The last day of winter delivered some fine weather for the final round of this year’s competition – dry and occasionally sunny, but with the usual tricky wind conditions. As we were limited to Dartmoor’s three benches it had been agreed to field teams of 10 – in order to ensure that the match concluded at a reasonable time.
Dartmoor began the day with a 159-point deficit, so the outcome of this 2025 – 2026 winter series was never in doubt. West Devon thoroughly deserved the win, as their overall standard has continued to improve over the past couple of years. As a consolation Dartmoor did win this final round by a modest 4 points – suggesting that in this, the fifth year of our inter-club competition, parity has been reached. This should ensure that the results are going to be incredibly tight in future.
So, West Devon convincingly won this winter’s series, as today’s result barely made a dent in their enormous lead. At close of play the Pyworthies had triumphed by 155 points overall, and finally took home the coveted trophy.
Today’s match proved once again that the equipment used had little influence on the outcome. As always, the wind was in charge. A variable, mostly right to left, stiff breeze predominated, and this was supplemented by Dartmoor’s peculiar and infuriating thermals whenever the sun made an appearance. A few competitors had bought their own set of wind flags to the proceedings, but it wasn’t really clear that these offered any particular advantage in the face of such totally random wind patterns. Too much information can sometimes be confusing and counterproductive to anyone not in possession of an unusually analytical mind. Me, for example!
As the region’s BR scores increasingly become more uniform, competitors will naturally explore any opportunity to ‘gain an edge’. So equipment is regularly ‘upgraded’ and augmented – sometimes resulting in an improvement, but sometimes to the detriment of the individual shooter. Regular practice is probably the best investment.
Paul. S.
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