It occurred to me that we are all very quick to criticise grounds and Southdown has had its fair share of that over the last few months, so I thought I would do a review of the fitasc they had last weekend.
First I noticed was Southdown have made a valiant attempt to fix the track leading to the clubhouse, there are only a few minor potholes now which is a vast improvement. Clubhouse is still the same and I believe they have new caters (new to me at least), in fairness I didn't eat there during the day but did have 2 cups of coffee, it was hot and was definitely coffee so another tick in the box.
Our first layout was in the field on the far side of the skeet range, we have shot here in the past with mixed results but I thought the targets were all very well thought out and anything was hittable, even with a half choke and a 7.5 shell... No trap issues at all and a good mix of long crossers, fast quartering targets and a looper made for a good start to the day, I managed 23 which I felt was the par score so a good start.
On to the second layout, the Barn. Again a good mix of target with a couple of targets that got harder as you moved through the hoops, we did one very minor delay when one of the traps wanted to throw targets even when the button was not connected!! Let a couple slip here, one left to right crosser and one right to left incoming crosser, so another 23 and on we go.
Layout 3, DTL. Again no complaints at any of the targets, strangely this layout seemed to shoot easier than it looked and a couple of shooters did manage 25 straight, I missed my very last target for a 25 straight but I put that down to a lack of sand... and wind...
Last layout of the day took us down the lane, I immediately noticed how much work has been done to the landscape, new stands have been built, old wooden stands have been replaced and they have cleared a lot of the shrubbery, which has brighten the feel to all the shooting positions and has given the lane a facelift. We did have a 30 minute wait though, apparently an issue with one trap although I suspect it was probably due to the squad in front of us needing to see every target 20 times because they had left their bifocals in the car....
Targets again were of a good variety on this layout, a very innocuous looking teal caught a few of us out and a few struggled with the battue which was a very good target on peg 2, managed to battle a 21 to finish the day on 91, a PB for me in fitasc, so happy days.
If I had one minor moan it would be the timing of the squads, tricky I know when there are 10 squads but starting on peg at 9:00 should have ensured we were finished well before our actual finishing time of 4:15 - so bottom line, well done Southdown, keep up doing the improvements and well done Bob for setting a good solid fitasc course.
First I noticed was Southdown have made a valiant attempt to fix the track leading to the clubhouse, there are only a few minor potholes now which is a vast improvement. Clubhouse is still the same and I believe they have new caters (new to me at least), in fairness I didn't eat there during the day but did have 2 cups of coffee, it was hot and was definitely coffee so another tick in the box.
Our first layout was in the field on the far side of the skeet range, we have shot here in the past with mixed results but I thought the targets were all very well thought out and anything was hittable, even with a half choke and a 7.5 shell... No trap issues at all and a good mix of long crossers, fast quartering targets and a looper made for a good start to the day, I managed 23 which I felt was the par score so a good start.
On to the second layout, the Barn. Again a good mix of target with a couple of targets that got harder as you moved through the hoops, we did one very minor delay when one of the traps wanted to throw targets even when the button was not connected!! Let a couple slip here, one left to right crosser and one right to left incoming crosser, so another 23 and on we go.
Layout 3, DTL. Again no complaints at any of the targets, strangely this layout seemed to shoot easier than it looked and a couple of shooters did manage 25 straight, I missed my very last target for a 25 straight but I put that down to a lack of sand... and wind...
Last layout of the day took us down the lane, I immediately noticed how much work has been done to the landscape, new stands have been built, old wooden stands have been replaced and they have cleared a lot of the shrubbery, which has brighten the feel to all the shooting positions and has given the lane a facelift. We did have a 30 minute wait though, apparently an issue with one trap although I suspect it was probably due to the squad in front of us needing to see every target 20 times because they had left their bifocals in the car....
Targets again were of a good variety on this layout, a very innocuous looking teal caught a few of us out and a few struggled with the battue which was a very good target on peg 2, managed to battle a 21 to finish the day on 91, a PB for me in fitasc, so happy days.
If I had one minor moan it would be the timing of the squads, tricky I know when there are 10 squads but starting on peg at 9:00 should have ensured we were finished well before our actual finishing time of 4:15 - so bottom line, well done Southdown, keep up doing the improvements and well done Bob for setting a good solid fitasc course.
