Saturday 11th saw a lot of activity in SWEFTA, some of it administrative and some of it competition based, in this case the final inter club benchrest shoot between Dartmoor Marksmen and West Devon.
Both clubs were brilliantly supported with 21 shooters in attendance although only 20 took part as Callen Thompson volunteered to do the organising (cat herding), admin and some of the scoring, thank you Callen.
So at around 9.30 am, battle began.
The weather was uncharacteristically kind, it was cool and slightly damp but the wind was extremely light all day and this aided some really outstanding scores. After almost no time it was clear there was a very quiet battle going on within Dartmoor between Grand Master Paul Salmon and new upstart Mike Smith.
Mike has done a terrific amount of work on his Ataman, to the rifle as well as with regard to preparation and pellets and it showed with him putting up his first ever 250. But this was not a one sided battle, Paul putting in his usual stunning display of calm, considered consistency, a rare moment of impatience losing him a point on the final diagram of one card. Going into the last round it was pretty much neck and neck, but despite having the higher X count, Paul was beaten by Mike by ONE POINT.
This was not the only battle, they were happening all up and down the score chart, Paul Read and Nigel Palmer duking it out for West Devon Top Shot honours, Nigel winning that one with an amazingly consistent set of scores, and other shooters had their own individual successes; Alistair Teague quietly putting in a personal best with his self prepped and tuned Anschutz 9015, Rob Meatyard also slipped in an excellent score that improved on each round.
As well as the usual tea / coffee provided, at lunch time Rob announce that there was home made carrot and coriander soup and a roll, no charge. It was excellent, thank you Rob.
So, a really outstanding days shooting, a huge amount of fun with more chatter and banter than you can throw a stick at and the final scores…. well I don’t think we need worry ourselves about that, some people or another did some shooting stuff somewhere…. oh alright, Dartmoor took the day and the championship.
But West Devon will be back again next year… fitter and stronger…. or summat!
Great Day All , Fantastic turnout and well chuffed for Mike Smith hitting his first Comp 250 , sorry i couldnt stay till the end , i reckon dodgy prawns night before didnt help – spent half the comp on the porta Throne – thats my excuse anyway – Mark