Annual Livery Clay Shooting
At 0700 hrs on a bright sunny Wednesday morning just gone, messers Freeman Thomas Rich and Junior Warden Henry Lamb pull into the carpark of the West London School of Shooting, the new home to the Inter Livery Clay Shoot, organised by the WC Environmental Cleaners under Chris Parr and the ‘seemingly never to age’ Richard Ferrand. This is an annual event in its 29th year and still being supported so well, that it’s held over two days in the middle of May each year with over 250 guns per day.
Arriving next was Middle Warden Derek Farrow at a respectable 0730hrs, followed by brand new Freeman Ismail Hussein. We were now getting hungry and looking for the breakfast tent! Off we went to explore this new haven of shooting, set in what appears to be an old quarry now long grassed over and re-wilded to appear as though in the middle of the Middlesex countryside, despite the rather insalubrious Scaffolder’s Yard next door. No sign of an ‘Admiral’ anywhere!
Breakfast arrived at 0800 on the nose with plenty of bacon rolls and just as much tea. Coffee seemed to be the issue with only two drip machines trying to refresh a growing crowd. More Constructors started to arrive as the Safety Briefing loomed ever nearer. Even those that hadn’t anticipated the M25 and M40 to be an absolute nightmare, managed to arrive before kick off.
At 0930, the 3 Constructors’ teams headed to commence their shooting from Stand 2, meaning that we would eventually complete the day at Stand 1, right next to the lunch tent! Result! We were supposed to be 3 teams of 4 but alas Carl Bak’s work got in the way at the last minute and despite a valiant attempt to recruit another gun to the team, we had to make do with a ‘rotating Carl Bak’ throughout the competition, at least until Constructors C got fed up of waiting for us all and made an early bid for the lunch tent by striding on ahead of teams A & B! Rude!
Team A was made up of (left to right)
Renter Warden Tim Fitch, Court Assistant Juna Margariti and Middle Warden Derek Farrow. The missing member being Carl Bak.
Team B was (left to right)
Junior Warden Henry Lamb, Freeman Thomas Rich, Liveryman Matthew Bines, and brand new Freeman Ismail Hussein.
Team C was our mixed team, from a Livery & Guests point of view, as non livery teams cannot win anything officially. (Left to right again)
Guest Lewis Wade and his host Freeman James Sizer, and Guest James Bush and his host David Vizard, standing in for Freeman Stephen Cornish.
Group Photo!
So I suppose you’re after the scores, remembering of course that it’s all about the taking part, well it is with my score (I’ve only been shooting since 1981)!
The Top team score being 341, Team C came in with a very reasonable 248, heading up the Constructors Leader board, followed closely by Constructors B on 232 and making an unsuccessful bid for the wooden spoon, Constructors A on 197. So all things considered a close run thing and respectable scores!!
The individual scores seem to be out of 80, with first place going to a score of 76. The Constructors looked like this:
- James Sizer joint 17th place with 56
- Lewis Wade joint 22nd place with 53
- David Vizard joint 23rd place with 52
- Matthew Bines joint 25th with 50
- Thomas Rich joint 36th with 39
- Derek Farrow joint 39th with 36
- Henry Lamb joint 41st with 34
- Tim Fitch & Ismail Hussein joint 42nd with 33
- James Bush joint 50th with 25
- Juna Margariti joint 53rd with 22
With 250 guns, you’ll appreciate that almost everyone comes joint with at least another, if not a dozen others!
In all our defences, it was a flippin’ challenging course! Anyway, a great day was had with our pedometers notching up a healthy 8500 steps all reversed by an ample choice and quantity of food upon completion of the course.
Plenty of room for improvement next year! The dates for which have just been promoted as 15 & 16 May 2024. The Flyer will come out in October.
