The Bedfordshire Sporting Team travelled to Mid Norfolk for this year’s intercounties championship.  Shot over 12 stands the course offered a reasonable test with nothing silly and the easier targets being deceptive and causing plenty of experienced shots to shoot in front.  What was clear was that the venue favoured the more local teams as many of those teams further from Norfolk being unable to field full complements even in the senior event. 

In the seniors Andrew Clifton led the way with an 88 with Andy Buck and Glenn Moore both contributing 87’s  All senior scores are below.   We ended in 4th place behind Norfolk and Suffolk both of whom managed to put in 6 shooters averaging 89. 

In Juniors Ben Pay used his new 32” barrels to great effect to field an 83, Jack Nixon fielded his best ever score of 63.  Joe Heast was pretty upset with himself with a below par 68.

NORFOLK JUNIORS 169
SUFFOLK JUNIORS 155
BEDS JUNIORS 151
LINCS JUNIORS 148
CAMBS JUNIORS 144
NOTTS JUNIORS 134
NORTHANTS  JUNIORS 115
LEICESTERSHIRE JUNIORS 75

In Veterans Malcolm Jenkins was on great form and carded a 92, Jim Monday and Trevor Sharp both struggled with shooting in front of stuff and could only return 75 and 72 respectively, my thanks to Jim though for stepping in to the team to cover for injuries and illness.

CAMBS VETERANS 178
NORFOLK VETERANS 170
SUFFOLK VETERANS 170
BEDS VETERANS 167
NOTT’s VETERANS 146

In Ladies Linda Moore (65), Gill Whinnett(53) and Helen Nicholson(51) made up the team.  Special mention here for Helen who after a horrible start really pulled her round together to finish very strongly, she also provided me with my comedy moment of the day when she cleaned up a stand after watching Tony Leonard of Cambridgeshire mess it up.  I am still trying to get the sticky fruit drink Tony threw at me out of my kit!
NORFOLK LADIES 156
SUFFOLK LADIES 149
CAMBRIDGESHIRE LADIES 128
BEDFORDSHIRE LADIES 118
LEICESTERSHIRE LADIES 110
LINCOLNSHIRE LADIES 109
NOTT’S  LADIES 39

Finally can I extend my sincere thanks to all of you that took the trouble to turn out for the team.  Whether it was for the first time or the umpteenth time your efforts are appreciated and the management and promotion of these teams is what the county committee is basically there for.  For sporting at least this has proved to be far less onerous over the last couple of years than previously and the committee do value your support.