Fauxdegla DTL Grand Prix 2023 – Day 1 – 27/5/23

(Click here for a full list of scores.)

Well, today turned out to be very interesting.

It could have been even more interesting if one small thing had gone differently!

Yesterday (Sponsor’s Day) showed me that I’m shooting pretty well at the moment, and put me in a nice position overnight.

I hadn’t expended too much energy, and ended up in that part of the scoreboard that isn’t looked at too closely, but is still within sight of the top.

That said, when I walked out to bat this morning, I could tell that I wasn’t as fresh as yesterday.

Events at my lodgings last night took an unexpected twist when I discovered that a big group booked in for food orders had turned up late, and had pushed back all the other table bookings (including mine) for well over an hour, causing chaos – but while I was waiting, I was kept entertained watching the bar maid keep up with a constant stream of orders and not missing a beat!

She was regularly filling 4 drinks simultaneously, while working the till, and not one of them overflowed – I was rather impressed!

Of course, it also meant that I had the opportunity to have an additional beer…

…but none of the disturbance all that caused would stop me from executing the plan for today, which was simply, “more of yesterday and hopefully better”.

The first round required a little digging to find the focus that I needed, but I managed to put right what happened yesterday and finished it with a 25/75.

The next round was also a 25/75.

And so was the third (despite the wind shifting around and testing us by making the targets climb like BP’s profit figures).

So now, I’m in very familiar territory – three perfect rounds, one to go, and the pressure cooker simmering nicely – except that this time it felt a bit different, as if I was more in control.

I was clear in my mind that I was here to enjoy myself and focus on doing the job properly, and that I was going to do it regardless of whatever else happened.

And as I went through the last 25, despite my Top Dog doing his best to sabotage me, it seemed almost inevitable that there would be a 100/300 on the scoreboard.

But I know it really isn’t that simple!

My last target of the day went out, and instead of the ball of soot I was expecting to see after the first shot, it smiled at me as it flew on unscathed, only to vaporise a split second later when my second shot caught up with it – and I ended up with a 100/299!

So very close!

You can’t get any closer to a maximum without achieving one than that!

But I really didn’t mind – I was just happy to put in a top score, and to do it at a big shoot again.

I was even happier when I found out that fellow South West shooter Ben Keightley had also banged in a 100/299, and potentially set up an all-South-West shoot-off for the overall win of Day 1 (if nobody else matched us, or shot a 300 - which would probably happen given the calibre of shooters on the ground this weekend).

It wasn’t long before we were joined by Dan Price and Connor Harris, and the four of us could only wait and see what Paul Chaplow and Steve Janes could do with their last 25 targets.

They were the only ones left who could shoot a 100/300 – and, not suprisingly, they did!

A repeat of the shoot-off for overall High Gun last year was set up, and once again Steve emerged the victor, smoking his way through a 25/75, while Paul missed a couple of targets and had some second barrels.

Watch the recording of the shoot-off below (apologies for the hand-held camera shake!)

It’s easy to get sucked in to “what ifs” and “if onlys” – if only I’d hit that last target with my first barrel, how that could have changed things...

But I’m not doing that.

What happened, happened, and the competition is over 2 days – so more of the same tomorrow could yet make my drive home quite pleasant…

...but as I also know well, tomorrow is another day, and anything could happen!