English Open Single Barrel 2022 – Brook Bank Shooting Ground 13/8/22
Hello from a sweltering hot Brook Bank Shooting Ground.
My car told me it was 23 degrees outside on the way there – except that I was doing 70mph on the M5 at 8:30 in the morning!
We’ve been roasting, and with no breeze to speak of to cool us down, shooting has been tough today. Every tree big enough to have a car under it in the shade was occupied.
The main upside to the hot, still day has been the targets. They’ve flown beautifully, and were just begging to be smashed.
And smash them we did, with the scoreboard showing lots of scores in the 90s. The only disappointing spin on the day was the poor turnout – 8 squads for a national level competition, and not all of them full.
We hardly ever get something of this calibre this close to home, and it’s a shame that more South West shooters didn’t take the opportunity to shoot a national level event on their doorstep.
Especially seeing as a squad came across the Severn Bridge from Wales, and others such as Mark Shaw and Maurice Beedan travelled down from the northern half of the country.
A quick look at the squad list showed two shooters from Devon (of which I was one), and just one from Cornwall.
But anyway, everyone has their reasons, and it certainly didn’t dampen the competitive spirit!
I was in a good frame of mind this morning, happy with the performance last week, and the way the Krieghoff is working for me. I’ve always been pretty strong on Single Barrel, and there was a good chance that I could contend for the trophy.
The start was exactly what I needed – a 25 straight, with most of them vaporised in 28g of Gamebore White Gold pellets.
8 others also had the perfect start – usual suspects such as Phil Morgan, Bob Clark, Chris Smyth, and Mark Shaw, were joined by Jerry Ayshford, Mr A Jackson, and none other than Lorrie Greening!
I was stood next to her and she was hitting them as hard as I was. There was no question about it – she meant business!
At the halfway point, the field was still almost inseparable.
Out in front with a perfect 50 straight was Mark Shaw, followed closely by Geoff Howlett, Pete Bugler, Bob Clarke, Phil Morgan, A Jackson, and myself all on 49.
Tony Dore, Jerry Ayshford, Maurice Beedan, Simon Ede, and Chris Smyth, were all breathing down our necks with 48.
Despite my miss I was still going well, and knew that things can change quickly in Single Barrel. If I could keep steady and fill in the rest, I’d be somewhere handy.
But then I missed another one, got careful, and missed another.
After the inevitable thoughts of “Not again!” were dealt with, and feeling rather puzzled, it dawned on me that I was far too concerned with the outcome of the shoot.
Winning a major title is the next big item on my competition career “to do” list, and with that on my mind, I was tightening up and not moving as freely as I needed to.
Another few moments of cogitation followed (I could do with a processor and memory upgrade, but it’s a rare socket type, and I can’t find anything to fit!), and I concluded that it really doesn’t matter that much anyway.
I can’t predict or control how everyone else does, so no point being concerned about missing targets and losing ground. Far better to concentrate on doing my job as well as I can.
This freed me right up, although it didn’t stop another miss through moving the gun before I saw the target properly.
Others were faring much better, and we had a new overall leader. Mr A Jackson was shooting very well on 74, with Jerry, Geoff, Pete, Bob, Phil, Mark, and Simon all keeping the pressure on with 73 each.
Lorrie had a little dip with a 22 on her second round, but in her third round she was back at it with another 25 on the scoreboard, and keeping in touch with the leaders on 72.
By this time, the heat was starting to take its toll. I wasn’t conscious of feeling drained, but I didn’t have what I needed to rescue a disappointing situation. Another 22 and more puzzlement finished off my day, and sat me in no-mans land at the tail of the lead group on 93.
Lorrie was still plugging away at the targets like a trooper, and a 23 in her last round gave her a brilliant 95, and the Ladies title to boot! Absolute proof that shooting well from a wheelchair is perfectly do-able!
Mark was suffering with the heat and had a very similar day to mine, two rounds of 23 dropping him back to 96.
That wasn’t enough to do any damage.
Finishing top of the board were Bob, Phil and Geoff, all with fantastic 98s, and setting up a three-way shoot-off to decide High Gun, and overall 2nd and 3rd.
Out they went again for another full round of Single Barrel. All three men were middling everything, and my brain said to me, “we could be here all night!” But then, Bob missed his very last target of the round for a 24.
Geoff and Phil shot 25 straight, so off they went again with yet another full round of Single Barrel!
This time, Geoff missed one about halfway through. Phil must have said “thank you very much” to himself because he went into cruise mode, taking out the rest of his targets like he was shelling peas. Another 25 straight under his belt, and the title.
The full results look like this:
High Gun, and English Open Single Barrel Champion 2022
Phil Morgan 98 + 25 + 25
2nd Overall and 1st in AA Class
Geoff Howlett 98 + 25 + 24
3rd Overall and 1st in Veterans
Bob Clark 98 + 24
2nd in Veterans
Tony Dore 97
3rd in Veterans
Maurice Beedan 96
1st in Ladies, 1st in B Class, and 1st in Disabled Sitting
Lorrie Greening 95
2nd in Ladies
Wendy Spackman 77
1st in Juniors
Felix Hughes 87
1st in A Class
A Jackson 96
1st in C class
Darren Perry 88
Well shot everybody, and congratulations to all trophy winners.
We’ll do it all again at the British Open Single Barrel tomorrow… only let’s hope the air conditioning is fixed by then...