Hampshire Championships.

We have a new venue this year for several of the Hampshire Championships, Owls Lodge at Barton Stacey set 5 miles Winchester side of Andover on the A303. Richard and Tanya Faulds have been working hard to get this new venue on the map and I’m sure we will all help in supporting this New Hampshire ground. The Championships at Owls Lodge will be held on Saturdays which we hope will work in well with members plans, the Championships awarded to Owls Lodge are as follows,

Sat 3^rd April Universal Trap

Sat 17^th April Olympic Trap.

Sat 1^st May Olympic Skeet.

Sat 5^th June Double Rise.

Sat 19^th June Double Trap.

Owls Lodge will also be hosting 50 target re-entry Open Sporting events on Saturdays the 3^rd and 17^th April, May 1^st, June 5^th, June 19^th, Aug 21^st and Sept 25^th.

To help our juniors, Richard and the Hampshire CPSA management team have got together and will be rewarding the eight or so juniors with a day out at Owls lodge where they will receive tuition from Richard and his team, 125 targets over several disciplines which we believe will be a great boost for their shooting ability. This was only possible with the huge support from Bell Mirosystems of Portsmouth, many thanks again to Alister Bell who’s not bad at target shooting either, Alister his son and several of his team had a great day at Owls Lodge towards the end of last year.

To have a good look at Owls Lodge check out their web site at OWLS LODGE SHOOTING SCHOOL

Or phone them on 07734-200280 open Wed and Fridays for practice/tuition in several disciplines.

I have been a few times now and say it’s a bit like Southern Counties with a big grassed earth bank as a back drop for the trap disciplines, Skeet layouts and Sport Trap layouts. The club house is big, modern and can accommodate a lot of visitors etc. Prices are really good for practice sections and no prob with Plas-wad’s either.

The following Hampshire Championship shoots are at Fareham CTC Titchfield Lane on the following Sundays.

28^th March 100 All Round.

30^th May 100 DTL

13^th June 100 ABT.

25^th July 100 English Skeet.

5^th Sept 10 pair Springing Teal.

The Sporting this year will be at Wylye Valley on the 9^th of May and the Fitasc on 3^rd of October.

If there is any disciplines not shown and to make sure the dates have not changed please either go to the Hampshire web site www.hampshirecpsa.org.uk e-mail me on gordge205@btinternet.com or phone me on 07860-700459 as the dates posted were correct at the time I sent in this report on the 28^th February but shoots dates do sometimes change.

This year to qualify for the I/C teams the following minimum cut off percentages will be applied on the disciplines, DTL 88.7, S/B 84.8, DR 74.2, Skeet 89.4, Sporting 67.8, Sport trap 72.7, ABT 86.4, All-round 76, Fitasc 75.5. All other disciplines can be found on the CPSA web site under classifications, B class averages which are the ones being used as the qualifying are cut off averages.

So in essence if you can score more than 67.8 ex 100 in Sporting you’re in with a chance of making a team a slim chance but a chance.

Oh my, what a bad start to 2010 terrible news that Bruce Faulds was diagnosed with a terrible illness just before Christmas and then so shortly after Bruce passed away. Bruce Faulds had played an enormous part in the support and encouragement of not only Richards’s achievements but the achievements of many juniors in the passed. Bruce had been very instrumental in the setting up of the new training ground with Richard, Owls Lodge shooting School at Barton Stacey the sole purpose of which is to train juniors and seniors to shoot better in lots of disciplines a legacy that Bruce has left us, he might not be here in body but his memories will always be with us.
Our heart felt sympathy from every body goes out to Richard, Tanya, Charlie and family.

Just as we were coming to terms with Bruce Faulds passing away the shocking news that rocked every clay target shooting member in the country that A J (smoker) Smith had tragically passed away. I used to watch in amazement at AJ’s shooting skills, as a lad of 18 I used to score for a group of extremely talented shooters, there would be A J, Jonathon Smith, Dexter Hooker, John Oldfield, Malcolm Lambert to name a few, travelling to three or four club’s every weekend taking all the top prises. On many occasions I was lucky to be given tips and lessons by A J and over the years like many others in Hampshire watch his talent grow with shear admiration. Winning a mountain of top competitions here and abroad when A J turned up at a shoot you knew who the High Gun would go to, for quite some time he’s been living in the USA and shooting the American circuit with Doug Vine who I know is devastated by the loss of such a friend and great shooting talent.
It’s a damned shame that he didn’t let his mates around him share his troubles as I’m sure he would still be with us today.

Hampshire AGM.

The annual Hants AGM was held recently at Fareham CTC club house but it would appear that 1,318 members forgot it was on, yeah right. We fed a small village with the food that was left over such a shame that only a small group turned up and there wasn’t any snow to blame either. Well the good news is that Dave Bennett has retained the Chairman’s position Atul Vijay is the Vice Chair and Brian Coupe is Treasurer and I Andy Gordge the secretary, "don’t ask I was their, it just happened" most of the team managers are the same. The really good news is that Alister Bell of Bell Microsystems has decided to support the Hampshire shoot teams again this year. So if you didn’t get one of those extremely sort after shooting vests on your back then start training now to get a place in a Hampshire team. At the meeting the Hampshire management team where asked to introduce a new Hampshire Championship title that is the discipline of "Helice" it was agreed that if there are enough Hampshire entries this would be recognised as a championship. The selection method of teams will be revised at our first meeting; the members qualifying for such teams will find it quite hard this year, the qualifying method and out come of the meeting will be posted on the Hants web site www.hampshirecpsa.org.uk so keep checking and pass any info to those old dinosaurs that aren’t able to access the web. Please note the Hampshire report on the web site is an un-cut submission due to unlimited space so do have a good read if able.
I will also do my best to put any news and decisions in this section of the magazine, please let me know of any news etc that might be of interest, preferably good news as I have had enough bad news for this year. So send any info to me at, gordge205@btinternet.com or phone 07860-700459