Caterham 1/1/12

[Fuzrat]

Managed to stay off the booze last night and me and Mrs Fuz met up with Jonskeet and hamster at caterham for 100 sporting.Pulled into the carpark and first thought was wellies or ankle boots, glad I went for the wellies as its all through the woods with no laid paths and was muddy even before it started to rain. They have a burger van there which I didnt sample and a hut to sign on but no clubhouse or sheltered area to sit and wait for the rest of the gang or enjoy a brew after. On to the shooting, first stand we shot was a following pair of incomers from the same trap all straight here apard form Mrs Fuz, a nice easy one to settle in on, second up was a teal followed by a low slightly quartering l-r awayer that kept catching on branches making quite a few no birds. L-r teal type looping followed by r-l crosser next then a simo pair of trappy type going awayers.On to probably the most ridiculous stand ever seen on a sporting layout, a following pair of teal, 4 pairs, trap being about 50 yrds out and kill point about 70 and change /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-yell.gif AAA shooters walking off with 2s and 3s /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-cry.gif  Hamster got a 3 Mrs Fuz got a lucky chip 1 and myself and Jon blanked. Bad enough challenging with course setting let alone challenging the laws of ballistics!following pair of driven midis then a good r-l 40yrd rabbit coupled with a l-r chondel. simo pair of battues curling l-r then a simo pair of driven. Back to the carpark for a r-l standard followed by yet another teal, this time a mini.Next up another abomination, 4xsimo pair of incomers well below the feet curling l-r and landing a good 40 yrds out /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif 1 apiece here for me and Jon, 0 for Mrs Fuz and 4 i think for hamsterOvercooked was a word used repeatedly about this layout and with a hg of 92 being the only score in the 90s and the likes of Mr Childerhouse et al in the mid 80s this was not the most fun layout to start the year. I managed a 60 which is about 4 below my average but felt I had shot really well on the stands that were "proper sporting" stands.At least, if setting real distant targets, show a bit of belly! Teal and incomers below the feet are shooting at the strongest point of the clay and its a lottery if it breaks with only a couple of pellet strikes. Overall, lack of decent facilities and lack of thought with targets ie too many following pairs (pure lazy setting) and silly targets will stop me going back

 

[Will Hewland]

I did this one as well.. Finished well below my average on 71, but mainly due to really not being on form I think. I seriously gave away lots of simple stuff.. Agreed, stand 1 in carpark was as horrible as it usually is there. I hit 2! The following distant teal; I had a blank! First one for a long time. However, I think it was more tricky than `impossible`. A C-class mate hit 6 ex 8. Another mate shot the last 3 once he found it. Biggest faux pas was that it was 8 following birds from one trap. Should have been paired up with a sensible second target. My advice would be to give Caterham another chance Fuz, as it can be good. (Maybe not in preference to Weston or Newbold..). The facilities are minimal, but the ground itself is very varied, interesting and unusual I feel. I think it was 5 or so targets too hard today though.. Hopefully that is the last of truly crap results for me for a while, as I have had five in a row now!/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-cry.gif Cheers,CSC3

 

[Fuzrat]

The ground they have certainly has potential but so many following and similar simo pairs and samey targets just shows a lack of imagination and a tad of laziness. Where were the decent long crossers? all it seemed to be was teal and driven  Had I shot the stand in the carpark first I would probably have thought, yep thats the men from the boys seperator out the way. But to have "that" teal as well was a tad silly. You are quite correct, had they paired it second bird with an easier crosser for instance yep it would have been tough but not an absolute ballbreaker.

 

[Hamster]

Anyone can set up birds that can't be hit. To be honest I've never been one to moan at facilities anyway, mud and outhouses are our lot I learned years ago but it really can't be that hard to vet the complete layout beforehand to see whether you have unstraightable stands can it?

 

[Fuzrat]

"To be honest I've never been one to moan at facilities anyway, mud and outhouses are our lot I learned years ago" I may be a bit pampered with Ally's scented candles in the outhouse at Weston /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif