Melanie sykes

[Dick Arbon]

Sadly I think her involvement with clay shooting will have more of an impact with Joe public than the supremely brilliant George Digweed can hope to have.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

What if Melanie decides that she cannot get to the heights she wants.....that she can get to be very very good....but not at the top....and the next challenge comes along...........and she then gives up......

Who manages that impact?

I hope that she likes it and gets hooked.....and if I was asked to give her one bit of advice (which I know would not happen).....I would say.....stick to FITASC.....forget the Olympics......if you were 15 years younger, ok you might stand a chance after dedicating every available hour of every day to it....but the job is restrictive now.

Nope Mel sweetie....FITASC is the way to go.......you can rock up to any World or European at any age and if you are good enough and lucky enough ......you can win the bling without having to fight hard to be a GBR team member.....

........good advice....just saying...!

 

[Nick Selby]

I cannot believe all the negative stuff on here.... Yes, she is probably massively unrealistic about the Olympics but having a famous person who is enthusiastic about shooting can only be a good thing for the sport.... Too many dinosaurs on here who are happy for the sport to stay a 'minority' and not progress....sad really.

 

[Wonko the Sane]

Shooters complain when there is negativity about shooting in the media, and then people complain about something positive in the media about shooting.. there are some entrenched archaic attitudes held by certain shooters and officials that will never allow this sport to move forward in a positive way.

Absolutely.  Our Gold Medal winner here is unknown to the public.  And you have a wannabe who wants to give it a go who is known by everyone and you ***** about it?  Some of you really need to get out more.  You pay more for the air that you breathe than you will pay for her shooting.  What rot!  I'm talking beyond clueless BS.  If you had any sense you'd be having special fund raisers for her and the already team bound women.  Give a hand instead of a boot.  Who GAF if she has a chance or not??  Use it while it's there to be used.  And if she likes the folks and falls out maybe she'd be inclined to help out herself.  Are you people totally ignorant of manipulative publicity??

buncha marooons

JMO of course

Charlie

 

[Salopian]

Charlie you are probably absolutely right.

Any publicity anyone can get for our sport is marvellous. BUT I don't see the shooting organisations helping us or themselves at all.

Only the tabloid press make any use  of this publicity.

The only organisation I can think of that cash's in on celebrities is Royal Berkshire.

Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Mark Knopfler, Alison Moyea, Elaine Page, Peter Jones, Zara Phillips, Prince Andrew, Hugh Grant, Liz Hurley, ALL shoot most of those named have shotgun certificates and own their own guns. Are they CPSA members?

How many have been featured in PULL or visited Edmonton House?

I have a signed photograph of JR Ewing if they want it for the Board Room?

 

[chippy]

I have a signed photograph of JR Ewing if they want it for the Board Room?

Now we know who shot him

 

[ips]

The bottom line is who cares, i don't buy into this celebs thing at all and i don't believe our UK public are as naive as some other countries who are spell bound by anyone seen on tv. How is a minor celeb going to have any impact on our sport ?

I say again who bloody cares i haven't even heard of her until 2 days ago. Enough now i am off too shoot with some proper shooters.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

I cannot believe all the negative stuff on here.... Yes, she is probably massively unrealistic about the Olympics but having a famous person who is enthusiastic about shooting can only be a good thing for the sport.... Too many dinosaurs on here who are happy for the sport to stay a 'minority' and not progress....sad really.

I cannot see anything negative at all. I have made my posts clear that any publicity is good publicity.....but have kept 'reality' in 'my' posts.

.....just saying...!!

Possibly you are reading them wrongly because you are new to the sport and therefore not familiar with the selection process, .....like.... when it starts, ....the UK selection shoots to get in a GB team to get abroad.....plus the Olympic selection shoots internationally that you need to shoot in order to be considered for the Olympics....against seasoned shooter like Chazzer, Abbey, Amber, Sian and Elena.

Remember ISSF Olympic discipline shoots internationally are closed events...only national teams can go. You cannot just rock up and have a go.

So......nothing negative at all....but hope this helps everyone understand the pathway and how it should have been started 3 years ago in reality.....in the required discipline ......true story..!!

As for the dinosaur comment ....at my age you are probably right.....but not in the context you have used it in..... :smile:

Chill people.....it is a forum.....there is nothing wrong with points of view and / or.....the truth being spoken.

Thankfully you can always rely on me to tell the truth.....!!

 

[** Pending Removal **]

 If you had any sense you'd be having special fund raisers for her and the already team bound women.  Give a hand instead of a boot.  Who GAF if she has a chance or not??  Use it while it's there to be used.  And if she likes the folks and falls out maybe she'd be inclined to help out herself.  Are you people totally ignorant of manipulative publicity??

buncha marooons

JMO of course

Charlie

Haha brilliant..!

But Charlie (as the ex-Treasurer of our international board) I can tell you that no one gives a sh*t about any of our team shooters or raising money for them. Money is forcibly raised through a levy on the selection shoots...(so the shooters in that discipline provide what little cash there is to send our teams abroad).

Cpsa won't give anything for the GBR teams because they see it as not their remit....and they are sitting on over £300,000.

Sporting shooters are not interested.....no one is sadly, except the disciplines themselves, who try all the time to raise money.

Many times we have tried for sponsors for selection shoots......no one interested ......why?

Because you draw maximum 19 shooters out of the whole of the UK for a double trap shoot....!

Not sure about OSK or OT now (since I left) but they were low attendance figures as well 30-50).

Sad but true.

 

[ips]

Nichola

i too am a dinosaur

For the record i am not saying it will do any harm just saying it won't do any good. IMO the sport is a niche market and always will be. We should concentrate on what we have and forget this nonsense about attracting Joe public by way of celeb endorsement.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Ips.....I am not against celeb endorsement.......I welcome it......but I would like some reality in the way the press covers it.

Melanie comes to shooting............great publicity...!

Melanie for the Olympics.........stupid publicity because it ain't going to happen.

Wonder if the same outpouring of 'lovey' comments would have been made if it had been Jo Brand...?? L. O. L.

 

[Jonny English]

Tv coverage is what the sport needs, even if only on a digital channel. We need to develop a form of clay shooting that is easy to film and exciting to watch. I would think clay shooting is a hard sport to film well, and because of the repetition isn't always exciting for the viewer.

My dad can remember a farmer round the corner from us called George Brocklesby (think he was a UT shooter) shooting against jackie stewart on the tv years ago. The sports needs to draw an audience.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Tv coverage is what the sport needs, even if only on a digital channel. We need to develop a form of clay shooting that is easy to film and exciting to watch. I would think clay shooting is a hard sport to film well, and because of the repetition isn't always exciting for the viewer.

My dad can remember a farmer round the corner from us called George Brocklesby (think he was a UT shooter) shooting against jackie stewart on the tv years ago. The sports needs to draw an audience.

Now you are talking......!!

HELICE ......great spectator sport..... On the telly a lot abroad......just saying...!!

 

[ips]

It ain't gonna happen folks. Get real watching clay is not a spectator sport in fact even we find it boring to watch that's why no one stays to watch shoot offs. Anyway it was tried with star shot in the eighties. Accept it clay is not and never will be a spectator sport. End of.

 

[Richard59]

It ain't gonna happen folks. Get real watching clay is not a spectator sport in fact even we find it boring to watch that's why no one stays to watch shoot offs. Anyway it was tried with star shot in the eighties. Accept it clay is not and never will be a spectator sport. End of.

Tend to agree clay shooting in general does not lend itself to being televised, but still am of the opinion that positive media coverage is needed rather than the rubbish that is usually spouted and by positive I do include this tv presenter saying to her couch audience that she is having a great time a step is taken in the right direction.
The last two times I saw a shotgun on tv was 1) Emmerdale, some young girl threatening another with a side x side and 2) Luther some vigilante shooting a policeman, yes I know its drama but its not positive is it

As Nicola points out Olympics won't happen for her

 

[** Pending Removal **]

Yes good publicity if she speaks from her TV couch .....'properly'.....!!

Clear speak about what a great sport it is will help us enormously. Just don't give the 'mothers against guns any ammo.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree, is now".

Chinese proverb........true story...!!

 

[Jonny English]

The Tv possibilities aren't just confined to watching competitions:

Discipline explanations with computer generated layouts etc, each week.  With interviews with discipline leaders

Factory visits and explanations how stuff is made, guns, cartridges, gear etc

Reviews of guns, catridges, gear and grounds

Weekly competition round ups from round the world with results and interviews

Instruction guides for beginners, experienced shooters problem solving

Super shot! a star with a reasonably priced shotgun, celebrities compete on a leader board for the highest score at a set discipline. Similar to a certain car programme.

The possibilities are endless

 

[Hotshot100]

No one's mentioned Katherine Jenkins. I have been told that she is in to shooting (game I believe) but wants it kept secret because some members of her audience might not like it and it might affect her viewer ratings.

There's also Elaine Paige and Bernard Cribbins, both of whom are in to clay pigeon shooting. If these celebs spoke about it more freely the public just might find it more acceptable.

If the celebs who are in to their shooting won't come out and support it what chance do we have.

I think the best one I ever saw was one of Jim Davidson's shows. Ray Reardon came on as a guest, when asked by Jim Davidson what he was getting up to now he had retired Ray answered that he had taken up shooting. Davidson's reply was 'you can't come on here and say that'. Ray then went to great lengths to assure the audience that he only shot clay pigeons.

Ripe coming from a bloke who wouldn't have stood a bats hope in hell of getting a shotgun certificate because of his criminal record. Needless to say the programme was on BBC.

 

[Nick Selby]

I just think that anything that raises the profile of the sport in the public eye in a positive way by a relatively famous (well, more so than the rest of us) person can only be a good thing for the sport..... I think we should all be welcoming the fact that she is raising the profile of shooting in the mainstream. I really cannot see how it can do any harm whatsoever.