Just back from a fantastic weekend at Southdown - as unlikely as it might sound, we had dry weather and even fierce sunshine for most of weekend - so the choice of 'somme or sahara' for car park left us on the dusty side (what price a car valeting franchise down there!
Have to say - I think the ground has been nicely spruced up there - a new outside marquee area, and the whole surroundings of the club house looked tidier than before, great to see continued investment in the ground. The team ran a FITASC Sporting Fundraiser for the GB team, as well as a GB Compak shoot - named the Musto Masters. We elected to shoot the FSP on Saturday, and the Compak on Sunday. The best fact i found out all weekend was that Shaun and the team had over 110 traps running - which seems like a monumental effort for me - and I don't think i saw any serious delays down to traps.
Saturday - FSP
FSP was running a mix of old and new systems, with Peg 1 being on its own, and then pegs 2 and 3 being shot on the same traps with different hoops. Some tasty targets all weekend, with a good mix & variety. We started on the field layout - couple of high crossers, a looper and quartering blaze targets - then pegs 2 and 3 had a nice series of crossers/loopers - with a Southdown rocket added in for good fun. Timing ran well, and we slotted straight onto the warren layout - with a fierce midi into the bottom field and a decent fast blaze crosser which caught a few out. Later on we headed across the hill to the Valley & Gorse layouts - the valley with its traditional long rabbit to the valley floor (40/50yds? and well below your feet) as well as one of the loopers from the valley floor that never really gets above your feet - always fun. The Gorse is a layout that often catches me out - with a stiffer breeze and some bigger tests. Pegs 2 and 3 had a flat incomer which I think could have benefitted froma couple more turns of spring, and 5 degrees elevation - but as it was made a stiff test. In a the sim pair from peg 3 it was a huge ask - Mark (off here) on our squad made it look a piece of cake, and later found out he was one the few yesterday that hit it.
I finished up with 18, 15, 15, 13 -- would have liked/expected a few more but made some simple mistakes which really cost me.
Sunday - Compak
Brighter day and seriously hot - and four great Compak layouts. We started on Barn, with a tricky overhead and a nice quick battue. Followed by the ShootClay (!) layout on the DTL range with another quick overhead midi and some nice loopers, as well as a straight going away trap bird which caught some out. Bit of a break, then onto the CPC layout down the lane a little bit, decent steady layout with a teal that needed looking after and a long curling right to left which caught a lot of people out unless you took it very late with some belly on show. Our final layout was Securesite on the Skeet range - which was single and two sim doubles, I completely made a mess of this - not really dialling in where the birds were coming from or what my plan was... score here totally spoily my card - but lesson learned, need more concentration.
I finished on 19,21, 23 and 10 - hideous last layout which made me Mr grumpy all the way home.
Overall - a fantastic weekend of shooting at Southdown - if this is the standard, I'm definitely going to be in for the Grand masters and the winter series again, and see if I can better my score from last year. I'll get the dates of the Winter Series soon and hope to see a lot of ShootClay members down to enjoy the FSP. We had a few waits in the Compak day - and I think that we probably need to look at whether people can realistically shoot FSP and Compak on the same day - as we had a few delays waiting for people to get back from FSP layouts to get onto Compak. Southdown organisation and hospitality was otherwise faultless - with a decent atmosphere across the ground.
To add - we found two good B&B's in Findon, and one of the best curries I've ever had - so in future, I know there are great options to shoot two day events down there.
Have to say - I think the ground has been nicely spruced up there - a new outside marquee area, and the whole surroundings of the club house looked tidier than before, great to see continued investment in the ground. The team ran a FITASC Sporting Fundraiser for the GB team, as well as a GB Compak shoot - named the Musto Masters. We elected to shoot the FSP on Saturday, and the Compak on Sunday. The best fact i found out all weekend was that Shaun and the team had over 110 traps running - which seems like a monumental effort for me - and I don't think i saw any serious delays down to traps.
Saturday - FSP
FSP was running a mix of old and new systems, with Peg 1 being on its own, and then pegs 2 and 3 being shot on the same traps with different hoops. Some tasty targets all weekend, with a good mix & variety. We started on the field layout - couple of high crossers, a looper and quartering blaze targets - then pegs 2 and 3 had a nice series of crossers/loopers - with a Southdown rocket added in for good fun. Timing ran well, and we slotted straight onto the warren layout - with a fierce midi into the bottom field and a decent fast blaze crosser which caught a few out. Later on we headed across the hill to the Valley & Gorse layouts - the valley with its traditional long rabbit to the valley floor (40/50yds? and well below your feet) as well as one of the loopers from the valley floor that never really gets above your feet - always fun. The Gorse is a layout that often catches me out - with a stiffer breeze and some bigger tests. Pegs 2 and 3 had a flat incomer which I think could have benefitted froma couple more turns of spring, and 5 degrees elevation - but as it was made a stiff test. In a the sim pair from peg 3 it was a huge ask - Mark (off here) on our squad made it look a piece of cake, and later found out he was one the few yesterday that hit it.
I finished up with 18, 15, 15, 13 -- would have liked/expected a few more but made some simple mistakes which really cost me.
Sunday - Compak
Brighter day and seriously hot - and four great Compak layouts. We started on Barn, with a tricky overhead and a nice quick battue. Followed by the ShootClay (!) layout on the DTL range with another quick overhead midi and some nice loopers, as well as a straight going away trap bird which caught some out. Bit of a break, then onto the CPC layout down the lane a little bit, decent steady layout with a teal that needed looking after and a long curling right to left which caught a lot of people out unless you took it very late with some belly on show. Our final layout was Securesite on the Skeet range - which was single and two sim doubles, I completely made a mess of this - not really dialling in where the birds were coming from or what my plan was... score here totally spoily my card - but lesson learned, need more concentration.
I finished on 19,21, 23 and 10 - hideous last layout which made me Mr grumpy all the way home.
Overall - a fantastic weekend of shooting at Southdown - if this is the standard, I'm definitely going to be in for the Grand masters and the winter series again, and see if I can better my score from last year. I'll get the dates of the Winter Series soon and hope to see a lot of ShootClay members down to enjoy the FSP. We had a few waits in the Compak day - and I think that we probably need to look at whether people can realistically shoot FSP and Compak on the same day - as we had a few delays waiting for people to get back from FSP layouts to get onto Compak. Southdown organisation and hospitality was otherwise faultless - with a decent atmosphere across the ground.
To add - we found two good B&B's in Findon, and one of the best curries I've ever had - so in future, I know there are great options to shoot two day events down there.
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