South West DTL Championship 2022 – Two Counties Shooting Ground 21/8/22

Greetings, everybody, from Two Counties Shooting Ground, where we were all enjoying a day out shooting without leaking from places we didn’t know we had!

After the baking hot oven that was Brook Bank last weekend, I would have gladly settled for the steady downpour I drove through on the way down today, but yet again we were lucky.

Cloudy skies kept the sun at bay and the rain didn’t trouble us, though it was still a bit on the muggy side.

We’re now getting towards the business end of the competition season as far as “local” ones are concerned. The South West Championships are upon us, and I turned up this morning with this one in my sights.

I won it way back in 2017, and the motivation of losing the chance to contend for a trophy last weekend added to the nagging feeling that it was time I won it again.

Everything started very well with a 25/75 that felt like just another day at the office. I didn’t middle everything, but didn’t have to do anything special to break the targets convincingly.

Barny Jackson, Richard Ryan, and Simon Ede also enjoyed first round 25/75s, and there were quite a few other 25 straights scattered about the scoreboard.

I’ll say it once again – Richard (Chapple) has done a brilliant job of setting the targets at Two Counties. They are the best they have ever been, and I would go as far as to say that they are among the best in the country.

They are just right for difficulty – not screaming out at light speed with fiendishly hard angles, nor dolly birds that flop over and die on you just as you pull the trigger. You still have to apply yourself, be disciplined, and have good technique, but every one is there to hit.

They fly beautifully, and you have all the time you could wish for to break them. Quicker or slower, doesn’t matter.

If only some grounds I can think of took the time and trouble to set their targets like these – they’d have much better attendance at the big events!

Anyway, back to today, and feeling quite positive after the businesslike start, I went out for round 2...

...where I promptly 2nd barrelled one. That’s what I mean about the difficulty – even a slight lapse, slight change in technique, or other small thing can cost you a point, but it’s all your doing. Then, when you do it properly again, you can absolutely turn them inside out!

Which I did for a bit, then another one required the second shot to break. And then the last one of the round almost got away as well, to my disbelief!

Now the head starts churning a bit because here I am again, halfway through, and slipping out of contention at an uncomfortable pace!

Richard Ryan was having no such issues. His second round was as good as his first, and he was now on the perfect 50/150 in full command of the scoreboard.

Barny was doing his best to stay with him, but had a 2nd barrel of his own and had to be content with 50/149, a score also shared by Nick Shadrick who is no stranger to mixing it at the business end of a competition.

Andy Hill was also going well with a brace of 25/74s giving him 50/148, and Simon, despite one getting away from him, was lurking, ready to pounce, on the same score as me, 50/147.

Round 3 came along, and by now I’m not quite so positive – but there’s a lot of shooting left, and the 100 straight is still on. A tidy back 50 would get me that consolation, even if it wasn’t enough to win the trophy, so head down and on we go!

Another two 2nd barrels in the first ten targets weren’t in the script, but at least I got them and managed to steady the ship for the rest of the round – until the last one out.

I still don’t know exactly why, but I tried to shoot it rather than just watch it break – and instead watched it gleefully sail on completely unscathed!

So that was it – frustration again, and, in my mind, all probability of picking up a class prize gone. The margins at the top of the board are so tight that 6 points down would require an almost complete collapse from those ahead of me for me to catch up.

And that was looking about as likely as hell freezing over at this point.

I’d just watched Richard Ryan blast another 25 straight, albeit with one 2nd barrel, and his lead over the rest of the field had grown to 2 points. 75/224 is top drawer shooting, no matter who you are!

Barny was hanging in there, but a couple of twitchy 2nd barrels had dropped him back to 75/222. Nick was on 74/221 and not giving him much room for errors. He in turn was being hotly pursued by Simon on 74/220.

Any one of these 3 are well capable of pouncing on any mistakes from the leader, so the pressure was on!

Not just on Richard, but on me as well – from myself. I want to be back shooting 100 straights again, and now that my chance for today was gone, I wanted that 99...

... perhaps a bit too much! Another 2 whole ones escaped me, one of which was a carbon copy of the earlier one, and some more 2nd barrels added on left me somewhat disappointed.

The scorer accidentally marked our first round down the card instead of across - the scores are correct, but impossible to fix the card - just easier to write up a new one, hence the "Done on first sheet"!

But on the plus side, I had a front row seat to watch the battle for the overall lead!

Perhaps it was the finish line being in sight; or knowing that he was being chased down by formidable opponents; but whatever it was, Richard had a train crash in his last round.

It’s never good to see it happen to someone on for a blinding score, and the 8 points that he dropped sent him down the scoreboard as effectively as a piano dropped from a first floor window.

It also saved us from the situation of someone entering Targets-only lifting a South West Championship Trophy.

This is NOT a dig at Richard, or anyone else who enters Targets-only. The option is there for them to use if they want to, and that’s perfectly fine.

But the CPSA are responsible for bringing in the completely ludicrous rule years ago that trophies at any level of Registered event can be won by shooters not shooting Competition, and creating this bizarre and very damaging situation.

Targets-only entrants do not contribute to the prize fund, and are not eligible to win any monetary class prizes. So how can they win silverware that they’re not competing for??

It really doesn’t make sense!!

EDIT: This part prompted some discussion in the Facebook comments which is great! Thank you to everyone who chipped in with that, and it prompted me to think a bit deeper about why Targets-Only entries being eligible to win trophies bothers me.

The root of it lies in the choice of words, and that I didn’t understand properly what a Targets-Only entry actually is. I’m willing to bet that many other shooters don’t either.

In fact, this is an ideal topic for its own blog post, so stay tuned for that!

But anyway, that’s the situation, and we must get back to what we’re here for.

The way for the chasing pack was now open. Barny did a good job of holding off Nick and Simon to stay in front by shooting a 25/74, and finishing top of board as South West DTL Champion for 2022 with 100/296 – the only 100 straight of the day!

Well shot that man!

Tina Hill secured the Ladies title with an 89/259, and Nick’s tenacity was rewarded with a 98/293, the A Class win, and the Veterans title.

Simon stayed steady to finish on 99/293 and take 1st in AA Class.

B Class went to Keith Woolcock on 98/288, and C Class was once again pretty close.

Mick Cunningham must have had his Weetabix this morning, because he ended up 1st in C Class on 93/277, 3 points ahead of Jason Dyer in 2nd place with 94/274.

Well shot all winners, and thank you to Richard Chapple, Marilyn, Val, and everyone who helped keep the shoot running well today.

The next event there is on September 11th – the Devon Double Rise Championship and a 100 DTL running alongside. If you haven’t been to Two Counties yet and can get there, why not come along?