This years ICTSC English Skeet Home International was hosted by Route Gun Club, Ballymoney on 22nd&23rd August.
A big thankyou to the club for organising such a well-run event. The targets were perfect, the weather was great, not too hot, very little wind and no rain.
The team members began arriving on Wednesday with some of them shooting the Carnview Cup Open, the rest of the team arrived on Thursday for a day of practice.
Although we weren’t all staying in the same hotel the team got together for the Captain’s dinner at the Adair Arms in Ballymena. Thank you to Paul Pratt (Team manager) for organising this amongst other things. This year’s Captain was David Thomas who gave a rousing speech and presented the two new caps, Shayne Perry and David Hodge with their ties and badges and all of us with a personalised T-Shirt (Thank you Davey).
The competition started at 9am on the Friday and the Welsh team was in fine form. There weren’t any 100 straights by the end of the day but there were 5×99’s (including me) with everything to play for on the Saturday. Everyone was well behaved and only had two Guiness shandy’s before getting to bed before 10pm. 😎
Saturday morning presented us with another good day for shooting and Dewi Rowlands put in an impressive 50 straight to win Welsh Senior High Gun (145/150) followed closely by Nigel Hodson with 144/150 for runner up. Sarah Love took ladies high gun having shot her first 25 straight at an international. Robert Trow was Welsh Veteran High Gun 148/150(finally).
David Tavernor took Welsh Super Vet High Gun with 144/150 and Charles Cunliffe had the Welsh Junior High Gun Trophy. Well done everyone!
Wales Super Vets made up of David Tavernor, Lloyd Morris and Peter Gray took the HCIT Super Vets runners up cup.
Wales Vets of made up of David Thomas, Mark Davies and Robert Trow took the HCIT Veterans Cup after Davey beat Ged Smith of Northern Ireland in a pairs on 4 shoot off.
Well Done all.
The last squad out on Saturday had one shooter in the Welsh team that could match the overall high gun of 149/150 set by England’s Stuart Smith but I missed the return bird on stand 4 (my nemesis). This left me on 148/150 and tied with Daniel Napier from Scotland who I beat in a shoot off on stand 4 after we’d both put in a further straight 25 each.
One more thank you to David Francis for stepping in at the last minute to complete the senior team.
All teams gathered on Saturday evening at the Dunsilly Hotel for the photos and an impressive banquet and one of the quickest presentations I’ve ever attended.
Thanks to everyone who made the effort to shoot the qualifiers this year and well done to everyone who made the team, I hope you’ll all try again next year.
TEAM AWARDS
Runners Up Veteran Team
Runners Up Super Veteran Team
Dragon Cup (Wales v Scotland)
WALES HIGH GUN AWARDS
Overall HG – Robert Trow 148
Senior HG – Dewi Rowlands 145
Senior Runner Up HG – Nigel Hodson 144
Junior HG – Charles Cunliffe 125
Ladies HG – Sarah Love 134
Veteran HG – Robert Trow 148
Super Veteran HG – David Tavernor 144
OVERALL HCIT HIGH GUN AWARDS
Overall HG Runner Up-Robert Trow 148
Overall Veteran HG-Robert Trow 148
OVERALL TEAM STANDINGS SENIORS
England 736
Scotland 722
Nothern Ireland 721
Ireland 714
Wales 714
Jersey 713
JUNIORS
England 289
Northern Ireland 287
Ireland 271
Scotland 259
Wales 125
LADIES
England 288
Jersey 282
Northern Ireland 271
Ireland 261
Wales 250
Scotland 143
VETERANS
England 289
Wales 286
Northern Ireland 286
Scotland 275
Ireland 275
Jersey 258
SUPER VETERANS
England 291
Wales 282
Jersey 276
Northern Ireland 275
Scotland 268
Ireland 248