Bradford Gun Club DTL Championship 2022 – Bradford Shooting Ground 3/9/22

Evening everybody!

I can start this week with some good news – I have my temporary permit! Valid until February next year.

I don’t know if it was me sending through a receipt for my guns going into storage, or if one was sent before the 27th and the postal strike stopped it getting to me, but the speed with which one was issued and sent on the same day as I sent the email leads me to think that there was no first one.

But regardless, I have one now, so that means that my guns can come home again! Very happy about that!

And for the first time in a long while I can say that I enjoyed today, even though I didn’t defend my title successfully.

In fact, a week ago I was wondering if I’d be able to.

We hear doctors and other health professionals saying all the time that exercise and playing sports are good for us. And I agree.

But what they don’t say is, ease yourself in if you haven’t exactly been the most active for the last few years.

Like me.

What happened was... every year Valeport have a cricket match vs Ipplepen cricket club, and this year I decided to go along for the first time. Thoroughly enjoyed it despite having never played the game before, scored 23 runs (including a few 4s and at least one 6 - they were being nice to us!), and got 1 wicket (from an absolutely HORRENDOUS delivery). Walking back to the pavilion, I thought, “I want to do more of this!”

So I asked the question, and they said, “Come along to training on Tuesday!”

“OK!”

Well, you see, if I’d left it at just the match, I might have been fine. But 2 and a half hours bowling practice on top brought me Tendonitis in both ankles, nearly 2 weeks of rather painful shuffling, and only just getting a bit more mobile yesterday afternoon with much reduced pain.

On the plus side, I think I’ve figured out my bowling action!

Anyway, I was able to shoot today, and joined 24 other shooters at Bradford for the Club Championship.

5 squads is a bit disappointing, but everyone has their reasons. I can remember a few years ago when this event brought in 9 squads or more, and you had to be really on form to come out on top.

Fewer entries didn’t mean that today was going to be any easier though!

Eleven 25 straights in the first round peppered the scoreboard, with 4 of them coming from my squad! But not me – I left my first one out for breeding, then took the next 12 or 13 to settle back into what shooting should feel like, and luckily finished with all first barrel hits and a 24/72. Not out of it, but any more dropped points and I soon would be!

Especially with how things were looking at halfway. By then I’d had 2 second barrels, and was sitting in 3rd place overall on 49/145 with Frank Reynolds and Dave Sleeman for company.

Not everyone who started with a 25 could keep it going, and the three who did were rapidly disappearing into the distance.

Andy Heywood and Nick Shadrick were neck and neck. Both started with a 25/75, then shot a 25/74, and were now on 50/149 and battling each other for the overall lead. But they had a problem.

Chris Smyth had barrelled his first target of the day, then his 22nd, but hadn’t missed anything and was now on the charge. I had a front row seat to watch him at work, and almost everything was disappearing in balls of soot.

He was shooting so well that when one cracked in half instead of exploding and becoming airborne particulates, I thought “What did you do there, Chris??”

He was breathing right down Nick’s and Andy’s necks on 50/148, and they would have to be perfect if they wanted to stay ahead of him.

A couple of stray ones in his third round cost Nick, and a 23/69 dropped him out of the fight for the top spot.

Andy however powered on with another 25/75 to keep his narrow 1 point lead. Chris was making it look easy with another perfect straight of his own, even with the wind building and blowing the targets around.

By now I was finding them a bit tricky, and a 24/70 in my third round wasn’t exactly improving my position, but it wasn’t a disaster either. In fact, now that I knew I wouldn’t be bringing the trophies home again (barring a plane crash from the leaders which didn’t look at all likely), I was able to experiment a little with technique.

I’ve felt like I’ve been chasing targets a lot this year which means that my gun hold could be too low. Today turned into a good opportunity to play around with that, and rediscover where the sweet spot is. I can’t say that I’ve found it yet, but I’m on the right path!

My last round of 25/74 gave me 98/289 for the day’s work which isn’t terrible at all, but not where I’d like to be.

Everything was set up for a climactic ending with one round to go - 1 point separating the leaders, and the wind conditions now at their worst all day.

I don’t know if it was the wind, the finish line looming, or the pressure he was under from Chris, but Andy couldn’t maintain his excellent form from earlier in the day. A last round of 24/70 (1 miss and 4 second barrels) dropped him back to finish with 99/292.

With both of them being on the same squad, Andy could watch the winning line slip through his fingers as Chris pummelled his way through the last 25. The wind was doing it’s best to stop him, but he was having none of it.

The absolute best smoke cloud of all came from the very last target, like a full stop at the end of a riveting article (this one maybe? :D), and summed up his day perfectly - a magnificent 100/298 that nobody could match.

With Chris securing High Gun, AA Class turned out to be myself vs Dave, and if I’d managed to score just one more point it would have made things very interesting! He ended up just 1 point ahead of me on 98/290! Well done Dave – I’ll get you next time!

Andy’s 292 was a very respectable score and might be good enough to win A Class, but Nick could still upset that apple cart.

Despite his less that ideal third round, Andy losing ground towards the end meant that Nick was back in the mix for the class trophy. However, he couldn’t quite find the perfect straight he needed. 2 more second barrels saw him finish on 98/291, and Andy confirmed as A Class winner.

What a squad - thanks Dave, Mike, Chris and Andy, lovely timing and some awesome smoke balls!

In B Class, it was fairly close between Frank and Keith Woolcock who were within a point or two of each other all day. In the end, it was Keith who held on to his slender lead to take the win with 96/284.

C class was not so close. Wayne Athey, another of our Armed Forces shooters on the circuit, finished on 94/275 and a very comfortable 9 point margin of victory.

Today's winners, left to right - B Class Keith Woolcock (96/284), A Class Andy Heywood (99/292), High Gun Chris Smyth (100/298), AA Class Dave Sleeman (98/290), C Class Wayne Athey (94/275).

Well shot to all of them, and to all winners, and thank you to Matt and Ian at Bradford for another day of top-notch shooting.