COUNTIES DTL PAGE

2008 DTL County Final - Mid Wales Shooting Centre - October 5th 2008

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Introduction

This years Inter-Counties DTL Final took place again at Mid Wales Shooting Centre on the 5th October 2008.  The forecast predicted a combination of high winds, a cold spell and considerable rain - which didn't make conditions look good for the coming weekend.

On the morning of the shoot the weather had caused havoc with the travelling shooters - parts of Wales and Shropshire (which is the gateway to Mid Wales for some shooters) had turned into one big boating lake as a result of heavy rain overnight.  It was apparent at the ground that some squads were going to be late because of diversions, but luckily at the ground it was all clear of water and operational as usual.
Here are a few pictures of the floods taken on the journey home in the evening to give an idea of the extent of the problem:

    

Once at the Mid Wales shooting ground a dull damp start greeted many, but within an hour a sudden change in conditions took place -  it became a glorious crisp morning with bright sunshine and the sunshine was to remain throughout the day.  It was clear Angie Goodman had got to Mid Wales early to do a weather dance for this fine weather and we were all set for another cracking county final !

The Shoot

6 counties were present this year, however Mid Glamorgan only took their ladies team of Ann Butler and Gail Morgan for their county.

The first squads went out, with varying results coming back on the board.   The bright conditions suited some, but also bothered others.

The 50 bird stage gave a good idea how each of the counties were performing.  Even at this stage a few individual scores were causing raised eyebrows - Clwyd's captain - Tony Jones had posted a 25/75 and a 25/74, leaving him just one point down at the 50 mark.  Hot on his heels were Clwyd's Tom Devaney who was two points down at the 50 stage after posting a 25/75 and a 25/73.  Also two points down was one of our top international juniors - Gwent's Tom Costin who had posted two very consistent 25/74's.  On the heels of Tom Costin was another of our top international junior team members - Barry Griffiths (Powys) who was just 3 points down at the 50 stage after shooting a 25/73 and a 25/74.  These were just a handful of the top scores, but showed there was some top class scoring going on !

From the team point of view a good yardstick was to have a look at the amount of "red" on the board i.e. the amount of 25's posted.  At the 50 mark defending senior 2007 DTL county champions "Clwyd seniors" had posted eight 25's, Gwent (2007 runners up) had posted seven 25's and Dyfed had posted four 25's.  Was it going to be another battle between Clwyd and Gwent for 1st or 2nd, or was a surprise in store from one of the other counties - time would tell.

Also at the 50 stage, the two Powys Juniors were leading Gwent with a combined score of 97/286 over Gwent's 92/265.

At the 50 stage the ladies in front were the Glamorgan team on a combined score of 93/278, close behind were Clwyd ladies team on 95/276.  This was very close and although the Clwyd team had more first barrel kills, they still trailed on overall points.

Last but certainly not least - how were the veterans fairing at the 50 stage ?  Again this was a very close run thing - Gwent lead the way on a combined score of 96/285 and close behind were Clwyd on 96/283.

So onto the last 50 and how would things change ?

The flooding was to add an unexpected twist to the days events.  Due to a few squads arriving late, the suspense of who had won the various titles was drawn out as we waited for the late arrivals to finish.  This particularly affected the battle between the Gwent and Clwyd seniors for the overall team county championship as one of the last squads to come in were Clwyd.  People gathered by the score board and the calculations began amongst the teams.  Arthur Williams and Angie Goodman browsed over the final scores before announcing the winners and the room was packed with people waiting to hear who had actually won:

   

Individual Results

Although Clwyd's captain Tony Jones (A.G.) was high gun at the half way stage, it was to be Clwyd's Tom Devaney who would be crowned the 2008 overall Welsh Individual Counties Champion after an exceptional last two rounds where he posted two perfect 25/75 lines, Tony Jones was runner-up with 99/295.  Congratulations Tom and excellent shooting.  Tom is pictured below in a few photographs - on one of the pictures Tom receives a shield from Peter Jones - Clwyd team manager for the highest scoring Clwyd shooter and on another picture he receives the Browning Cup for overall high gun from Brian Davies.

   

      

 

In the battle for the ladies high gun it was taken by top Welsh international Ann Butler (A.E.) for Mid Glamorgan with a very impressive 96/285 which was 3 points clear of runner-up Cas Trehearne (Clwyd).  Ann Butler is pictured below receiving her trophy from Angie Goodman, excellent shooting Ann !

In the veterans, it was another successful Welsh international taking the honours - Bill James the Gwent captain was to take the veterans high gun with 97/287 and was two points clear of Clwyd runner-up Eric Davies who posted a 97/285. Well done Bill !  Bill is pictured below receiving the cup:

At the half way stage it was two of our top Welsh international juniors battling it out for junior high gun - Barry Griffiths (Powys) and Tom Costin (Gwent).  Both were within a single point of each other.  At the 100 stage it was Barry Griffiths who was to take the junior high gun title with an excellent 99/292 which was actually 3rd in the overall competition.  Tom Costin was junior runner-up with another excellent score of 98/290, which was 5th in the overall competition.  Congratulations both and watch out seniors, they will be after one of your places very soon !  Barry Griffiths is shown below receiving the junior high gun shield and also the high gun shield for Gwent.

 

Tom Costin from Gwent was not going home empty handed either with such an impressive score.  He is shown below receiving the Gwent overall high gun trophy from Bill James:

 

Finally who would win the captains cup this year ?  This year the captains cup went to Dave Ricketts (Powys) who shot 97/291 and was actually 4th in the overall shoot and is shown below:

 

 

Team Results

At the half way stage the fight for the overall senior counties team title was very close between Clwyd and Gwent, but we all know this can change over the last 50 clays.  Unfortunately for the other teams however, it was Gwent and Clwyd who were the final two in contention for the title as the final scores were posted. 

When Arthur announced the winners it was Clwyd who were crowned champions for 2008 for the second year running with an overall score of 2589 which had opened the gap to a 48 point lead in the second half over their nearest rivals Gwent.  Gwent were runners-up with a team score of 2541.

The pictures below show Clwyd team manager Peter Jones and team captain Tony Jones with the overall seniors county champions shield.  The remaining photo's show the full Clwyd team with the trophy and a team photo on the shooting ground.

 

  

Senior team runners up "Gwent" were presented with the runners up shield, which was presented to Bill James:

 

Onto the ladies team battle which was very close in the first two rounds, with Clwyd trailing to Mid Glamorgan by a couple of points.  Mid Glamorgan had retained this title for the last 4 years running and Ann Butler had already been crowned ladies county champion for 2008, so it looked as if the team trophy might be heading back to Glamorgan again.  When all the totals were added up - it was Clwyd's new partnership of Cas Trehearne and Donna Lea who had taken the lead over Glamorgan in the last two rounds to take the ladies team title for 2008.  The scores for the Clwyd ladies were a combined score of 562 and for the runners-up (Mid Glamorgan) their score was 551.  The Clwyd ladies are shown below:

    

Clwyd never sent a full junior team, but Gwent, Powys and Gwynedd all sent strong teams and it was very close at the half way point - any of them could have won. 

Coming out on top to take this years Welsh DTL counties junior team champions title was Powys with a very respectable combined score of 562.  Runners-up were Gwent with a combined score 526.  Barry Griffiths was again to step up to the front to collect another trophy on behalf of himself and Rhys Jones.  Barry - you had better get mum to get some more silver polish with all those trophies and cups!

 

 

On to the Veterans team title - it was close at the half way mark between Gwent and Clwyd with the other teams on their tails as well.  At the end of the 4 rounds it was Gwent who won the veterans team title for 2008 and once again Bill James collected "another" trophy on behalf of himself and his partner Phil Van-Male.  Bill was getting used to the camera by this point judging by all the trophies he was winning !

 

 

The results summary follow in the next section.

Results Summary

 

Position	Result
Senior Team Champions	Clwyd   2589
Seniors Runner-Up	Gwent  2541
Seniors Third	Powys  2469
Seniors Fourth	Dyfed  2455
Seniors Fifth	Gwynedd  2417
Ladies Team Champions	D.E. Lea & C. Trehearne (Clwyd)
Veterans Team Champions	W.A. James & P.V. Van-Male (Gwent)
Juniors Team Champions	B.W. Griffiths & R.T.Jones (Powys)
Senior High Gun	T. Devaney   100/298  (Clwyd)
Captains Cup	D.G. Ricketts 97/291 (Powys)
Ladies High Gun	Ann Butler  96/285 (Mid Glam)
Veterans High Gun	W.A. James  97/287 (Gwent)
Junior High Gun	B.W. Griffiths  99/292 (Powys)
Clwyd High Gun Shield	T. Devaney 100/298
Gwent High Gun Shield	T. Costin 98/290
Powys High Gun Shield	B.W. Griffiths 99/292

 

Report and photo's by - David Lea (webmaster).
Statistics by - Angie Goodman & Brian Davies.

 

Download

The full scores by county are available to download here in "rtf" format:

DTL Counties Final 2008 Score Summary by county