This month we would like to introduce Welsh Junior - Gareth Walters from Dyfed.  Gareth is a bit of an all rounder - liking to shoot three different disciplines - one of them is even an Olympic discipline ! 

You may have encountered Garth Walters already this year as he won the Junior High Gun in the 2009 National Skeet County final report that has previously been published - link here.

Obviously another very talented young shooter we have here in Wales and he has provided us with some very interesting responses:

Question 1. What disciplines do you shoot?
Gareth>>  I shoot National Skeet, Olympic Skeet, and Sporting.

Question 2. What type of gun are you using?
Gareth>>  I currently use a Beretta 682 Gold e 30" M/C. When i first started shooting I used a Winchester 101 XTR Sporter 28" M/C.  I then moved on to a Beretta 686 Gold e Ltd Edition 30" M/C and now shooting my current gun which is bringing out the best in me.

Question 3. Is there a specific ammunition you favour or tend to use?
Gareth>>  I use RC Cartridges for skeet 24g 9 1/2. My sporting cartridges are Express English Sporter 28g 7 1/2. Mainly because they are cheap and cartridge prices are ridiculously expensive.

Question 4.  What's your background in shooting, when did you start, where did you start?
Gareth>>  I started shooting about 3 years ago when I was 14yrs old.  I started off with a .410 and just shooting some simple going away birds with my own manual trap.  I started to shoot quite well with this and then started to use a 12 gauge which I seemed to be even better with, so my dad took me to a local sporting club (Llanfynydd) which I then joined and progressed my shooting from there on.  It was only a small club with very few members but it was so much better than just shooting going away birds all the time and by joining this club I got in to shooting the Sporting discipline.  Since then I have still been shooting in this club and now able to compete with those who have been there for years :-). I then discovered National Skeet which was introduced to me by Richard Stepney my shooting coach and he also introduced Olympic Skeet to me too.  So to this date now I am currently shooting all three disciplines.

Question 5.  List of your achievements to date?
Gareth>>  When I first started I thought I wasn't going to get anywhere, but within the first year of shooting I won the Junior Cup in the club I had joined - which was a very big boost in confidence and then in the next year I won the Junior cup in the club again and also 3rd place in the Teifi Valley League (sporting).  The following year I won the Junior cup in the club once again, 2nd in the Teifi Valley League, I won a number of Open shoots, Dyfed high gun in skeet and Welsh open junior title in skeet !  This year I have won the overall Junior high gun in the National Skeet County Final and hopefully I will win a few more towards the end of the year. 

My most memorable achievement is that I qualified to represent Wales at National Skeet and considering I had only been shooting for a few months this was quite a good achievement and this meant shooting for Wales in the Home International in England.  There is an image to show of all the trophies that I have won.

[Click picture to enlarge]

Question 6.  Most memorable shoot/performance?
Gareth>>  My most memorable shoot has to be the Welsh open because I managed to shoot a 95 my highest score to that date and took home the Open title.  Another memorable shoot being this years National Skeet County final in which I took home the overall Junior High gun with 97ex100 which equalled the high gun of the day. There is also an image of me with this cup below:

[Click picture to enlarge]

Question 7.  Who are your close shooting friends?
Gareth>>  My closest shooting friend would have to be my Dad as if it wasn't for his financial support, I would never of been able to start shooting and he has now also started shooting with me so it adds a bit of competition and rivalry between us.  Another close shooting friend would be my coach, even though I beat him most of the time - he still tells me exactly what I'm doing wrong and this really helps during a shoot.  All of the members from Llanfynydd are great to shoot with as they all have a joke as well as shooting seriously which actually helps my shooting :-s.

Question 8.  Influences, coaches or people who've helped your shooting?
Gareth>>  My Dad has been a big influence on my shooting as he has helped me throughout and has even shot with me, even if he cant hit a thing, but still does it to keep me company and helps me along when I need it.  My Shooting coach is Richard Stepney and for an OK shooter he is one good coach - it only took him a few lessons to teach me how to shoot and within those lessons I went from shooting 15ex25 to 23ex25 or more.  The important thing is that you can miss what you are doing wrong  and he tells you why and that is probably the main reason behind my good performances because I think that if I hadn't the help from him I would still be an unknown shooter. So thanks to Richard and his great coaching skills I am now a known shooter and well a much better one too.  Couldn't of done it without him.

Question 9.  Top tip for your chosen discipline?
Gareth>>  My top tip for National Skeet would be "to not miss" and to concentrate on those birds which seem easy (peg 1 and peg 7) as they are the ones which are the most easy to miss.  Experience tells me that as I have missed a number of them.  Another tip would be not to shoot too much as I have shot over a hundred cartridges in about 2hours and this did not help my shooting at all - a small amount of practice regularly is a lot more help.

Question 10.   What are your hopes for the future of the sport?
Gareth>>  In the future I hope to see this sport progress and to become more popular to the younger generation as they are the future of the sport (like me).  Maybe a little more funding in the future would be beneficial as it is very expensive at the moment and maybe even more media coverage of the sport to get it recognized by everyone and to show that a gun is not a weapon for violence but for fun and sport and a lot of enjoyment.

Thanks for your contribution this month Gareth - I very much enjoyed reading and publishing it.

With a top tip of "to not miss" on Skeet - I think this young man will be an even bigger champion in the future.  If he gets anymore trophies, I think his parents should take out some shares in a silver polish company !

Thanks again - very impressive and good luck for the future - we here at the WCTSA hope all your ambitions for the future are rewarded and achieved.

Chris Potter Memorial Shoot - National Skeet
 

May we remind Welsh skeet shooters that the memorial shoot in memory of Chris Potter will be held on the 20th September 2009 at Telpyn Shooting Ground - Amroth.  The shoot will be 100 national skeet targets and entries will run from 10:30 until 2:30.

Welsh Olympic Skeet Grand Prix - Mid Wales Shooting Centre - 1st/2nd August 2009
 

Welsh Selection Shoots/ Welsh Grand Prix

Day 1

The final 2 shoots of the OSK season took place at Mid Wales SC over the weekend of 1st and 2nd August by kind permission of the Williams family.

Shooters were greeted by rain for most of the journey to the ground, but were pleasantly surprised when the downpour stopped, coinciding incidentally, with the arrival of Del and Gareth!!!

The jury chosen, the targets set, it was all systems go for the 3 squads that had turned out for the weekend, a few with the aim of cementing their team position and a few with the hope of gaining a team place.

Setting the pace early on was veteran shooter Del Davies along with Richard Stepney, both on 46x50, followed closely by Jonathan Stepney 43, Julian Jeremy 42 and Junior Rhys Price shooting well on 40.

Davies slipped 1 behind after the next round for a 3 round score of 67, Stepney on 68 with JJ and Stepney Junior on 63. Chipping away slowly at the leaders however was our own “Chips” Jenkins with a third round total of 64.

Twp shooters were scrapping for the the last team place, Pete Baker and Rob Harry, and both finished the day on the same score.

The only perfect 25 of the day was shot by JJ on his last round, but was unfortunately not enough for him to take zero points as he did last week. This accolade went to Richard Stepney finishing the day on 91, but with Del Davies close behind on 89.

Chips and JJ finished on 88 apiece with National Skeet supremo Lloyd Morris finishing strongly with 2 24's to end on 87.

Junior Rhys Price shot a PB of 85 to make sure of his place in Northern Ireland whilst Lady Junior Natalie Davies showed gret potential in only her second qualifier with a 70.

The scores from the first day are now carried on to the second and the sum total is then calculated towards the Grand Prix winners.


Day 2

The second day welcomed the squads with some bright sunshine, at lat, and Richard Stepney took advantage by setting his stall early with a 46x50 after the first 2 rounds, also scoring his first straight in OSK competition and again the only 1 of the day in the meantime. He was closely followed by Julian Jeremy and Jonathan both on 45.

Both Lyn Davies and Rob Harry were putting in brilliant performances finishin on 84 and 82 respectively, this score gaining Rob his first cap in the Team. Well done Rob.

JJ and Stepney junior took the mantle and pulled away from the rest of the field, both finishing on a 91 for the zero points, with Stepney senior a short way back on 86.

And so to the flash final to determine the Grand Prix winner from the top 6 scores over the 2 days.

In the flash final were Julian Jeremy, Richard Stepney,Del Davies, Jonathan Stepney, “Chips” Jenkins and Lloyd Morris.

JJ was going into the final with a 2 clay advantage over a determined Stepney, a big ask, especially when he dropped his first the 2 birds out on peg 1. With nerves settled though Stepney shot 21 of the remaining 22 targets to come away with a score of 199 in total. JJ was smashing everything in sight, with pink dust filling the air above Trefeglwys, until the centre peg that is, dropping 1 or 2 birds on 4,5 and 6 after that. The final bird on 8 cost JJ a shoot off on peg 4 and the Grand Prix, handing the title of Welsh Champion to Richard Stepney. Stepney junior rounded off a good weekend with the bronze medal position.

  
[Click pictures to enlarge]

And there ends the circus tour for yet another year, and the Team now make their way to Northern Ireland with 3 new caps. Best of luck to you all.

 

Welsh Olympic Skeet Team 2009
Name	Type
Richard Stepney	Senior (Captain)
Steve Taylor	Senior
Julian Jeremy	Senior
Del Davies	Senior
Johnathon Stepney	Senior
Gareth Wrentmore	Senior
Peter Jenkins	Senior
Lyn Davies	Senior
Rob Harry	Senior (New Cap)
Tony Grove	Veteran
Rhys Price	Junior (New Cap)
Natalie Davies	Lady (New Cap)

Again, many thanks to Arthur, Rita and family for the kind welcome received over the weekend. We all look forward to seeing you next year.

Report: Richard Stepney
Pictures: David Lea
 

News of New Northern Ireland Major DTL Event
 

Charity Clay Shoot to be held in Wales
 

ACADEMI GYMREIG GWYDDORAU’R MAES

THE WELSH ACADEMY OF FIELD SCIENCE

A charitable organisation promoting the study of game and wildlife management in Wales

 SATURDAY 12th SEPTEMBER 2009

10:30am  -  4:30pm

CHARITY CLAY SHOOT

AT THE MID WALES SHOOTING CENTRE

Trefeglwys, near Llanidloes

50 BIRD SPORTING

ENTRY FEE £15

Under 16s £10

£50 top gun and other prizes to 10th place, under 16s & Ladies

10 BIRD PUDDLE SHOOT

ENTRY FEE £5

£20 prize per 10 Gun group

BEST STRAIGHT POOL SHOOT

ENTRY FEE £7

Sudden death – miss and you’re out.  Scores will not be disclosed until the end of the competition.
Unlimited pool! Unlimited birds!

 Further details from the Academy on 0780 9056152
or Mid Wales Shooting Centre on 01686 430654

 email: admin@gilydd.org.uk

 Yr holl elw i Gronfa Nawdd Academi Gymreig Gwyddorau’r Maes

All profits to the Welsh Academy of Field Science Bursary Fund

www.gilydd.org.uk