2023 Winter Pro Sporting – Round Three
Thirty-three competitors from all corners of the Nation flocked to the Isle of Man Clay Pigeon Shooting Club on Sunday 14 January for the third round of our winter Pro Sporting series, generously sponsored by Brian Faragher. Conditions were generally good, though a chilling northerly wind and intermittent face-on sunshine made life interesting at times for six squads shooting fifty targets across two layouts.
Skeet supremo Roman Sammer hit the ground running on the first layout, leading C class with a healthy 19 targets despatched, while Brian Faragher positioned himself atop B class with 21. New shooters Leslie Devlin and Bob Wright finished their first competitive layout with a very respectable score of 12 points each, but the runaway leader at the end of the first round was A class Paul Mihailovits with the day’s only straight 25.
The second layout was shot from the corner of the overflow car park across our dedicated beginner’s area using traps located on the right-hand skeet range, adding an interesting dimension to some long targets and allowing for comfortable spectating with tea and hot baps from within the clubhouse. It quickly became apparent that although occasional sunshine was no longer an issue, the fast edge-on targets and biting wind would more than make up for any challenges caused by light.
Marty Kneen was the only competitor to achieve full marks in the singles and the report pairs, dropping just three of his instants to finish stand #2 on 22 points, level pegging with Corina Moffatt and two points ahead of Paul Mihailovits and John Moore, while Nigel Moffatt and Mark Barnett completed stand two with 19 targets behind them.
The leading class C competitor at the end of a long and enjoyable day’s shooting was Roman Sammer with 31 points, closely followed by Alan Wright with 30 and Mark Hepworth with 29. Brian Faragher dominated B class on 38 ahead of Ben Stembridge on 37 and Liam Kirkpatrick on 34. Hot competition in A class found Dave Corlett and Micheal Cross joint third with 42 and Marty Kneen in second with 43, but in the end it was Mihailovits’ momentum which saw him romp home on a shapely 45 – well done Paul!
Results
Class A
- P Mihailovits (45)
- M Kneen (43)
- D Corlett (42)
- M Cross (42)
Class B
- B Faragher (38)
- B Stembridge (37)
- L Kirkpatrick (34)
Class C
- R Sammer (31)
- A Wright (30)
- M Hepworth (29)
Full Results
Our sincere thanks to all competitors for making this one of our most well-attended winter shoots ever, also to Brian Faragher for his sponsorship and hard work in designing today’s course. Next week it’s the third round of our winter English Skeet league, with Nicky Barnett and John Moore at the helm for Saturday morning practice.
