OL Clay Pigeon Shoot 2011

On the day Cambridge lost its record for the hottest 1st October recorded (29.4C was set in in 1985) in the UK, twelve OL’s and a current Leysian’s parent embarked upon a shooting marathon at Long Acres shooting school. Sam Grice, whom runs the shooting school, will be familiar to many having taught both shooting and loud brass (apparently musical!) instruments at the Leys. It was a great pleasure for all of us to spend some time with Sam reliving old memories, as well as getting some much needed tuition.

Long Acres has a good selection of traps, and we were treated to a range of different challenges from the “supposedly easier” birds coming directly towards us, to bouncing hares and rising teal.

One of the most noticeable differences between this year and previous OL shooting events was the good turnout of Granta girls, who went on to produce some very commendable scores. We also had the privilege of meeting Paul Holden whom, despite professing to not shooting in the last 50 years, was only a single clay short of our top scorer, Mark West. Four OL’s scored sufficiently highly to compete for second place, and after a final shoot out Peter Watson and Michael Fairey were declared second and third.

James Middleton (North A 82-87)