performance. I’ll miss the Devon Championship this year because I’ll be at East Yorkshire for the Gamebore DTL, so it will be my only opportunity to grab myself a team spot.

We’ll see how it goes!

My rather satisfying scorecard