British Opens (Sporting and Sportrap) at Fauxdegla - 30/8 to 2/9

[EdSolomons]

You sure snapped some handsome *******s there Matt.....

 

[tommo]

theres no photos of me !

 

[ExSCA]

You sure snapped some handsome *******s there Matt.....

I have a couple more decent pics of you Ed, in the shootoff and on the last few stands... I'll send em on

 

[ExSCA]

theres no photos of me !

When did you shoot Tommo? I only took pics for the last round yesterday!

 

[Adam]

Nice photo’s there Matt I almost look like I know what I’m doing.

I really enjoyed the weekend as a whole, Lovely ground and very well ran, a big thumbs up to all the Fauxdegla team.

We started with the sportrap on Saturday afternoon, not the most inspiring set of targets but they were all there to be shot just not be me as I shot like a pleb to finish with a disappointing 77. Thankfully that was just enough to pip Rachel by one who to be fair was shooting far from her best so we were surprised when she finished tied 4th in the ladies. A big well done to Linda Grayson who took her first Major win with an excellent 86 very well shot.

Now being consummate professionals we had an early night, didn’t get drunk, didn’t stay out till about 2.30am ish and Ed was at no point wearing a leopard print onesie.

Sunday morning feeling a bit fluffy round the edges we got to stand 7 and it started to rain thankfully only for a couple of minutes. Got off to a steady start just kept missing the odd target here and there only had two bad stands. I missed 3 of the 4 orange teal on stand 12 and 2 battues on stand 5 so should of been a little better but still happy to finish on 106, Ed was shooting steady as always but to many of the softer targets got away. It really could of been something very special but 113 was enough to get into the shoot off and finish 3rd overall, well done mate it’s been a bloody good year. Rachel still not shooting her best was struggling to get going and missing plenty of targets she would normally hit with ease, after finishing on 91 we thought with luck she might sneak a top ten finish in the ladies so were quite stunned when she came in tied 3rd just goes to show that you should never give up till the last targets broken. All in all a fairly steady set of targets that weren’t to everyone’s taste but I enjoyed it and went home smiling.

 

[EdSolomons]

I need to see that video again!!

 

[tommo]

its ok matt that was a joke for ed i shot on last rotation on sunday

 

[chippy]

Matt you have got a picture of everyone in my squad except me.i suppose it was the smoke off my clays obscuring the camera.

chippy

 

[Fuzrat]

I'm back, saying it like I see it, did ya miss me? nah didnt think so.

First on the Fuz list, this topic the BO. Quite honestly like its initials it stunk. Optima asked me for a 2 word review on Saturday evening and here ya go mate "Effing sh*te"

For those who enjoy more prose, We dropped the dogs off in the kennels at 9 then made the long drive up to the ground. We arrived about 12.30 to be greeted by a lovely sunny lunchtime with a few puffs of breeze and some magnificent scenery. parked up and got out of the van to be assaulted by an overpowering smell of sheep sh*te (they saved the best parking for us)

Booked on and had a chat with a few people then went out for a wander round the course as we weren't shooting til 3. Looked reasonably steady if a bit samey. No driven, Rabbits, overhead from behind and suprisingly with the excellent terrain nothing below the feet. Stand 14 simo r-l crossers 1 about 35/40 and 1 about 45/50 out looked quite tasty and the l-r riser on 11 was a decent bird.

Went back for a quick bite to eat and a stab at the pool shoot to warm up then up to peg 6 to start. Worryingly the wind was starting to gust as we walked up. Got the squad assembled at 3pm and asked the ref how many squads he had left from 1pm and he said five! was thinking we wouldn't even get going til 4pm but he said as you are all here and there is a big gap we could crack on and as long as we dont jump any of the 3pm squads we could get get going. Started well enough on 6,7,8,9 and 10 with only 1 or 2 away per stand then we hit the hold up.

Waited about half hour to shoot 11 with the wind starting to howl and the clouds rolling in, started getting cold and narky and missed all of the l-r riser which was by now going backwards in the wind and two of the away chondels for a 2.

We thought that was bad, but the wait for stand 12 (straight up teal and incommer down the bank straight at you at 1pm screaming l-r dropping crosser that was hitting the trap on 11 by the time we shot it. Reliably informed that the chief ref ordered the trap moved as it was turning into a dinner plate in the wind!) was an absolute joke. We sat there shivering in the teeth of a gale for an hour and 40 minutes with stands 13, 14 and 15 empty and the refs would not let anyone play through. The chief ref then comes up and says its going to be dark by the time you get done so just put your cards in to any available stand. Why we couldnt have done that an hour ago was beyond me. it was by this time about 5.30 and we still had 8 stands to shoot!

Not a happy bunny I am first up on 12, ref says "you've been standing there for ages so you aint seeing a pair" "doesn't matter they're all fudging different anyway" i retort. Decided to take the teal on the drop, called for it mounted just before it peaked let it come down to me and smoked it only to hear "no bird, nothing established" why? the whole squad asked "because I didnt fudging see it" comes the reply. Minced the rest of the teals and dropped a few of the incommer that was.

Went straight on 13 dropped a couple on 15 and then we went back to 14. These were at least 15 if not 20 yrds farther out than they were 5 hours ago and only managed to connect with 1.

Finished strong on 1-5 with only a few away and a straight on 3 and dusted the battues on 5 for an 81. Just above adjusted average so no harm no foul.

I heard a plethora of adjectives to describe the course on Saturday from ok to uninspiring, insipid, utter crap and others that are far too fruity for a family friendly website.

Yeah, its the luck of the draw what weather you get over a 4 day shoot, but look at the location. Four or five miles down the valley you can see a wind farm, that really should give a clue that you cant put on so many floaty birds with no spring on them.

Will I do a 350 mile round trip to shoot the BO here again? Hell no! I can shoot better targets at any one of half a dozen grounds within an hour and a bits drive from me. There just wasnt the X factor that there should be at a major for me. When I play the club championship at the golf club I see the rough has been grown out, fairways narrowed, greens dried out and shaved to present a tougher test and a different course to what I play week in week out. This just didnt have that.

Put a CPSA tent at Wylye on the england selection course this year, pretty much any shoot at Westfield oops the prelim already had one and there is a cracking test and something a bit different.

As for timings, 2 hours is not enough time to shoot a 15 stand course when you want to get 4 rotations in a day, there is just not enough room for error, trap breakdowns are inevitable and traps have to be filled. My solution, shoot 8.30, 11, 1.30, 4pm give 2.5 hours to get round. The 4pm squads will still finish earlier than we did on Saturday (7pm)

Fair play and well shot to all the medalists, still have to fill in the boxes whatever the course, weather and timings but thanks for the scenery it was spectacular but no thanks for the shoot.

 

[ExSCA]

Matt you have got a picture of everyone in my squad except me.i suppose it was the smoke off my clays obscuring the camera.

chippy

Which picture are you 'nearly' in - or what vest number were you - I have quite a few more pics, but I just selected the ones I liked most - I'm not a photographer to be fair, I just point and click.

 

[DoubleBarrelledDon]

So you could hear Ed and me talking about it then Matt....

 

[paul b]

thanks to all who helped get me and adrian round the shoot,the wind made for some exiting targets, when i realised the fact its gonna be a low score day(81) the extream wind efected targets were a bonus when hit,and good company of my squad made the waiting not so bad.well done reffs saturday was a long day for you and im sure you had to here lots of moans. Just a shame the burgers ran out i was looking forward to one at the end.

 

[Fuzrat]

And another thing, where exactly does it state in the technical rules for sporting that you have 10 seconds to call for the target? Martin Elworthy was shooting stand 12 in front of us, shot the first pair and stuck his barrels in the ground when loading, stopped to clear the mud and the ref pipes up "time shooter"

Even worse the stand clearly contravened the rule stating the ref must be able to see the shooter on the stand. It was clearly not the case the ref could see as the rest of the squad had to tell him that the shooter was clearing a barrel obstruction!

 

[EdSolomons]

So fuzz, long story short, you enjoyed it yeah?? ;-)

 

[paulos]

I'm back, saying it like I see it, did ya miss me? nah didnt think so.

First on the Fuz list, this topic the BO. Quite honestly like its initials it stunk. Optima asked me for a 2 word review on Saturday evening and here ya go mate "Effing sh*te"

For those who enjoy more prose, We dropped the dogs off in the kennels at 9 then made the long drive up to the ground. We arrived about 12.30 to be greeted by a lovely sunny lunchtime with a few puffs of breeze and some magnificent scenery. parked up and got out of the van to be assaulted by an overpowering smell of sheep sh*te (they saved the best parking for us)

Booked on and had a chat with a few people then went out for a wander round the course as we weren't shooting til 3. Looked reasonably steady if a bit samey. No driven, Rabbits, overhead from behind and suprisingly with the excellent terrain nothing below the feet. Stand 14 simo r-l crossers 1 about 35/40 and 1 about 45/50 out looked quite tasty and the l-r riser on 11 was a decent bird.

Went back for a quick bite to eat and a stab at the pool shoot to warm up then up to peg 6 to start. Worryingly the wind was starting to gust as we walked up. Got the squad assembled at 3pm and asked the ref how many squads he had left from 1pm and he said five! was thinking we wouldn't even get going til 4pm but he said as you are all here and there is a big gap we could crack on and as long as we dont jump any of the 3pm squads we could get get going. Started well enough on 6,7,8,9 and 10 with only 1 or 2 away per stand then we hit the hold up.

Waited about half hour to shoot 11 with the wind starting to howl and the clouds rolling in, started getting cold and narky and missed all of the l-r riser which was by now going backwards in the wind and two of the away chondels for a 2.

We thought that was bad, but the wait for stand 12 (straight up teal and incommer down the bank straight at you at 1pm screaming l-r dropping crosser that was hitting the trap on 11 by the time we shot it. Reliably informed that the chief ref ordered the trap moved as it was turning into a dinner plate in the wind!) was an absolute joke. We sat there shivering in the teeth of a gale for an hour and 40 minutes with stands 13, 14 and 15 empty and the refs would not let anyone play through. The chief ref then comes up and says its going to be dark by the time you get done so just put your cards in to any available stand. Why we couldnt have done that an hour ago was beyond me. it was by this time about 5.30 and we still had 8 stands to shoot!

Not a happy bunny I am first up on 12, ref says "you've been standing there for ages so you aint seeing a pair" "doesn't matter they're all fudging different anyway" i retort. Decided to take the teal on the drop, called for it mounted just before it peaked let it come down to me and smoked it only to hear "no bird, nothing established" why? the whole squad asked "because I didnt fudging see it" comes the reply. Minced the rest of the teals and dropped a few of the incommer that was.

Went straight on 13 dropped a couple on 15 and then we went back to 14. These were at least 15 if not 20 yrds farther out than they were 5 hours ago and only managed to connect with 1.

Finished strong on 1-5 with only a few away and a straight on 3 and dusted the battues on 5 for an 81. Just above adjusted average so no harm no foul.

I heard a plethora of adjectives to describe the course on Saturday from ok to uninspiring, insipid, utter crap and others that are far too fruity for a family friendly website.

Yeah, its the luck of the draw what weather you get over a 4 day shoot, but look at the location. Four or five miles down the valley you can see a wind farm, that really should give a clue that you cant put on so many floaty birds with no spring on them.

Will I do a 350 mile round trip to shoot the BO here again? Hell no! I can shoot better targets at any one of half a dozen grounds within an hour and a bits drive from me. There just wasnt the X factor that there should be at a major for me. When I play the club championship at the golf club I see the rough has been grown out, fairways narrowed, greens dried out and shaved to present a tougher test and a different course to what I play week in week out. This just didnt have that.

Put a CPSA tent at Wylye on the england selection course this year, pretty much any shoot at Westfield oops the prelim already had one and there is a cracking test and something a bit different.

As for timings, 2 hours is not enough time to shoot a 15 stand course when you want to get 4 rotations in a day, there is just not enough room for error, trap breakdowns are inevitable and traps have to be filled. My solution, shoot 8.30, 11, 1.30, 4pm give 2.5 hours to get round. The 4pm squads will still finish earlier than we did on Saturday (7pm)

Fair play and well shot to all the medalists, still have to fill in the boxes whatever the course, weather and timings but thanks for the scenery it was spectacular but no thanks for the shoot.

I can't help but pick up a certain...bitterness in that post. Although you have given a few reasons for your disappointment, it does sound like you were just grouchy at having to wait in the cold! I took a jacket. Sussed. In fact, I'm not sure why anybody would travel to a heavily subscribed shoot on the side of a Welsh mountain without one.

 

[Jeremy Baker]

I have to say I had a great day.

Enjoyed the squad.

I love shooting yep sure had a few bad days out but a bad day shooting beats the best day at work hands down.

Normally only unhappy with my performance and only I'm to blame for that.

 

[timps]

I thought my squad was terrible.

I did not shoot particularly well or particularly bad just non descript really, but I had no complaints with the ground or the targets.

 

[optima]

I can't help but pick up a certain...bitterness in that post. Although you have given a few reasons for your disappointment, it does sound like you were just grouchy at having to wait in the cold! I took a jacket. Sussed. In fact, I'm not sure why anybody would travel to a heavily subscribed shoot on the side of a Welsh mountain without one.

Well if thats the case there were plenty of grouchy bitter people there, as i saw 3 people quit the shoot after waiting nearlly 2 hrs to shoot one stand,and guess what,all 3 were wear ing coats!! So i don,t think you can blame a lack of coats especially as fuzz was wearing one.

 

[MeMeMe]

Badly wind affected.

Lack of variety - no driven, no overheads, no rabbits - lots of quartering. Expect more difference with 120 birds though I appreciate ground can be challenging.

Huge variety in targets through day due to wind.

Over 4 hours to shoot 120 birds!?! - lost the will to live!

Comments from refs on 3 separate stands about H&S when loading traps etc - first time I've seen that at any competition.

By the time we got back to clubhouse (17:30) out of burgers, and onions, and roast pork...

Everyone would say Fauxdegla is a windy site - my personal view is that makes the ground inappropriate for a 4 day competition but even without that the 4 hour shooting time and target variety (which i believe was based on trying to overcome the style of ground) let this down a bit for me.

Stand 14 with its huge variation in targets due to wind was massive, as was stand 12 being changed!?!? mid shoot. I dropped 11 targets that shooting a day or even 4 hours earlier would have been far easier shots. It's a competition - it should be fair and equal.

I enjoyed Nottingham sporting clays more the following day and Ive lived in anticipation of the BO for 6 months. The World left me impressed with what can be achieved. The BO was just a day at a clay ground unfortunately.

Will I go to an event like this again? I'll still do the Xmas hornet challenge as the grounds amazing, targets perfect and variety excellent. BO next year? Not sure - the magic got squished.

 

[Mark Jones]

C an we not save the moaning about the weather for when it's pishing down and driving into ur face. That is what makes shooting hard as there is very little that good admin can do to help in that situation?