Devon Single Barrel Championship 2022 + 100 DTL – Two Counties Shooting Ground 24/7/22

Well, it’s a little unfortunate, but our spell of clear blue skies and blazing sunshine had to come to an end eventually.

Richard did an OK job of booking the weather for us today - damp and humid, but a much better temperature and no rain (apart from a smattering of fine mizzle that did nothing).

In all, we had 2 squads for the Championship (which is a little disappointing, but about par for Single Barrel), and 5 for the DTL (all bar 1 being full).

Two Counties has 4 layouts, and to keep things easy and separate, we split them down the middle. One pair was for the SB, and the other pair for the DTL. Everything ran super smooth with no issues.

The Single Barrel was an interesting contest, despite there only being 10 shooters in the event. We didn’t know who the Champion was going to be until the end, which is always the sign of a good competition!

Not being best pleased with my away performances this year, and after coming within touching distance of fighting for the Bill Horne DTL last week, I arrived at Two Counties with the one goal of turning all the targets inside out, and making it as hard as possible for anyone to beat me.

And good job I was in that frame of mind, because I was up against some really tough opposition.

Both Richard Chapple and Chris Smyth were there, as well as Nick Shadrick and Mike Webber, any of whom would be a good bet to win it. And also on the squad list was Richard Ryan, fresh from his very recent triumph at the Bill Horne.

With Single Barrel, it’s 1 point for a hit, and 0 for a miss. Dropping a target doesn’t rule you out by any means (unless you miss too many of course!).

It also requires a certain mindset. Even though you only have 1 shot, your timing and technique should be just the same as when shooting DTL, and you have to be comfortable with missing.

My turn to be comfortable came about halfway through my first round, when the goal of hitting all of them had to be adjusted slightly.

By the halfway point I’d had some more practice at this. 2 rounds of 23 saw me sitting in a decent position on 46, but I had to find an extra gear if I wanted to bring the trophy home.

Nick was also on 46 and sharing overall 2nd place with me. Mike had had the best first half of everyone (two 24s), and was leading with 48.

My main concern when I turned up, Chris, was in a very uncharacteristic position on 42, so his bid for victory was largely over barring a catastrophe for all of the leaders.

The two Richards were in a slightly better position on 44, but they too would have to hope for those ahead of them to have a really bad round to catch up.

Which, of course, didn’t happen!

Finding my extra gear, I shot the first 25 straight of the day, the second of the day coming right after it from Ollie Durovic who was stood right next to me.

That moved me on to 71, and with Mike missing a couple, into a tie for the lead. Nick missed a couple as well which gave us just a little bit of breathing room.

And so it came down to the last round.

I went out and shot a 24, which was good - except that it left the door open for Mike to beat me by 1 target. Nevertheless, I’d done all I could, and he would have to shoot a perfect round to do it.

At the very least, I was expecting a shoot-off given his strong start, but in the end, it didn’t happen. His last round of 23 gave him a final score of 93, and the A class win, leaving me 2 targets ahead on 95, and Devon Single Barrel Champion for 2022.

I brought out the heavy artillery today - White Gold! My re-union with Gamebore cartridges is going rather well so far!

There were no B class shooters in the competition, and the only C class competitor also happened to be the only Lady as well – last year’s Ladies Single Barrel Champion Rachel Westacott. She managed a 77, which isn’t bad after nearly a year away from shooting!

While we were battling away in the top half of the shooting ground, some very tight competition was taking place over on the DTL, and something rather special was unfolding.

By the end of the 3rd round, Andy Vanstone had shot 75 targets straight without a single 2nd barrel. He was on 75/225, and the word was that every target was hit right in the middle.

Chasing him as hard as they could were Barny Jackson (75/221), John Bradnam (74/221), and Dave Sleeman (75/221), but Andy was shooting so well that it looked a forlorn hope.

And so it proved. Apart from a few chippy breaks towards the end, Andy managed to hold it together and finish his day with a magnificent 100/300 on the scoreboard!

Dave also shot very well, finishing with 100/296, and John secured A class with 99/295. Barny was close behind on 99/293.

B class was once again Keith Woolcock’s, his final score being 94/280.

C class turned out to be hotly contested yet again. Jason Dyer and Mike Shorland were locked together all day, and finished equal 1st in C on exactly the same score of 273. The only difference was that Jason hit 95 targets and Mike 94!

Well shot to all class winners in both disciplines, especially to Andy for a brilliant full house, and to Rachel for another Ladies title to her name.

Thank you to everyone involved with running Two Counties today, especially Marilyn who had scores from two competitions to deal with at the same time, and Val for helping her keep on top of that, as well as looking after refreshments.

My next outing is a big one for me – the Bisley 300. The shield has graced my mantelpiece for the last year, and I’ll be doing all I can to make sure it does so again!

Stay tuned to find out how I get on!