The ShootClay Cup - 28th July 2012

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A copy of my report from the main part of ShootClay - some personal comments below

It was a red-letter weekend at ShootClay when the inaugural ShootClay Cup was staged in bright sunshine with a light breeze at the fantastic Ian Coley Shooting Ground near Cheltenham on 28th July. The 50 target sporting event was part of a wider open day, so there were some big crowds drawn to the ground for off-road driving, trade displays and various activities for the family.

Centre of attention was the sporting competition – with an impressive prize pool to focus everyone’s attention. The team at Ian Coleys and ShootClay only came together 10 days prior to staging the event, so it was great to see so many people at the shooting ground for an excellent day of entertainment and competition.

Six stands were laid out at the Shooting Ground including some testing driven targets, a mighty high left to right crosser and a tough pair of blaze targets in the woods – which gave the 90+ entrants a real test.

High Gun was Matt Hance who shot an excellent 48ex50 - dropping two of the crossers against the breeze – he took home the ShootClay Cup and an excellent prize of cash, cartridges, some ShootClay and Caesar Guerini kit and a place on a Clay Shooting Masterclass which he kindly donated to the highest scoring Junior.

Runner-Up was Pat Lieske from the US who scored 46ex50 and will take a great prize package home.

The Ladies winner was Julia Gilder with 35ex50, she’ll receive a free place on a Shotgun and Chelsea Bun Club day sponsored by ladies-shooting.com as well as one of their fetching pheasant t-shirts.

The junior winner was Niall King from Wales who shot an excellent 31ex50 – he’ll take the upgraded prize of the Clay Shooting Masterclass with Ben Husthwaite and Phil Coley.

The final prize of the day was the ShootClay Shield – designed to recognise the novices in the field, six people were drawn randomly from the bottom half of the results for a competition style shoot-off. It was a tense affair, with the six shooters taking on a new pair of tricky targets, a high left to right crosser and a quick battue. Unusually, a husband and wife were in the group and inevitably, after 10 targets the couple were tied on 6 ex 10.

Into sudden death and Claire Maney hit the first sim pair dead, putting the pressure on husband Ian who shot just behind the battue and lost the shoot-off! Claire took home an excellent prize, including The ShootClay Shield and a pair of Muller chokes from justchoking.co.uk as well as the coveted ShootClay polo shirt.

Feedback from those attending was that the ShootClay Cup was a major success, with excellent support from sponsors and the whole team at Ian Coley. Plans are already underway to make this a permanent fixture on the clay shooters calendar.

 

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So - our first attempt at an event, we think it went pretty well - massive thanks to Phil Coley helping put this together, but most importantly HUGE thanks to all the members that showed up and shot the event and supported us. It was great to meet so many members that I hadn't met before and watch some terrific shooting.

Particular mentions to Ian and Claire for being such good sports, amidst a lot of banter. Optima for bringing the junior winner along, congrats to Niall for the prize. Matt Hance for cleaning up and taking the ShootClay egg-cup home (more time and research required for trophy buying next time - mea culpa).

It was a brilliant learning experience as well - we now know that we'll need a computer and scoreboard for next time, a bit more printed information so that people know the timetable (and stick around for the shootoff), and some other tweaks that we think will help us pull together a great event if we're lucky enough to get asked back! A massive thanks for all the feedback we received on the day.

If you have any other feedback that you don't want to put on the forum - please feel free to email me : [email protected] - I have broad shoulders, and I'm here to learn so all feedback gratefully received. Of course, you can put it here as well.

 

[Fuzrat]

Really good event, shame we couldnt have spent the whole day there (had a bbq in the evening at mums and the dogs would have been left too long). In the end we nearly didnt get to do the thing we came to do, shoot! what with some great trade stands and chatting to different shootclayers.

Look forward to next years one, was good with only 2 weeks planning so with a years worth it will be epic

 

[sscottsmith1234]

Sounds like a great event, wish i could have made it( working in the AM and a Wedding in the eve), will make sure i get there for the next one!

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Well done all.

 

[optima]

Don,t think it needs much tweaking matt i thought it ran very smoothly, only thing i would say which has already been mentioned on another thread is perhaps a bit more variety of targets,ie less driven.

could you also say a big thank you from Niall and myself to matt hance for donating the upgraded prize to a junior, and of course to phil cooley for donating his side of it.

Already looking forward to next year

 

[optima]

will you be posting a list of scores for the day matt??

 

[ExSCA]

Tony - we didn't make a list - my bad really, I should have had a PC and made a list straight away - I'll learn that for next time. However, I do think we had a photo of the score board, so as soon as I get that, I'll make a list - assuming I can read my writing.

 

[Salopian]

My score doesn't count I was harassed ( not Harris'd )I had this constant whining in my ears about "too many driven and bl**dy incoming downhill orange". Even after a Masterclass the whining continued.

But he did shoot the 410 very well, I never touched one of them only to be told at the end that I was in front of them, so not too upset.

I thought the event was fantastic, couldn't get enough of those delicious burgers, Phil Coley was a brilliant host, Matt was a genial master of ceremonies, I loved that high right to left crosser.

I think that for next year it should be 100 birds using the whole ground 14 stands, and because of the fantastic prizes we should be squadded and mark our own to save cost on referees and help keep the cost down. We could also donate prizes and maybe raffle or auction for charity. We have one year and I would be happy to help.

 

[optima]

yes i,d be up for the 100 birder,especially if your travelling any distance makes it more worth while

 

[Maxum]

For once sloppy has had a bloody good idea.

By the way what was your score Mr H. )

 

[JoeHale]

On the whole it was a good event, well attended and it was nice to say hello to Mr Rutherford. I shot with a couple of friends who didn't mind the amount of driven targets involved but I hate them. I may be wrong (my maths were always rubbish) but I believe that 20/50 birds were driven in some shape or form, which is my idea of hell. Nevermind though, all good fun.

Some minor gripes. We turned up at 14.05 to be told that entries had closed, I pointed out that it was advertised that last entries were at 15.00 to be told that I was mistaken and we couldn't shoot. Whilst this was handled and rectified with good humour all round, it was a bit awkward and not the best of starts. Perhaps those involved in front of house duties could be better briefed in future.

Also one of our gang was taking part in full knowledge that despite his best endeavours, he'd always be destined to be in the bottom half of the results. A big attraction in taking part for him was the idea of being picked at random for a shoot off with those that like him had found the course harder going than some but there was still the chance of bagging some goodies. Therefore it was a bit of a disappointment to discover that when he went to hand his card in to be included in the draw, the cards had already been picked out and the shoot off was already taking place.

Otherwise it was all good, apart from the fact that I discovered that I'm just as useless with a 410 as I am with a 12. 100 birder next time please.

Regards

 

[psych4shooting]

Thanks to all for the feedback. It was great to see so many people on the day from the ShootClay Forum and equally many clay shooters, hopefully some became members after Saturday too.

Matt has pretty much covered off the feedback elements of the day and I would concure with many of the comments already posted. With all events, especially with new one`s there will be tweaks needed, but overall we are happy with the success of the day, but have made note of changes for next year. Potentially a victim of our own success, we were caught out a couple of times, a little miscommunication and we are certainly working hard already to get it even better next year.

The .410 was a huge hit (not that many hit it), the Sporting was good (we know we can make it better, and a 100 bird is an option, although we are always wary of 4 stands we have at the back of our ground, as afternoon sun makes them even more challenging. Certainly will look to improve the variety. Matt & I have also spoken about making it more inclusive and have a more even split of prizes, the difficulty is seeding shooters. The highlight certainly was those in the lower half in the shoot off - make for good watching - I am sure those in the shoot off had never shot in conditions like that.

Overall I am very pleased with the day and the shooting, a few tweaks and taking onboard those positive comments, then we can make it bigger and better for next year. Please add more comments to this thread on observations for any tweaking, or you can email Matt as above or me directly [email protected].

Thank you again to everyone and look out for an exclusive Masterclass & Coaching offer for ShootClay`ers coming very very soon!!!

 

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Joe - as Phil says, thanks for that - it was my first event on 'that side of the table' and definitely, we'll take yours and other feedback on board as we get our organisation tighter for the next time we run these events.

 

[GavB]

hi phil

could you not use a handicap system like the cla gamefair shoot

 

[psych4shooting]

hi phil

could you not use a handicap system like the cla gamefair shoot

Good point Gavin, anotherone for the "thought pot"...

 

[ExSCA]

Big thanks to Ian - but we have some photos from Saturdays event :

 

[JoeHale]

Joe - as Phil says, thanks for that - it was my first event on 'that side of the table' and definitely, we'll take yours and other feedback on board as we get our organisation tighter for the next time we run these events.

No worries Matt. Here's to making it an regular event and taking it onwards and upwards.

Regards

 

[teepee1234]

Great pics, love the captions! :.: "Ian firing towards some clays...!" pmsl. :.: :.:

Dead Pair Claire.....love it!