I can’t write much about the British Championship held on Saturday as I wasn’t there however Colin and Lori did shoot. Colin scoring an impressive 33 ex 40 and Lori achieving a score of 23.

Sunday 6th April Inter Regionals

This competition is the 9 regions within the BFTA shooting against each other this is in reality a two horse race between MFTA and NEFTA so the other regions are shooting for the remaining places. The course is 40 target with 2 lanes of standers and 2 lanes of kneelers

Seven of our members had qualified to shoot for the region the remaining eight places were made up of shooters from the other clubs in the Fenlands region. Most of us arrived with plenty of time to walk the course and check our equipment.

Below is the order that we shot in and our scores (which includes all Fenland clubs)

So What Went Wrong????

Did it all start with being drawn in group 13? - NO

Was it the socialising with the Fenlands team on Saturday night and the Black sheep bitter? NO

Was it rubbish shooting – not exactly most of my shots were well executed.

Was the Steyr playing up – NO

So how did I get such a rubbish score?

On the Saturday at the British Championships I put in a very reasonable 33 ex 40 (89%) despite missing the long kneelers whilst standing, beating many respected shooters. I missed a relatively easy shot when only 3 down and then proceeded to get the hump and miss the next two kneelers. Despite this I still managed to finish 28th out of 118.

On Sunday I shot just as well but my score was cr?p – So What Went Wrong?

Did I listen to the shooters leaving the arena – Yes a bit

Did they all say there was more wind than they expected – Yes

So after the shoot I consulted a few shooters who had done reasonably well.

Mark Johnson – he got the best Fenlands score which, although he shoots consistently well, was a bit of a surprise. He said that he rarely came out of the kill just favouring the left or right side.

Steve Lanyman – He put in a good 32. He noticed that some of his shots were going straight so generally shot inside the kill.

Cliff Bert – Always does well. He only got 22 a surprisingly low score. He was coming out of the kill and by the time he realised his error it was too late.

Roger Moy – Consistently does well, only got 19 - Same thing as Cliff.

Nick Larty – Consistently does well, only got 16 and wasn't a happy bunny - Same thing as Cliff.

So I could see a pattern emerging. I was outside the kill for most shots and unfortunately with the targets so peppered couldn't see where my pellets were landing. I just made the situation worse by giving more windage. Why I just didn't come in a bit I'll never know.

Any lessons learned? I hope so:

• Get a better wind indicator – calibrated to give an indication of wind strength
• Try to get an early session with clean targets.
• Trees have a marked effect on reducing the apparent wind speed, so take this into account.
• If you keep missing try aiming at the kill zone.

Not a good year for Fenlands, Oh that we had a ground like Redferns to practise on, an undulating wood not a field.

On the 16th march the Midshires  Field target chaps and chapets turned out for the Fenland Championship shoot and the presentation of the winter league trophies.

The shoot was a 40 target shoot with 12 of us competing against the rest of the Fenland region, it was also nice to see Bill with his camera digitally recording the day. I think we are all looking forward to seeing the pictures. It was a warm, pleasant sunny but breezy day the course was set out in 3 sections so the wind was coming from different directions. We didn’t disgrace ourselves with 4 of our shooters finishing in the top ten for the main shoot and one in the open class.

The results of the Fenland Championship  

Main shoot