On Saturday 10th of August Route Gun Club, Ballymoney Northern Ireland hosted the Olympic Skeet Home International. The ground was excellent and our hosts made us very welcome. The weather was variable with some rain and wind for practice but the competition day we had sun and wind that made the targets quite challenging. All the scores were impacted but the Welsh shooters rose to the challenge and all dug deep and performed well.
Our captain this year was Deri Lewis and he did a great job keeping the team motivated – thanks Deri for all your hard work before and during the competition. The Captain’s dinner went very well and we even celebrated Richie Cann’s Birthday. This year we welcomed two new caps to the team, Hywel Jones & Richie Cann who both wore the Welsh skeet vest with pride – great to have you guys with us. England once again had several GB shooters in their team so competition was very strong but our ladies team of Georgie Shephard and Jo Hockly Andrews did very well taking the runner up badge for the event. This year we also had a shoot off for the Welsh runner up “Cross Engineering trophy” between Tony Cox and Richie Cann – it took several pairs to separate them with Tony breaking the vital clay to win the trophy. One person who will remember the weekend long into the future is Wyndham Howells. His girlfriend Georgia said “yes ! “- congratulations to you both – and he was also Welsh high gun by one target so winning the highly covetted Cast Dragon trophy.
The competition concluded with the Team Photos, Banquet and Presentations at the marine hotel in Ballycastle – an excellent venue, a very pleasant presentation of an Irish beef dinner and an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new friends.
