Prescott Cup 2022 – Day 2 - North Cornwall SG 16/4/22
(A quick note about the scoreboard above – I’m missing last round scores for squad 6 – a full computerised scoreboard of day 2 totals is shown at the bottom of the page.)
Day 1 finished with the lead group of 5 shooters all in with a shout of taking the trophy home.
Day 2 scores would be added to day 1 to give combined totals, so a good day today could make all the difference.
I have no idea what we did to get the absolutely glorious weather we had. North Cornwall was bathed in lovely spring sunshine, bright and clear, but not too hot. The wind paid us another visit, but this time, it didn’t do too much to the targets and they were fairly consistent all day.
Everything was set.
All eyes would be on that leading group of 5; Phil Morgan, Nick Shadrick, Dave Sleeman, myself, and Chris Smyth.
North Cornwall Shooting Ground in the morning sunshine. Kellands Plant Sales Ltd provided the rather impressive canopy on the left of the picture for the 2 days.
Squad 2 under way.
The open layout, with squad 1 shooting.
Looking back towards the covered layout, with a full car park in evidence. Note Cornwall flag.
Interestingly, the only one to get the start he wanted out of the gate was Nick with a 25/75 in his first round.
Someone else who had a dream start was Richard Chapple, who had obviously sorted out whatever gremlins he brought with him on day 1. The 2-day overall prizes were well out of Richard’s reach, but he might just get something from today if he kept plugging away.
Richard Chapple during his first round.
Phil had the next best opening round, though somehow he missed his last target for a 24/72. I was right behind him after a miss and 2nd barrel of my own giving me a 24/71 – not what I needed to make up ground and challenge for the win.
The legend that is Phil Morgan.
Chris copied me, and added another 2nd barrel on top for a 24/70. That didn’t do much to help his cause either.
Chris Smyth at work.
Dave had 2 escape from him, leaving him a lot of work to do to stay in touch. With Nick and Phil shooting like they were, the climb was a steep one.
Dave Sleeman about to pull the trigger and reduce another target to dust.
One of Cornwall’s characters, Mike Bolt, awaiting his turn to shoot on the line.
The second round opened things up even more.
Nick continued to forge ahead with another 25, this time needing his 2nd barrel twice, but it gave him an outright lead at half way with 50/148.
Knowing that he needed to keep the hammer down and hope for the best, Phil set about turning targets inside out, though he couldn’t quite find the perfect straight he needed. A 25/74 kept him close on 49/146.
Jo Fairclough on her way to clinching the 2-day overall C class win.
The rest of us gradually fell further behind. Both Chris and Dave managed to hit 25s, but too many 2nd barrels effectively ended their chances of a fightback.
I had an absolute disaster and missed the first two targets out in round 2 completely. Any hopes I had of retaining the trophy vanished. Reflecting for a moment, I realised that I’d approached the weekend all wrong, trying to manage the head to prevent errors and basically handicapping myself. After a moments thought, I went back to doing what I love, killing targets as hard as possible, and shot all the remaining targets in the day with three 2nd barrels, finishing on an identical score to yesterday – 97/287. Lesson heeded, but we’ll have to see if it was well learned later on in the year.
Now it was down to a two-man contest, and neither had much room for mistakes.
Nick was absolutely flying. A 25/75 in round 3 was exactly what he needed, and the competition was looking like it was his to lose. All Phil could do was keep hitting, but again he couldn’t quite find the perfect round, having to settle for another 25/74.
The gap between them was only 3 points. If Nick missed one, or barrelled 3, then it could go either way. In fact, he missed 2 and barrelled 1, and thought he’d thrown it away. But as we say in shooting, it isn’t over until the last shot.
As he was putting his kit away, he found out that Phil had missed 1 and barrelled 1 of his own, and they had shot identical scores for the second day running! This time they had 98/291 each.
There had to be an outright winner for High Gun and the cup, so out they went again for a shoot-off. What a fitting end to a weekend where nobody could find a groove and pull away from the rest of the field.
In the end, Phil prevailed. Nick made a valiant effort, and matched him target for target until two thirds of the way through, when back to back misses put a stop to his charge. The scores were Phil 25/74, Nick 23/69.
Congratulations Phil, and well shot to both men. Watch the shoot-off below!
Also well shot to all class winners over the 2 days:
Day 1 – Friday 15/4/22
C Class
3rd in C – Andy Brown
2nd in C – Jo Fairclough
1st in C – Jason Dyer
B Class
4th in B – Mark Venn
3rd in B – Will Andrew
2nd in B – Roger Lewis
1st in B – Mike Bolt
A Class
Equal 3rd in A – Alan Reece, Andy Hill
2nd in A – Andy Heywood
1st in A – Ollie Durovic
AA Class
Equal 1st in AA – Phil Morgan, Nick Shadrick
Day 2 – Saturday 16/4/22
C Class
2nd in C – Jason Dyer
1st in C – Jo Fairclough
B Class
3rd in B – Will Andrew
2nd in B – Paul Gorrett
1st in B – Mark Venn
A Class
4th in A – Andy Hill
Equal 2nd in A – Steve Marshall, Ollie Durovic
1st in A – Mike Webber
AA Class
3rd in AA – Richard Chapple
Equal 1st in AA – Phil Morgan, Nick Shadrick
2-day Combined Class Winners
C class – Jo Fairclough
B class – Mark Venn
A class – Ollie Durovic
AA class – Nick Shadrick
Overall High Gun – Phil Morgan
Well done everybody, and thank you to Simon, Andy, and Albert at North Cornwall for putting on and running the shoot, and to the sponsors who provided the additional class prizes and other support.
The full computerised scoreboard of day 2 totals.
My Day 2 Scorecard