Two Counties 26/6/22

Today was a brief return to the home patch before I head off to East Yorkshire for the Gamebore DTL next weekend. I’m so glad to see it resurrected, and to have another crack at challenging for the top spot!

In fact, Two Counties is an ideal venue to shoot before East Yorkshire. Both places have very similar target setups, and the wind can make things tricky in rather similar ways.

And that’s exactly what happened today!

On the way down this morning, I got close to Plymouth and drove right through a torrential rain shower. “I really hope it isn’t like this down there,” I thought. Mercifully, I got through it pretty fast and from then on, the weather was completely different!

Warm sunshine with the odd cloud drifting overhead, and a deceptively strong breeze...

We couldn’t feel it in the layouts, but out where the targets were, it was adjusting them fairly well!

Most were pretty good; flying well, not varying much, and just begging to be smashed; but the odd few were real stinkers.

As we got under way and the first round scores started to come in, it was clear that everyone was getting caught out by the conditions. On top of the tricky wind, when a cloud drifted through and blocked out the sun, everything went grey, including the targets!

They seemed to almost merge into the background until the eyes adjusted to the new lighting, by which time the sun appeared again and fixed everything.

You know it’s going to be an interesting day when there are only four 25 straights on the entire board after the first round, the best of which was a 25/73 from Nick Shadrick. Barny Jackson was right behind him on 25/72, and then it was myself and Paul Gorrett on 25/70 each.

By the second round a few more shooters had got their eye in, and we started to see more red on the board.

The first 25/75 of the day came from Andy Heywood, who did a cracking job and made it look easy. He was joined shortly in that accomplishment by Dom Davey.

Barny and I shot 25/74 each. So did Richard Chapple and Mike Webber. Colin Chidley joined the 25 club with a 25/72, and Roger Lewis decided to out-barrel all of us with a 25/69! Could it have been something to do with those trousers he bought at Bywell...?

At halfway then, the leaders looked like this.

Out in front was Barny on 50/146, pursued closely by Andy Heywood on 49/145. 144 was a popular score, with Nick Shadrick and Richard on 49/144, and myself on 50/144. There was a 5 point gap between us and the rest of the field.

I’m not sure what was different for everyone’s third round, but there was a sudden explosion of red numbers, and not just from the leaders.

25/75s came in from Ben Keightley, Andy Hill, and Dom who had absolutely smashed his way through the middle 50 with all first barrels. Unfortunately for him, all the damage had been done in his first round and he was too far behind the front runners to exert any pressure.

Nick, Colin and myself kept it tidy with 25/74s. Barney was a gracious man and decided to give us a fighting chance of catching him. One got away, giving him a 24/72 and dropping him back into a three-way tie for the lead with me and Nick on 218.

Lurking within pouncing range was Richard who had kept his head down, and a 25/72 left him on 74/216, well placed to take advantage of any major slips.

I didn’t know the state of play because I was busy scoring for the next squad, but even if I had, it wouldn’t have made any difference. The objective is always to get them all first time!

At this point, I was the only one who could finish up with a hundred-straight. Everything was going very well until I got to my 98th target. Then, on the home straight and in sight of the finish line, the wind decided to show its hand.

Remember that I said we had a few stinkers today? A hard left hander came out and headed straight for the floor. It got there in one piece despite my best efforts to blow it to bits with my second barrel.

A few people said it was the worst target they had seen all day – just so happens it was mine! I couldn’t have done much better with it, just a freak wind affected target that was unlike anything else I’d shot at all day.

Roger was shooting right after me, and his next target was as opposite to mine as you can get – it went almost straight up – and he got it!

Elsewhere, Barny continued to give us all hope with a 25/73. Richard slipped a few more points with a 25/72. Nick did what I did, missed one and barrelled one for a 24/71.

Dave Sleeman and Chris Smyth, who were both well down and out of it compared to their usual standard, finally got what they were looking for with a 25/75 each to finish off their day, but unfortunately, all it got them was satisfaction.

Close of play then, and Barny had done enough to finish High Gun with 99/291. Considering that he hasn’t shot much at all in the last year, that’s a fantastic result. He’s very comfortable with where his shooting is at right now, and what he’s doing. It shows. I hope we’ll see him on the circuit a little more, and that he can keep his form going.

I finished 1st in AA class on 99/289, even with the successful windy sabotage. Nick was also on 289, but luckily for me, he’s in A class (which he won convincingly)!

And there's the scorecard - I was almost home and dry!

2nd in A was Colin Chidley who shot everything with a few 2nd barrels after his less than ideal first round, and ended up with a 98/286.

Roger finished 1st in B with 95/274.

Jason Dyer completely dominated C class with a 96/280 – a few more performances like that, and he’ll be moving up to A! The gap was colossal - Al Dungey was 2nd with 89/258!

Well shot Barny and all class winners, and thank you to Richard, Marilyn, and everyone who helped keep the shoot running today. Two Counties really is a cracking place to shoot, and I really hope that, in time, we can expand on what we do there and shoot a bit more often.

Stay tuned for the Gamebore DTL Grand Prix next week!