The region’s first two shoulder to shoulder BR finals were held at Dartmoor, but following the third, held last year at East Devon, it became clear that the event had outgrown the capacity of our individual club premises. We therefore decided that an alternative venue was essential. The Budleigh Farm shooting centre at Moretonhampstead was chosen, as it provided ideal facilities, and its central location is within a reasonable travelling distance for most. The south range at Budleigh can easily accommodate 24 benches, but we settled on 6, as this would ensure that the 24 competitors could comfortably shoot their three cards over several hours. This proved to be the right decision as the match started at 9.30 and concluded at 15.00.On arrival the six qualifiers from each of the four participating clubs were greeted with beautifully calm conditions, autumnal leaves from the trees were gently falling straight down, and high scores were widely and confidently predicted.Unfortunately, these benign and barely detectable breezes didn’t last long. The first couple of details produced the best overall scores, but thereafter the wind strengthened considerably. For 80% of the match, it blew from left to right – constantly changing in strength, while for the rest of the time it switched, regularly and abruptly, becoming a right to left variety. If you failed to notice these changes you paid a heavy price. None of this seemed to bother Tom Jacobs, he produced three extremely consistent cards, and a superb overall score of 739:23x, to win the title of ‘2025 SWEFTA Benchrest Champion’. As Tom is also the current UK airgun benchrest champion this shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise!Tom absolutely loves to shoot in difficult windy conditions – he has learned that the key to successful outdoor BR shooting is in continually observing your flags and correctly interpreting the information they are providing. As well as having his name engraved onto the SWEFTA BR perpetual Trophy, and retaining it for the coming year, Tom was awarded a £50 voucher – generously donated by Crackshot. A particularly satisfying outcome of today’s match was that the first four places were gained by a member of each of the four participating clubs. Dartmoor managed to retain the Team Trophy – this is awarded for the highest aggregate score from all six representatives of each club. The trophies were presented by BRUK president Adrian Hasell who had joined us as an observer. He was very complimentary about the smooth running and efficient organisation of our event – praise indeed from a man who competes regularly at prestigious benchrest matches – both in the UK and abroad.Today’s event couldn’t have taken place without help from those who weren’t actually competing. Huge thanks to Simon Houseman for organising the allocation of benches and shoot times etc, together with scoring all 72 cards and recording the results.Thanks also to Mike Foster for acting as our chief range officer and target changer. He was ably assisted by Mike Smith who filled in with various administrative duties in between shooting his own cards. Finally, thanks to Rob Meatyard who undertook most of the preparatory work involved in organising today’s event. Everyone agreed that the day was a great success – challenging, frustrating, and enjoyable, in equal measure. The venue proved ideal, with ample car parking, proper toilets, and beautiful surroundings. A couple of our members originally found their way to the Budleigh Salterton shooting club – some 35 miles away Nr Exmouth. But happily, they eventually managed to get to the correct location in time for the start. We are already planning to secure a date at Budleigh Farm for the 2026 final.
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