Devon Single Barrel Championship 2023 + 100 DTL - Bradford Shooting Ground 19/8/23
Waking up on Saturday morning, I wasn't too sure how the day was going to go.
Although my form is good at the moment, and winning the Dougall Memorial has given me a huge boost, with everything I have going on, all the thinking, planning, and working a full time job that requires early starts and to be switched on every minute of the day, I was feeling a bit drained.
That isn't really how you want to feel when you have a Championship to defend!
My name is on the Devon Single Barrel trophy three times already, and two of those times have been in the last three years (the odd year out is 2021, when Ian Moore spoiled my run by rocking up at Bradford with a Krieghoff he'd bought at Bywell not long before, and shot a brilliant 99).
And here is the trophy in all it’s splendour (though missing last years engraving - the place I usually use couldn’t get the right mini shield, and didn’t want to spoil the look by using the wrong sort. Richard Chapple was taking the trophy anyway to sort out this years engraving, so he’ll do last years as well - thanks Rich!
But regardless of how I felt, I was certainly not about to throw in the towel and simply let someone take the title from me, so off I went to Bradford.
The rain I drove through on the A30 didn't promise comfortable shooting conditions, and when I arrived at the ground it was heavy enough to make me put on all the waterproof gear!
Not the best conditions before start of play, but steadily improving.
But maybe that helped to chase it away.
By kick-off time the damp and drizzle had cleared out, and apart from a small, brief shower later on, the weather got steadily better, warmer, and breezier.
Of course, that also meant targets being blown around a bit - luckily they were lifting, so at least we weren't trying to deal with horrible daisy cutters.
Matt was running a 100 DTL Registered alongside the Single Barrel, so instead of an almost deserted shooting ground (we had only seven entries for the Single Barrel - that's terrible for a County Championship), there were five other squads that we could join in the rotation and make a proper day of it, which was very welcome.
As it turned out, seven entries was quite enough for a proper contest!
Five of those seven shooters were AA class - myself, Chris Smyth, Nick Shadrick, Mike Webber, and Richard Chapple.
The others, Ollie Durovic and Roger Lewis, were both A class, so at first glance this was a strong field!
We were split into a squad of five, and a squad of two.
The two was Richard and Roger, who were shooting at roughly the same time as us and I couldn't see how they were getting on during the day, but I had plenty to cope with in my squad without that!
Right from target one it was a game of "who can hit them hardest".
Chris had the perfect start with a 25 straight, and as well as leading the competition after round one, he was also winning the "best smoke clouds" contest - apart from one or two, he hit them so hard the paint dusted as well and turned the clouds orange!
Mike missed his second target out, but made the rest pay for it.
Nick got all the way to his last five of the round before one got away from him, and Ollie did the classic "Miss the Last One Out" - he wasn't best pleased with that!
My title defence didn't get off to the best start with back to back misses on peg 5 (behind the target both times), but I nailed the rest and finished with a 23 and very much in contention.
Unlike DTL, if you're a target or two behind in Single Barrel you still have a decent chance, so it was knuckle down, keep plugging away, and hope for a little bit of luck.
The second round featured more jockeying for position, during which I managed to claw back a target on the leaders and further improve my chances of a successful title defence.
At halfway, Chris and Ollie were sharing the lead on 48, I was just behind them on 47, Nick was just behind me on 46, Mike and Richard were both on 45, and Roger was bringing up the rear on 44.
The little moment of luck I was hoping for appeared in round 3.
On my first target out, I moved the gun to it, pulled the trigger, and thought I'd missed it - except that the referee said nothing.
I looked round at him, and he nodded and held a finger up to say, "Yep, you hit that." - and when the round was done and I had a 25 straight on the scorecard, he was adamant that he saw a piece come off when I asked him.
I was still doubtful, and quite prepared to accept it as a loss because the scorecard must be correct, but because of who it was, I knew he would not have shown me any favours in the decision - if I'd really missed it, he would have said so.
So with that, and with Chris and Ollie missing another target each, the stage was set for a final showdown in round 4.
We were all straight until the last 5 targets.
As I moved to peg 1, I was thinking, "Hmm, we might be heading for a 3-way shoot-off here..." - but when Chris and Ollie both missed another one, it opened the door for me to get the job done, and I did, shooting my second 25 straight.
That gave me a 97 on the scoreboard, the AA class win, and my name on the Single Barrel trophy for a fourth time.
Chris picked up 2nd in AA with his 96, and Ollie 1st in A with his 96.
Over on the DTL, Dave Sleeman was top score, and 1st in A class, with a well shot 100/293, the only 100 straight from the whole day.
2nd overall and 2nd in A was Ben Keightley on 98/291.
Ed Collett happened to be the only AA shooter on the DTL board so he picked up the class win by default, but his 97/285 was still good enough to share overall 3rd place with both Andy Hill, and B class winner Darren Vicary (both also with 97/285).
C class was won by Matt Rowland, who put a 95/283 on the board with his new (to him) DT11 Gold with a proper right handed stock - only his third competition outing with it, but based on what I saw, it won't be long before his average is getting a while lot better!
And lastly, 2nd in C went to Mike Bolt who shot a 96/274.
Well shot to everyone who placed in class, and thank you to Matt for holding the shoot for us.
Tools of the trade :)