Greenfields 1/02/15 Reg

[Hamster]

Great company with forum members Mark, Richard and Gary   and we bumped into a fair few more, it was packed and a great set of (individual) targets in the main.

It was very cold and extremely windy so a little surprised to find so many pairs together  :crazy: , this was the theme being heard all around ! I personally like shoots a bit on the hard side instead of steady and Greenfields is usually good at not presenting gimme's but at least 3 stands were on the crazy side purely because of the unpredictability and speed imparted due to the wind, one or two were all but unstraightable which makes it a bit of a lottery at times, I really feel they could/should have realised this because it can punish people too harshly which takes away the balance of the shoot. 

I think GD top scored with 93 and having watched him drop his first 3 targets on a normal hard stand he must have been a sight to see on the silly ones, not a bad effort at Abbey either as he only dropped a single bird x 70, fantastic display. :vinsent:

 

[Will Hewland]

I reckon a key quality for a ground is having the nouse / caring / being bothered to fiddle the course an hour before it starts if the weather has surprised them. It usually only involves a couple of stands being tweaked, but can transform a course and put it back on track.

 

[evoracer]

Ditto! The wind was relentless I shot out of my skin on a couple of stands and even though my score wasn't my best ever I was very happy with it in the conditions. I sometimes wonder what goes through the course setters mind there was 1 or 2 stands where I thought the tree cover could have been used to better effect to give a little break from unpredictable clays in strong winds! GD different breed immense! 

 

[Hamster]

I reckon a key quality for a ground is having the nouse / caring / being bothered to fiddle the course an hour before it starts if the weather has surprised them. It usually only involves a couple of stands being tweaked, but can transform a course and put it back on track.

I think we knew it was going to be windy on Saturday !

 

[Will Hewland]

I think we knew it was going to be windy on Saturday !

I did say if it surprised them as a get-out.. The forecast is the first thing to study! Especially re bright sun and wind.

 

[Shaun Hopkins]

I reckon a key quality for a ground is having the nouse / caring / being bothered to fiddle the course an hour before it starts if the weather has surprised them. It usually only involves a couple of stands being tweaked, but can transform a course and put it back on track.

Sadly Will i felt the target set up was woeful at best and this was expressed by virtually everyone i spoke to today with an ex england shooter saying he would deffo not be coming back again. Could say i have been spoilt by Mr Lovatts target setting but Greenfields have so much ground to use but targets set by someone who doesn't even shoot clays! week in week out 80% of traps are no more then ten paces or closer from the cage which i feel is purely to make loading easy and just plain lazy such a shame as it is a lovely ground with great staff just being let down by poor targets of late. :resent:

 

[Delboy]

Stevie Wonder would of made a better job of setting the course Today.

 

[Hamster]

Sadly Will i felt the target set up was woeful at best and this was expressed by virtually everyone i spoke to today with an ex england shooter saying he would deffo not be coming back again. Could say i have been spoilt by Mr Lovatts target setting but Greenfields have so much ground to use but targets set by someone who doesn't even shoot clays! week in week out 80% of traps are no more then ten paces or closer from the cage which i feel is purely to make loading easy and just plain lazy such a shame as it is a lovely ground with great staff just being let down by poor targets of late. :resent:

To be fair Shaun only 4 stands could be said to fall into that category at a stretch, most were off some more distant traps or towers but I do agree that reaching the traps for ease of loading shouldn't be a priority. What spoiled todays shoot was pairs on very stiff targets, had they been report and tamed a touch it would not have attracted anywhere near as much negative comments.

 

[sibaldib]

It was my first time at Greenfields today and to be honest it frightened the life out of me. Being a lowly C class shooter I really struggled. I think, as Hamster said, the stands would have been challenging on a good day, but the wind was just crazy. The only saving grace was that on one stand I shot 8/10 and found out that GD had shot 7/10. Sadly the rest of my card was appalling.

Evoracer is being modest, as the stands I saw he shot very well.

Luckily I redeemed myself and fixed my headspace by shooting a quick 70 at Abbey and finishing up 2nd in class.

Good to meet you Hamster and thanks for the advice and loan of the cartridges.

 

[Skeet UK]

Good shooting with you again today Hamster. Sorry we missed you at Abbey, that might have been my fault as I thought last entries was at 1pm...so we dashed off.

So was it just me who liked the Battue stand then

 

[Bebo]

Was contemplating trying to persuade the husband to go to this, but we had an offer of meeting friends at a local shoot so we did that instead.  Sounds like a good decision, particularly as I performed dismally at the last two registered shoots at Greenfields.

 

[Will Hewland]

Look at Weston Wood today. Won on 94, with a big entry of very high quality shooters as usual. Yet I didn't hear anybody complain that it was too hard. I even took a mate who hasn't shot events such as this. He hit 60 and was very happy. The easiest job in the world is putting on an overly hard shoot. It's double stupid if you do it by introducing time and vision tests.

 

[evoracer]

It was my first time at Greenfields today and to be honest it frightened the life out of me. Being a lowly C class shooter I really struggled. I think, as Hamster said, the stands would have been challenging on a good day, but the wind was just crazy. The only saving grace was that on one stand I shot 8/10 and found out that GD had shot 7/10. Sadly the rest of my card was appalling.

Evoracer is being modest, as the stands I saw he shot very well.

Luckily I redeemed myself and fixed my headspace by shooting a quick 70 at Abbey and finishing up 2nd in class.

Good to meet you Hamster and thanks for the advice and loan of the cartridges.

Cheers for the compliment well done on your score at Abbey that wasn't easy by no means! I checked the Greenfields website today 2nd in class well happy with that as just over a week ago I fractured my right eye socket and couldn't see SFA out of it! Hopefully I can avoid an operation and keep it up!

 

[aweaect]

Only just spied this thread. Good to meet you guys a few weeks ago, great to put some names to faces.  I definitely agree there's room for improvement on some traps when the wind's just too much, last week on a Saturday practice there was a battue on stand 8 that went from behind the tree on the right, stayed behind the tree and then blew into the tree. Couldn't even get sight of it!

I just hope Greenfields get the feedback from people, they're not going to makes changes for the better if they don't know what people think.

Anyway next weekend 28th/1st I've a green card from Mrs Mark so I intend to practice my mounting (thanks for the tips Hamster) at Greenfields on the Saturday and take in a couple of comps on Sunday, hopefully see some of you again on my rounds.