Victoria Hall in Broseley hosted the combination shoot again this year where four teams representing five local leagues took part in Air Rifle shooting over two disciplines.
The twelve competitors for each squad shot 15 shots on a Bell Target at a distance of Six Yards followed by another 15 on Paper Targets at the same distance, all with air rifles using diopter sights.
Eight targets for Bell and eight for Paper were used simultaneously and shooters switched after their allotted number of shots on each type. A clean bullseye on the Bell Target represents a .177 (4.5mm) pellet going through a hole just over 9.5mm in diameter at a range of just short of 5.5m. If the pellet hits the metal target around the hole it leaves a mark in the permanently wet paint which is brushed over before the next shot. If the shooter gets it straight into the hole without swaying and twitching, no easy feat, they’re rewarded with a bell ringing, this would score a 5.1. Moving outwards from the clean bull you can get a 5, wider still nets you a 4 and wandering further lands you with a 3. There was only one shot over the whole event that didn’t score a point as the shooter, no names, released the shot before he was completely ready and hit the very top of the steel roundel in the illuminated box.
Montgomeryshire League have a habit of doing really well in these competitions and nothing changed for this year, with each of their team members pulling a fine shoot out of the bag. The highest total across the two disciplines for the Monty squad was Richard Morgan who scored 143 out of 150 on the paper targets and a superb 75.7 on the bell target out of a maximum of 76.5.
The paper targets show 5 small black circles, each holding scoring lines from 10 points down to 1. To score a 10 you need to hit the dot in the centre which is 1mm in diameter, again not an easy task for anyone.
Bridgnorth fielded some excellent shooters with Ian Curtis holding himself to high standards to carefully feed his shots into the right places on the targets. Curtis scored a 75.9 on the bell target and a 143 on the paper to help his team. Peter Jones also shot well to finish with a 138 on paper and a 71.4 on bell. There were plenty of ringing noises from the Bridgnorth squads designated targets.
Due to a diminished number of shooters from each league, Wenlock and Wrekin leagues joined forces for the purposes of this event. They’re normally hot on each other’s heels and ultra-competitive so it was interesting to watch them collaborate and put any interleague beef behind them. The top two shooters for this team were Donna Harris and Helen Alderson. The former scoring a barnstorming 143 on paper targets and equally impressive 74.4 on the bell. Helen shot the 15 paper targets to finish with a 143 and a 71.6 on the bell target. Some serious shooting that would prove to be worthy of a couple of awards.
Normally near the bottom of the pack, Shrewsbury did well with representatives from its ten league teams. Gaz Griffiths scored an impressive 73.6 on the noisy bell target and a huge 141 on the paper to finish as Shrewsbury’s top shooter. Neil Booth from the Shrewsbury league also shot well and surprised himself with a 136 on the paper targets and a 70.3 on the bell. Booth commented ” I thought I’d scored at least 20 points less than that on the paper, I’m shocked and happy. Now I need to keep this form in the domestic league”
Alan Baker, organiser of the event, started the presentations with some kind words for all participants and helpers before handing out the trophies.
The Benny Foster Memorial Cup was won by Montgomery with a score of 843 from 900 from a pre-selected six competitors, chosen before shooting started. The amalgamated Wenlock/Wrekin team were the runners up with 809 points.
Shooting for the Mini Olympics trophy entails a pre-shoot selection of eight shooters from each team and Montgomery took the title again with a score of 1115 from 1200, Bridgnorth came close runner up with a 1074.
The Interleague trophy is presented by Ron Smallwood to the team whose top eight shooters amassed the highest aggregated score. With a couple of changes from the pre-selected Mini Olympics team the Montgomery team were able to 1119 from the 1200 and Wrekin/Wenlock followed closely with a 1088.
The final team award , the Shropshire Star trophy, was presented to Martin Pearce, the captain of the Montgomery squad whose team had won by shooting the best eight pre-selected scores on the Bell target. Monty team were victorious by scoring a 589.1 from a possible of 612 and Bridgnorth being next in line with a 561.6 as runners up.
Individual shooting was also recognised with categories for Individual, Ladies, Junior and Seniors as well as Individual Combination score.
Topping the chart on the Paper target was Wenlock/Wrekin’s Donna Harris with her 143 from 150 available, this was close as Richard Morgan, Paul Gwilliam and Ian Curtis also scored 143 but Donna took the title on count-back. Count back is looking at the last shot, seeing who got the best score and then moving backwards with the person having better shots taking the title.
Ringing the bell most times was Bridgnorth’s own captain Ian Curtis who managed to get nine of his shots clean through the small hole in the target to finish with a 75.9 from 76.5 available. Richard Morgan was runner up here too with a very close 75.7, with seven of his shots not leaving any trace on the target, save for a loud ringing noise.
In the senior category, for shooters over 60 years of age, Donna Harris took the paper with Helen Alderson one point behind on 142. On the Bell though, Alan Baker scored a 74.7 to take the win from Donna Harris with her 74.4.
In what appears to be a pattern, the Ladies title was won by Donna Harris on both Paper and Bell with Helen, again, runner up on the paper and Jane Thomas from the Montgomery league as runner up on the Bell with a very good 73.8 scored.
There was some good representation from the youth side of the shooting fraternity too and Alan Baker commented “it’s the shooters that make the events, especially when shooting is at a high standard and we see youngsters coming in” The paper and Bell targets Junior trophies were presented to a well deserving Joe Hilditch from the Montgomery team with a 137 and 74 respectively. Runners up on paper were Todd Cooper (119) and Beth Sheffield (115) and the second and third spots on Bell target wen to the same shooters but reversed, Beth on 69.4 and Todd on 63.1. Great shooting and a future of marksmanship awaits them in the next few years.
The most hotly contested prize on the day for the individuals is always the Combination Score where Bell and Paper are combined to form a total. Ian Curtis from the Bridgnorth team was worthy winner with a cracking 218.9 from a maximum available of 226.5. Ian was very closely followed up by Monty’s Richard Morgan who was .2 off Ian’s total with his 218.7. Awesome shooting from the pair of them and everyone involved in taking part and volunteering time to help set up and break down the targets and raffle.
The shooters will now be practising their craft in their own leagues for the next four weeks in the lead up to the Bell Target Championships which also take place in Broseley, mid-November. After that it’ll be concentrating on the league competition and those all-important trophies and plaudits for being at the top of the league when the matches end in the early summer of 2018.
Report by: Bob Griffiths
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