British Open all done !

After a good nights sleep at a hotel in tamworth we headed to garlands to shoot . I felt in confident mood after my shoot out last night and started very steadily with a 6 on  stand 12 which was a left to right crosser and a teal. 

Stands 13 and 14 well also with two 7s on two tricky stands . Josh was also shooting well and it was definitely beneficial and inspirational shooting with Paul Simpson on our squad. 

I dropped 3 on the simmo left to right on stand 15 foolishly missing the first pair shooting them the wrong way round. However it was the next stand 1 that really let me down . The two overhead birds . I missed 7 on there and came to the conclusion I was under leading the longer one and over lead the closer one . Fail !

I did bounce back on stand 2 with a good 6 on the simmo battues however this was a brief recovery as went on to shoot a 4,3,4 on the next three stands . What I needed was an easy stand to recover and fortunately that came on 6 with a simmo pair of crows and managed an 8.

Stand 7 was one of my favourites of the round;  a driven from the right then some nifty footwork to shoot a quartering looper/battues going over a bank and my first straight of the day . I quickly wanted to get to stand 8 now I had found some form again and was presentated with a high quartering left to right followed by a steady teal- this time a 6 missing one pair completely but also happy .

The next  2 stands were a bit more steady and shot an 8 then 6 and finally finished on stand 11 with a battue and rabbit and foolishly missed all 4 rabbits . Rabbits always seem to let me down at majors !

So I finished with an 82 /120 which I was delighted with to be honest. This time last year I shot a 74 at Hepworth and it shows how far I have come.

I only managed joint 4th with mike burnand in disabled standing however did manage to also tie with him in C Class also in joint 5th which was definitely the better achievement on the day . I was also proud of josh who shot an 87 compared to his mid 60s at Hepworth last year .

Was great seeing new and old faces and look forward to my next shoot even better was seeing Kath and jack tonight :)

Sportrap completed

So finally in bed after a busy day.

63 was the score to beat in disabled standing and after a good trip up from Suffolk i was quietly confident of shooting well despite hearing that it was a tough round .

I shot the first layout well with a 23 but it went down hill from there shooting just 12 on he next 2 layouts. Layout 2 was certainly easier than 3 however I shot my word on there. I finished with a 15 on layout 4 and came off knowing I hadn't quite done enough to secure gold but wasn't sure if I had done enough for silver. 

I had shot closer to the winning score than expected with a 62 so one off however I had got equal second . After a chat with mike burnand we agreed on a shoot off . However there would be a several hour wait . Well done to graham Evans for winning.

Some of the targets on layouts 2,3 & 4 I had never shot at especially as simmo birds and what I got very frustrated in the middle I certainly learnt something and realised what real targets were . Well done to Steve lovatt and his team.

So the shoot off eventually came and mike and I shared the 5 stands with the junior shoot off where fellow suffolk man are on have had shot into the 80s to secure a shoot off . A tremendous score.

I started awful missing my first 3 clays. Steve lovatt had made a new 5th layout for the round. It was as hard if not harder than layout 3. Anyway I steadily got into it and highlight was a tough simmo pair and the crowd roared. The feeling was immense and I would put it over any goal I had scored in a football match.

I really hadn't a clue how I had scored and equally what mike had scored however expected he might have got me by one . However to my surprise I had popper him by 1 shooting a 12 and him 11. Securing me the silver medal.

Aaron smashed his competition with a 20 compared to his oppos 13. 

And in the high gun final George beat me Faulds 20-19 .

It was a fantastic experience shooting I front of a crowd and loved it. Though hope tomorrow's sporting doesn't come to that (unless it is for the gold).

Sleep well and good luck to everyone tomorrow .

Hours to go...

So it's the last sleep before we head up to the British . Had a lovely relaxing evening with Kath at the cinema and was a giggle watching the inbetweeners followed by a Chinese buffet . 

Some good scores have been posted in both disabled categories . I'm really keen to shoot the sportrap well tomorrow and now very confident . Hopefully jack sleeps well tonight and doesn't break my sleep up to much as got to be up for 6 am to pack and prepare for the 3hr drive.

Hope to see you all there tomorrow , good luck to everyone especially josh Adrian Alec and team panda'a Phil Alan and dan .

Days training at Cambridge & whispers from the open

Josh and I shot at Cambridge gun club today with Phill Gray who was sharpening us up with final preparation before the weekend. We shot several different targets including a round of skeet and some long distance stuff which Phill said will certainly be on show the weekend . 

After nearly 2 weeks without gun in hand it was great to get back into it and hitting clays . I struggled with a quartering rabbit but eventually we ironed the problem out.

I decided to shoot with1/2 and 3/4 the whole day to make sure I was bang on the targets and the combination certainly benefitted me on the longer birds . 

Overall we shot 250 clays each and by the end of the day I was pretty tired but felt ready and confident for the open . 

We started hearing some scores via Facebook on the way home and people moaning it was a bit hard . However it is a British open and you have to expect it to be tough .

I'm going back on my targets I set earlier in the week and just going there in confidence and with an open mind to enjoy myself ..., but beat Josh .

We called into Simpsons on way home to have a nose at guns then headed back to the Shotley peninsular to rest up now until Saturday morning .

Good luck to everyone shooting and most importantly enjoy it !

Last full day at work before the British

So it's my last full day at work before I start my preparation for this weekends British open . Some shooters will be competing tomorrow however I will be heading to Cambridge Gun Club to meet up with my coach Phill Gray to get my eye back in after nearly 2 weeks without shooting.

Not being at work after tomorrow morning means I can fully focus for the weekend and get my head in a relaxed state and also spend sometime with Kath and Jack Friday before travelling up to Staffordshire from Suffolk earlybsaturday morning.

Yesterday I spoke to a few people shooting wise ; Adrian to sort out hotel arrangements , Phil to sort times for thursday and heard via text from my good shooting friend Stuart Clarke and from Graham Long who advised he sadly won't make the British .

People who have helped for the British are puff baker whose helped josh and I , joe Garnham of GBS who has sponsored my vest and hat for the year and bob cheetham if macwet who sponsor my gloves . 

Hopefully I can repay them at the weekend.

Sam

Preparing for the British open

So no shooting this weekend just gone and spent the weekend with Kath and jack .

This week is all about the British Open sportrap then sporting . I will be heading up there Saturday early morning with josh and my good friend Adrian and am not sure what to expect target wise as never shot garlands . However in recent past this has benefitted me shooting at new grounds.

Before we travel up josh and I have a warm up lesson with our coach phill Gray who has helped us this year to both improve. This will be on Thursday at Cambridge gun club where there are always some tricky targets .

I haven't shot since last Sunday at Colchester garrison so expect to start Thursday slowly . Fingers crossed I can get back in the zone as need to be on top of my game for the weekend as there will be some awesome competition against me.

Earlier in the year I shot the world sporting and put too much pressure on myself so when I shot the English in May I went there just to enjoy myself and ended up shooting my strongest score of the yeR to date with a 76.

Regardless of how easy or hard the layout is on the sporting I will be looming to shoot 75% which will be 90/120 on the sportrap anything more than 73%.

Fingers crossed the weather stays fine for the weekend