Berkshire Report - Nicola Heron.

First of all I have to give a big apology to Ross Pottinger and Michael Claessen for missing out their fantastic wins at the Skeet Doubles last year. The pictures are shown in this report and also great apologies from the Committee for missing this off. (I have issued Ten lashes to the Berkshire Committee reports department, for making mistakes and let that be a lesson to them). However to all Berkshire shooters, if you win during this coming season, we want to know about it, don't be shy, send an email direct to me and tell me all about it, we will also put your success on our website. Contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it as I got to compile this column for my sins, by drawing the short straw!

I hope by now most of you have been looking on our new website to see what is going on in Berkshire this year http://www.berkshirecpsa.co.uk/  for those of you who have not got a computer, now is the time to buy one. You would never believe what we put on there. We also have a forum so you can air your views.

Thank you to Vicky at Four Counties for sending this report on the Berkshire County Sporting Championship held on the 23^rd of March 2008.

Sunday morning saw the team at Four Counties battling the elements to lay on the kind of shoot that has now become expected from Brian and the gang. Everyone arrived at the ground to a very Christmassy scene of snowy trees - not quite what was expected at Easter.

The snow was coming from the north-east, with staff and shooters alike, wrapped up and looking like snowmen, however, the snow eventually stopped and the sun made a very short, but welcome appearance. 

The day went very well, with 174 entries, and not one single trap breakdown, although over 24 pints of milk were used by the catering staff, which got a bit hairy towards the end of the day as supplies were running low!

The overall Berkshire Men's Champion was Chris Childerhouse with a score of 88 + 8 after a shoot off with Pete Abel from A class who scored 88 + 4.   The Berkshire Ladies Champion was Pet Easton with a score of 67, with the Veterans Champion being C Dandridge with a score of 74.  The Junior Champion was taken by Matt Smith with a score of 82 and the Colt Champion was James Brownell with 37.

Other results were AA Class Robert Bailey 87 on 'count back' against Mark Marshall, A Class Pete Abel 88, B Class   Paul Abbot 77 and C Class Les Tuckett 71.

The overall shoot winners were, for the High Gun, C J Broomfield from Oxfordshire with a score of 93, Ladies High Gun was taken by Pet Easton with 67, with the Veterans High Gun winner being Brian Pitts from Oxfordshire with a score of 82.  The Juniors High Gun winner was Matt Smith with his score of 82 and the Colts High Gun was D Christian from Sussex with a score of 76.

The day ended on a high note with everyone pleased with the way everything went, although it could have been warmer!  There was one piece of lost property found after the shoot - if anyone would like the return of their bag of frozen Cauliflower, which has unfortunately now defrosted, please contact the ground!

The Berkshire All Round County Championship was held at Fareham CTC on 30th March 2008 and our very own Chairman Keith was there to write the report.

26 of the Berkshire brave made the short hop into Hampshire. After the usual round of bacon butties and tea it was time to start proceedings with the Sporting and ABT rounds. A testing Stand 1 of the Sporting was to dash the hopes of many a Berkshire shooter with a fast quartering going away rabbit followed by L to R long range crosser off a tower. It was tough, even for the experienced Sporting shooters. The ABT ran simultaneously and at the halfway point it was Berkshire's Bob Bailey leading the field on 47/50 closely followed by last year Champion Adie Miles on 45/50 and his brother Carl on 43/50, the formidable Eric Davis was the leading Veteran on 41/50, Rachael Harding was the leading lady on 37/50 and up and coming junior Ben Pye was on 34/50.

A short break for lunch while the efficient Fareham staff changed the setup for Single Barrel and English Skeet while some of us started to make excuses for the previous (and the next) bad rounds of shooting.

The leading lights from the County were not phased by the break in the proceeding with Bob, Adie and Carl all posting 23/25 in their Single Barrel rounds but Eric with a straight 25/25 pulling back a few points back on the leaders, Rachael and Ben continued to consolidated their lead in the Championship.

The last round saw Bob Bailey shoot straight on the Skeet line to take the County Championship and overall High Gun with a very impressive 95/100, Adrian Miles finished runner up on 91/100 and Eric Davis took the Veterans title on 90/100.

Rachael Harding took the Ladies with 82/100 and Ben Pye took the Juniors title on 73/100.

Well done to all who took part and made it such an enjoyable day, a special mention must go to the Berkshire ladies who supported the County in fine style Rachael Harding, Joan Davis, Julie Lynch and Sarah Haynes we look forward to seeing you all at a few more Championships this year. Also well done ‘Nobby' Rolls with a straight 25/25 on his final round of skeet, one of only 3 posted from the entire field.

Finally thank you to all the staff and helpers at Fareham CTC for a fantastic day.

The County Championships to look out for this month are,

10/5/08 Universal Trench at NCSC Bisley,

18/5/08 FITASC Sporting at Four Counties CTC,

25/5/08 Olympic Skeet at NCSC Bisley.

Although I will be away in May defending a ''little title'' in Lazio, Italy when the Olympic Skeet is on, I will however be waiting with my fingers crossed to hear how 'you' got on Ben Pye. Good luck lad.