A lovely sunny day with a gentle breeze heralded the 2009 Bedfordshire Sport-Trap Championships. 

Whilst sadly under-subscribed the day still saw some hot competition for the silverware.  The early pace was set by Glenn Moore with a couple of good rounds of 23 backed up with two twenties on the tougher Basin and Quarry layouts.  Glenn felt that missing his last pair on 122 would cost him and that he was a few targets light.

In the same squad as Glenn our two junior entrants Joe Heast and David Ferriman were battling it out for the junior spoils.  Joe came out the winner but only by eleven clays which, given the difference in age and experience of these two, is pretty encouraging for the future.  On a high note for David, he managed to match Joe in the quarry producing some lovely "kills" particularly on the driven targets.

In Vets we had entries from our usual stalwarts; Pete Green, Trevor Sharp and Ian Porter, despite Pete struggling on the basin layout the trio all went into the Quarry with just three hits separating them, with Trevor leading the way, unfortunately the Quarry proved to much for Trevor whilst Peter shot a super 20 in the bay to lead. Sadly for Pete, but fortunately for Bedfordshire shooting there is now a "new kid" on the veterans block and Jim Munday took his first veterans title, the difference between Pete and Jim being their scores on the tricky Basin layout.

Back in the Seniors nobody was really getting close to matching Glenn's early round. Steve Leonard came closest posting an admirable 22 on the Quarry along the way but a below par 20 in the 122 prevented a serious challenge.  Steve's consolation was an A class win which paid remarkably well considering the entry.

Fred Kidd recorded the first and only straight of the entire day in the Clubhouse, which he backed up with the highest score of the day in both the Basin and 122. Fred shot a steady 18 in the Quarry to take his six hundred and fifty first county title, (I made that bit up!) and AA honours.  I suspect that it was Fred's relative lack of height that deprived him of the shoot as a whole as it was a definite advantage to be six foot plus on some of the wider birds off the 110' tower in the pairs.  A class shooter A Jude of Suffolk stormed the tower to take the High Gun prize two clear of Fred on 91. 

My thanks to Sporting Targets for their support of the this shoot. 

Given the poor turnout for this event again this year we will be discussing the options for amalgamating this event with another county next season in the same way as we do the skeet and trap disciplines.  I would welcome any feedback on this idea as soon as possible.