The Inaugural Kellands Cup - North Cornwall Shooting Ground 29/7/23
To zoom in on a web browser, hold down Ctrl and press +. Ctrl and - to zoom out, Ctrl and 0 to reset zoom.
This event has been a while in the planning.
Tim Hill, Managing Director of Kellands Plant Sales Ltd and a DTL shooter himself, has wanted to hold a sponsored shoot at North Cornwall Shooting Ground for the last couple of years.
Various factors have delayed it, but yesterday, 11 squads of shooters descended on the ground and battled it out in very windy and changeable conditions.
Pretty nice weather really, but note the flags blowing straight out!
We had some of the best in the South West present, as well as our friends from Wales led by Phil and Darren Morgan, and a few names I haven't seen before, all keen to see if they could pick up a share of the very generous prize fund.
Tim really pushed the boat out with this one - Kellands picked up the bill for everyone's food and drink (courtesy of Vic's Mobile Catering Van) for the whole day; every shooter received a pack which had a cap, towel, box of 25 Gamebore plastic wad cartridges marked "Bespoke Special Load", and a mug, of which there were three designs to choose from; there was a sponsored cash prize fund of around £1800 that included prizes down to 4th in each class, a High Gun prize, and an amount split five ways for those lucky enough to make the Lucky Numbers shoot-off; and five very smart trophies for the High Gun and 1st in class winners.
All the trophies - High Gun (biggest) and 1st in each class.
There was also a selection of plant machinery that looked as if it might be quite fun to mess around with, including a mini digger that I wanted to bring home!
Here it is - I could have quite a lot of fun with this!
Looks like you move big tree branches with this one…
Kick-off was 9:30am, and even before we started, the wind was blowing straight into the layouts with steadily building force, promising some rather tricky targets.
After round 1 the scoreboard was peppered with 24s, and only two 25 straights - a 25/73 from Chris Smyth, and a perfect 25/75 from Andy Heywood who looked completely unfazed by the conditions.
The rest of us had a bit of a wake-up call, and after I missed my 14th target of the day due to not applying myself properly to the task at hand, it was time to rectify that very quickly and get serious.
Just as well I did because the wind only got stronger!
There’s one! Not bad for mobile phone shutter speed!
Andy's second round was almost as good as his first, a 25/74, and at half-way, he was looking very comfortable in the lead on 50/149.
Chris continued in much the same way as he started, with a 25/71.
My swift mindset adjustment paid dividends, and I scored the only other 25/75 of the whole day to move me up into overall 2nd.
Others also upped their game to post 25 straights - Jason Dyer (25/74), Colin Chidley (25/72), Paul Gorrett (25/70), Malcolm Brown (25/72), Ben Keightley (25/72), Rhys Morgan (25/68), and Phil Morgan (25/73).
The top five now looked like this: Andy out in front with a 2 point lead on 50/149; then myself in 2nd on 49/147; Phil in 3rd on 49/144; and Colin (49/143) and Chris (50/143) sharing overall 4th.
Although the sun is shining in the photos there were a few shower clouds flying overhead, and as I moved to my second peg in my third round, one decided to drop its load on us.
Being on the covered layout wasn't much protection against horizontal water, and it was definitely a case of "grin and bear it" until it blew itself through - thankfully that didn't take too long, and we didn't get too wet!
Making use of the Kellands marquee.
By now, the wind was really blowing, and everyone was being tested.
Even though I missed a whole target and second-barrelled another in round 3, I found myself in the lead on 73/218 after Andy had some misfortune and dropped two whole ones and a second barrel himself.
He and Phil Morgan, who was scoring consistently and had just shot 50 straight with four second barrels, were only one point behind me on 217.
Jason Dyer had also had a good middle 50 with two 25/74s, and he was now in the mix on 73/216.
Chris was still there or thereabouts, although he'd just had his first whole miss of the day and was on 74/215.
Quite a gap had opened up between the leading group and the rest of the field, and as you can see from the numbers, the High Gun trophy could have gone to any one of us.
I knew it was going to be tight, and after dropping two more points to finish my day on 98/291, I didn't think I'd done enough to win it.
My day on paper.
Phil could still beat me if he shot a perfect straight (which I would certainly not bet against!), but the conditions, and the fact that he hadn't managed to do it so far, gave me a very small glimmer of hope.
As it turned out, he second-barrelled his third target, and another one, to finish with a 99/290 - only one point behind!
One point behind him was Chris after a 25/74 in his last round, so there was very nearly a shoot-off there too!
There was one for the A class trophy after Malcolm Brown and Ben Keightley tied on 96/280 each, which Ben won.
Everyone gathered for the prize giving.
So the final competition results looked like this (including positions paid out from sponsored prizes):
High Gun
Robert Dietz 98/291
AA Class
1st in AA - Phil Morgan 99/290
2nd in AA - Chris Smyth 99/289
3rd in AA - Darren Morgan 96/280
4th in AA - Nick Shadrick 91/270
A Class
1st in A - Ben Keightley 96/280 + 1st in shoot-off (I'm afraid I don't know the scores for this)
2nd in A - Malcolm Brown 96/280 + 2nd in shoot-off
3rd in A - Mike Webber 95/277
4th in A - Colin Chidley and Rhys Morgan, both on 96/275
B Class
1st in B - Andy Heywood 98/287
2nd in B - Jason Dyer 97/286
3rd in B - Alan Williams 89/258
4th in B - Mike Browning 85/253
C Class
1st in C - Matt Rowland 89/255
2nd in C - Rob Northey 86/252
3rd in C - Graham Evans 86/250
4th in C - Mike Bolt (84/242) and Alan Davey (82/242)
All the trophy winners. Left to right: Ben Keightley A Class, Phil Morgan AA Class, Tim Hill from Kellands, Robert Dietz High Gun, Andy Heywood B Class, Matt Rowland C Class.
Then there was the Lucky Numbers to sort out.
Everyone had been given a number, and during the day, Tim drew five numbered balls out of a bag to decide who would go into a shoot-off where the prize amounts were stepped down from 1st to 5th place, and each person was guranteed something (just as in the Lucky Numbers shoot-off that used to be run at the Krieghoff DTL).
Chris Smyth, Jason Dyer, Clifford Coles, Graham Evans, and Brian Prettejohn were the ones drawn, and Simon asked me to do the referee duties (but in doing so, subtly informed me without meaning to that I wasn't shooting!).
Predictably, Chris took the win with a perfect 25/75, and remarked afterwards that he could have done with that round earlier in the day!
Jason finished 2nd with a 24/68, just one point in front of Brian in 3rd with a 24/67.
Graham took 4th with a 21/62, and unfortunately for Clifford, he really couldn't get to grips with the wind affected targets, finishing 5th with a 16/48.
The Lucky Numbers shoot-off score card.
The atmosphere of the whole day really was like a small major championship, and everyone had a good time despite all the scores being down because of the wind.
Thank you to Andy, Albert, and Simon for putting on such an efficient shoot with no breakdowns at all (all 11 squads were done and the scores in by 2:30pm!), and for doing a brilliant job with setting the targets to be as consistent as possible in the conditions.
Also thanks to Steph and Esther who were running the scoreboard and keeping all that side of things organised.
And, of course, thank you to Tim and Kellands for supporting the shoot so generously, and for the amazing prize fund.
Next year, Tim wants to turn the event into a two-dayer, and the plan at the moment is to hold it around Easter time, probably on Good Friday and Easter Saturday.
I'm definitely looking forward to that!
All the goodies…