Peninsular Cup 2022 - Two Counties Shooting Ground 13/11/22

This weekend has been a mixed one for me. I didn't shoot on Saturday because I had other things I needed to do, and around mid-morning I saw the very sad news on Facebook that Dennis Stepney, one of the partners of UK Gun Repairs, had passed away after a long illness. I've spent a lot of time at UKGR over the years with him and Brian, buying cartridges, guns, loitering in the workshop, and just listening to the stories and gunsmithing know-how going back and forth between them and clients.

That news tempered my day somewhat, and I decided that at the Peninsular Cup on Sunday, I would honour Dennis in my own way by getting the Miroku out of the cabinet and hitting those targets as hard as I possibly could. Dennis shot hundreds of thousands of rounds through his Mk38, so it felt right to shoot some with mine.

The weather gods sent us sunshine and breeze which was nice to be out in, but not so nice when it came to shooting. The trees around Two Counties are pretty high now, and as the day went on, the trap houses slipped more and more into shadow. Seeing the targets leave became an exercise in itself. Add the wind to that, and you have quite a challenge.

What a beautiful day to go shooting!

Before I go any further, I have to correct something that I said in my last post.

I said that the Peninsular Cup was created by Jethro, which isn't strictly accurate. The idea was originally Tony Barriball's and was to just be between Devon and Cornwall. He discussed it with Jethro who suggested bringing in Somerset and other counties in the South West, and between them they really turned it into a mini Inter-counties.

Tony tells me that invites were sent out to all the South West counties a few times, and the Isle of Wight even sent a team down at one point.

This year, Richard asked me to be Devon captain, which was quite an honour because I am the first Devon shooter to do the job twice. Cornwall were led by Simon Ede, and Somerset by Malcolm Brown.

The car park was full!

As it was Remembrance Sunday, all shooting stopped before 11am for the 2 minute silence which everyone observed impeccably, and gave us all a chance to pay our respects to Dennis at the same time.

I happened to be squadded with Paul Cornish, Simon, and Lanyon Rowe, and the four of us had a lovely rhythm and tempo on the squad. It suited me and Simon because at halfway, I was on 50/149 and he was on the perfect 50/150.

When everyone had shot 50 targets, it was time to pick the teams. Richard decided to keep it to teams of 5, the captain plus the top four sscores from each county.

For Devon, we had myself (cap), Mike Webber, Chris Smyth, Nick Shadrick, and RIchard Chapple. Cornwall had Simon Ede (cap), Colin Chidley, Keith Woolcock, Dave Sleeman, and Lanyon Rowe. Somerset were Malcolm Brown (cap), Pete Bugler, Gerrald Sweet, John Bradnam, and Steve Parker.

In fact, it was very much Devon's to lose at this point. Mike and Chris were both on 50/148, Nick was on 50/146, and Richard on 49/145. We were out in front by a significant margin.

Round 3 came along and my squad were on the layout with the most shadows. When the targets came out, all you could see were these dark shapes that turned into orange discs about 10 yards into their flight.

My mind wandered a fraction half-way through, and it cost me. I didn't see one properly and moved too soon, ended up shooting in front of it twice, and missed it completely. Then, not mentally dealing with the miss properly almost cost me the next one. I had to take a moment to remind myself about discipline and get back on track.

Simon meanwhile was also finding the targets tricky to pick up, but didn't let it affect him one bit. He ended his 3rd round on full steam ahead and a perfect score of 75/225. Amazingly, everyone else on the scoreboard dropped targets in their 3rd round except for Nick. He was firmly holding on to 2nd place with 75/221.

Our last round was on layout 1 at the other end of the ground. Perhaps the targets were slightly stronger and we didn't adapt to them fully, or maybe some other difference we didn't see, but all the squad had a disappointing finish to our day.

Another whole one got away from me and two others nearly followed it, giving me a 24/70 for the round, and 98/290 for the days work. Unfortunately for Simon, the chance for the 100/300 disappeared within a few targets when one required his second barrel to break. Another two barrels and a surprise miss left him with a 24/69, and 99/294 for the day.

Not bad, but I wanted the 100 straight...

In fact, it set up a very fitting end to the competition.

Nick was also shooting very well, and stayed consistent to finish on the only 100 straight of the day, and also on 294 points.

As well as the Peninsular Cup for the winning team, there's a shield for the individual High Gun, so now both men lined up again to decide who would be taking it home. Another perfect straight from Simon sealed the deal, as Nick second barrelled two targets and lost by 2 points. Well shot both!

The shoot-off scorecard - Simon top, Nick bottom.

Despite Simon sharing the top spot on the scoreboard, the rest of the Cornwall team were struggling a bit, as were Somerset.

The gap bewteen Devon and the rest had not diminished, and we romped ahead to the team win with 1446/1500. Cornwall were 2nd with 1394/1500, and Somerset were only 2 points behind them on 1392/1500.

Some of the winners - Left to right: Simon Ede, Individual High Gun; Chris Smyth; Richard Chapple; and myself with the Peninsular Cup.

Thank you to everyone involved in running the event, and to all the shooters who entered - 56 guns (almost 12 full squads) is a great turnout, and it was nice to see a few people who don't normally shoot DTL on the entry list. I hope everyone enjoyed the day despite the sun and wind making things tricky at times.

On a final note, now that the last significant event of my competition season is over, I've been thinking about future content production.

I've decided to limit these reports to significant events, or where something special happens, at least for the time being. There's a lot of more technical-orientated stuff that I haven't even started on yet (procrastination is a significant issue I'm afraid - I suppose because it's important stuff that I don't want to get wrong, and it's far from easy!) so with fewer shoot write-ups, perhaps I can make some headway with that.

At least, I hope so!