The start of the summer season began on April Fools day at Emley Moor near Wakefield. By no means a short trip but broken up with a detour to Ripley to have Richards AR5s serviced.
So arriving on Friday night at the hotel, find our room and then relax a little with a few beers.
Next morning a short trip of 5 miles to the ground, arriving about 730, sign in for the Championships then a little breakfast of Sausage bap with raw onions and a hot drink. Being there early meant Richard was in squad 1 and me in squad 2. Clean targets to see this misses on.
A cold day at the start with it getting colder as the day went on, with a gusty wind. By the time the last shooters finished at nearly 6pm we had returned back to the Hotel to warm up with food and drink.
Richard finished on a 31 and and a 25 with the top score being 37.
As both in B grade Richard's score gave him a 5th= in Grade and Andy was 20th =
Next day sunshine but after backing bags and arriving at the ground again, hot drink required and then check in for representing the region. No grades today just do your best and the top 8 scores of each region count, no handicaps or the like either.
Slightly different course this time, the 1st 10 lanes were the last 10 lanes of the day before and 10 new lanes.
Wind not as gusty but changed direction a lot more near the end of the course.
Richard was 2 down with 7 lanes to go and was feeling confident, dropping another 7 in those lanes hurt but this was where the wind was doing doing its thing.
At the same point Andy was 5 down but dropped another 5 by the end and all down to wind. Target 29 being the one of them Richard gave 1/2" outside left edge to find the pellet going straight, despite his windicator and the target string going way out right. For me hardly any string movement and a little flutter on the windicator I was another 1/2" out from what I found was Richards mark to have my pellet land nearly 5" away from the point of aim.
At the end of the day the team finished 7th on 231 points and the NEFTA region finished top on 277. Anything 30 or over was a good score and the only other regional shooter over that was Justin Wood with a 35.
2 week rest now before Andy and Richard are on a day trip this time to Blackbrook near Birmingham.
Four of us had a "warm up" competition at the club yesterday (Sunday, 9th April) to acclimatise to BFTA GP rules. Strict observance to timing, target sequence etc., was observed. Yours truly managed to shoot a target out of sequence with much ribbing from the others, something to do with age was mentioned!
After 34 targets on the west side of the course were shot, with Andy showing some exemplary form, we took a lunch break with more ribaldry while enjoying a cuppa.
Another 32 targets beckoned on the east side of the course, this time the variable wind had shown up. However, Andy continued his good form and came joint first with Barry.
A thoroughly enjoyable day with some great companions.
By all mean Wayne. Will try and do a short write up after every round.
What a great write up Andy! We could feel the pain as you took us through your agony! I could see you blinking the sweat out of your eyes before taking a deep breath to fire.... Well done guys you're doing us proud! Good luck in the further rounds, Judy & Wayne
If it's OK with you I'll copy this to a dedicated page on the site? Wayne
Nice write up Andy and well done for representing the club within the region. Good scores from yourself and Richard.