COUNTIES SPORTING PAGE

2010 Welsh County Sporting Final

The 2010 Welsh Sporting County Final was held at
Griffin Lloyd Shooting Ground on April 18th 2010

This years Sporting Inter Counties Final was one of the largest attended for quite a few years, with 7 counties all battling it out at Griffin Lloyd Shooting Ground.  With over a 100 shooters converging on the ground, many decided to get out early and make the most of the perfect weather.  Even the farthest county shooters were there early!

Eyes were on Julian Morris from Powys to see whether he could repeat his amazing Skeet performance 2 weeks earlier and take High Gun again or even the Captains Cup. With four 10's and four 9's, things were looking good for him until he encountered stand 6, the pair of driven, where his score slipped to just a mere 7! But even that didn't deter Julian and although he just missed out on the Senior High Gun, he did take home some more silverware with the Captains Cup when he finished on 91.

Julian's team mates were also putting together some tremendous scores from around the ground with Pete Humphreys and Dorian Evans putting some 9's and 10's on their cards.  But Pete just pulled ahead of Dorian, particularly on stand 8, and finished two clays ahead of him with a magnificent 95 to take Senior High Gun.

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No excuse of volcanic dust in Dorian's eyes was heard especially when his score of 93 helped give Powys the County Cup taking it away from Dyfed this year.  Look out Powys though, the Dyfed boys wont let that rest!

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And this year saw more competition in the form of Gwent putting in a fine team of shooters.  John Kendall put in a great score of 85 closely followed by team mate Dan Morgan with an 82, which helped give Gwent the runners- up position.

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The Veterans High Gun cup was taken back to Dyfed by Llew David with an impressive score of 83, ten targets clear of the other Vets and most of the Senior shooters! Llew's been having a fantastic month having taken the Veterans High Gun in the Skeet two weeks previous! With a score like that, it was going to make it easier for Dyfed's Veteran Team to re-take the Team shield from last years winners, Gwent, and a partnership with Chris Hassett did just that with Chris's respectable 72.

 
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A fresh face in the Ladies section was Amanda Gallagher who was shooting her first county Final for Gwent and a good impression she made amongst the Ladies section. Unfortunately, her score of 71 wasn't quite enough for her to take the ladies High Gun cup. That, this year, went to Nicky Evans who just piped her with a 73. Well done Nicky!

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Nicky also went on with Linda Grant and together they took the Ladies Team shield for Mid Glamorgan.

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Junior Tom Ball did take some silverware back home to Gwent by winning the Junior High Gun with a tremendous score of 84, a score that a lot of shooters on the day would have been happy with. Just stand 7 gave him a few hiccups but he battled on through to take the title. More trophies went back with Tom as his partnership with Gwent's other junior Dan Reed proved a winning formulae for them to take the Junior Team shield back from whence it came, Gwent.

 
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Young Sion Evans from Gwynedd escaped a shoot-off with the Dyfed's Colt Ben Llewellin after both of them finished on a 59.  Ben, being a bit of an sportsman, had an important rugby match to compete in back home and although he was briefed what could happen if he left the ground early, felt that he couldn't let his rugby chums down and took the risk.  That meant that young Sion took the Colts trophy back home with him to Gwynedd again.  Although Bens early trip home wasn't completely wasted as his team won their match to get them into the final and Ben did score a try!

 
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Last, but certainly not least, was the Colts Team shield, a new one this year. And new names to go on it from Gwent were Sam Ralph and Gareth Meredith, both new caps. Hopefully they will be names to look out for in the future and we look forward to watching their progress in this sport.

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Unfortunately, before the trophy presentations could commence there was a saddened moment when a minutes silence was asked for by the Chairman to remember a fellow shooter, Mervyn Bridgman, who passed away earlier that week and was due to shoot for Mid Glamorgan that day. Our thoughts are with his family.

Many thanks are given to JK, Joyce and all their refs, ground staff and caterers for a superb days shooting.  Everything went without a hitch...apart from West Glamorgan's team who I think disappeared for a picnic at the end and got back to the clubhouse late and held up the trophy presentations!!

   
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Results Summary:

Type	Result
Winning County	Powys 767
Runners Up	Gwent 664
3rd Place	Dyfed 651
4th Place	Mid Glamorgan 649
5th Place	Clwyd 602
6th Place	Gwynedd 571
7th Place	West Glamorgan 526
Overall High Gun	Pete Humphreys - Powys - 95
Captains High Gun	Julian Morris - Powys - 91
Ladies High Gun	Nicky Evans - Mid Glamorgan - 73
Veterans High Gun	Llew David - Dyfed - 83
Junior High Gun	Tom Ball - Gwent - 84
Colt High Gun	Sion Evans - Gwynedd - 59
Ladies Team	Nicky Evans & Linda Grant - Mid Glamorgan - 141
Veterans Team	Llew Davis & Chris Hassett - Dyfed - 155
Junior Team	Tom Ball & Dan Reed - Gwent - 157
Colts Team	Sam Ralph & Gareth Meredith - Gwent - 91

Credits:  

Many thanks finally go to Angie Goodman for all the hard work in putting together another fine counties final and for the production of this report - you are a credit to the WCTSA.

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County Selection Dates

 All 2010 Sporting selection shoots are over.

<Please follow this link for current/future county selection fixture dates>