| Thruxton Airspace threatened with Ash Cloud |
| For our third day of the season, our merry troupe met at Lains, which is just outside of Thruxton Race Circuit and Airport. With spring in full swing and the weather beautiful but crisp; it was a gorgeous day to be out of the office or house. |
| After meeting in the cosy shoot lodge, our teams ventured on to the Sporting layout. Eighty clays were distributed over eight stands, providing ample scope for everyone to demonstrate their abilities on all manner of targets; simulating for example springing teal, driven pheasant and partridge, grouse, duck and floppy pigeons. |
| Each of the groups aided and abetted their fellow members to not only hit, but smash, as many targets as possible in spite of any disadvantage. For example, Pete Albon with Brenda Forbes and Cliff Sturt generously allowed Bobby Kemp to use one of their guns after his gave up for the day. |
| Sheila Cutliffe urged John Walker and Tony Wall to improve their aim through example, whilst helping improver Andy Watson. Partners in naughtiness, Peter Nash and David Mead were whooped by John Cutliffe, who narrowly missed guest top gun again. John also tutored new member Peter Richardson to shoot with a straight gun rather than his granddad's left-handed canted gun. |
| The all girl team saw tremendous team spirit; nurturing improver Sue Wilce and new member Sarah Thomas - with comments of advice such that the relevant clay could be hit like chopping carrots! Words of wisdom not needed by the hot shot boys, Robert Smith and Wayne Holland, placed 3rd and 4th highest for the guest top gun together with Steve Jefferies and John Stelling, who came his reliable 2nd place as top member gun. |
| Finally, the country gentlemen, Roger Dalton, Anton Skillman and John Whittey gallantly escorted our own Audrey Skillman and cheerleader Josephine Dalton whilst Julia and Dave Houghton received expert tuition from James. |
| Over refreshments and homemade 'bugs' life' cake, the scores were calculated giving Cliff Sturt the top member prize with 70/80 and Bobby Kemp the top guest prize with a stunning 73/80 (91%). The handicap prize deservedly went to Brenda Forbes who has improved enormously since shooting with us last time. |
| On to the googly. This was carefully selected by Howard as a long high crossing right to left. Time and again guns smashed the target leaving little to spare as the ash clay descended over the ground. |
| The googly was closely followed by the team flush, organised this time by month of birth. The January to April babies started well with only 37 misses out of 100. The April to May, Jun to August and August to mid November babies faired very similarly with 44, 46 and 45 misses respectively. Last but not least (although this is advantageous in this case) the late November to December babies smashed more clays than ever, only missing 29, and so winning the team flush prize. |
| Our day culminated in the shoot lodge for a well earned lunch whilst awaiting news as to whether the dusting of all those clays brought closure to the local airport. Fortunately, such news never came in spite of some proposing that the clays were at 30,000 feet! |