Top Guns of Shiplake College

Shiplake's Clay Pigeon Shooting Squad, led by Mr Green, have recently taken part in the Harrow School Shooting Competition and the Holland & Holland Clay Pigeon Shooting Competition. The reports below have been provided by Captain of Guns, H Martin.

Holland & Holland School's Clay Pigeon Shooting Competition

On Thursday 21 March, the Shiplake College Shooting Squad set off to the prestigious Holland & Holland Shooting School for their inaugural School’s Clay Pigeon Shooting Competition. With two strong teams and beautiful springtime sunshine, Shiplake were in high hopes to come out with an excellent result following a successful outing at E.J. Churchill’s competition last month.

Unfortunately, with only one travelling staff member, Shiplake were forced to split up and branch out across the course separately as the teams were dealt contrasting course routes. However, this was not a problem for the determined Shiplake teams as we were underway very quickly, missing minimal clays.

After settling into the clays and getting our eye in, Shiplake managed to gain two outstanding traps, without missing a single clay thus earning a full house. Our success was not out matched as we advanced onto the ‘Flush’ stand, scoring 72/80 and also earning a few promising remarks from the instructors at the passing stands.

Throughout the course, both teams did extremely well despite being up against top competitive shooting colleges such as Millfield and Bloxham. The Shiplake A Team received the fifth highest score overall, with a mere 15-clay difference to the tournament champions and only three clays off a medal position. Shiplake were also mentioned in dispatches as the ‘best dressed team’ in the competition!

Our top shots, Jamie Gibbs, James Mathew and James Radford were only eight clays away from top gun, scoring 66/80 overall. Thank you very much to the organisers for setting up such an enjoyable, well organised day and the squad look forward to greater success in the coming season.

Harrow School Shooting Competition

On Tuesday 28 February, Shiplake College set out to compete in the annual Harrow School Shooting Competition at the E.J. Churchill Clay Shooting ground in High Wycombe. After a strong finish in the previous Harrow competition, Shiplake College sent two teams in high hopes of finishing in an advanced position on the leader board.

Both teams arrived at the ground raring to go with high spirits, which was not taken for granted as most of the Shiplake competitors secured 80-100% on the first two traps. With the wind in their sails, they set out to complete the rest of the course. Their success in the first two traps was not upheld unfortunately, as the rain started coming down and the temperature rapidly dropped. Their long wait for the third trap seemed to have brought the Shiplake spirit down, which led to poorer shooting.

However, all was not lost as the Shiplake B team ramped up the score line, which led to a strong morale boost within the team, who hit most of the clays in the final few traps. Overall, Shiplake had an excellent result, with the B team finishing in a commendable eighth place and the A team not too far behind in 14th place. A highly enjoyable day despite the chilly weather!

Many thanks to Captain of Guns, H Martin, for providing these reports.