HFT Diary: 2016 Season Round-Up

And so the curtain comes down on the key national events of the year, and with two national series running independently, it’s time to look at results and see how we fared. ‘Personal Bests’ feature in any sport, and the HFT Masters shoots make a point of announcing these, which is a nice touch. As for the final placings over the year, you need to have shot at a certain number of events, in order to be properly placed.

UKAHFT takes our best six scores from 9 rounds, and the HFT Masters use our best 4 from 6 rounds.

HFT MASTERS ROUND 6, MALDON & DISTRICT, ESSEX

SPONSORED BY BSA, BASC, THE AIRGUN CENTRE, HAWKE JACK PYKE, RONNIE SUNSHINES, AIRGUN GURUS, FIELD SPORTS CHANNEL, & SACF

A final flurry of events has seen out the major tournaments for 2016, and I obviously have to feature the last HFT Masters round; originally set for Lea Valley, but hastily rearranged for M.A.D. Down in Essex at the 11th hour. This one was a real corker, and with a fantastic wooded course laid on, and crisp autumn conditions to play with, we had our work cut out!

Now it’s taken a while for me to get kick-started this season, but here at Maldon, I arrived in perfect condition by default. A couple of days previous, of being too busy to over indulge for a change, meant I really arrived in the mood for business. ‘Sharp and focussed’ best described my approach, and with six totally unsupported kneelers and standers part of the ‘Masters’ shoot format, we needed to be! As it panned out, I took these in my stride, and three highly enjoyable hours later, and with my only two targets missed, the result of an over-eager pulse (somehow I as good as knew the distances), I finished on a highly satisfying 58ex 60. Thats much more like it!

Coming off the course, who should I walk straight into, but the ever affable Justin Grice. …..”So how did you get on Justin”......... “59”...... . “Oh well done”, is what I should have said straight away. Instead, poor Justin had to learn some new words…...followed by a delayed…. “ sorry, I meant well done”. Never mind; 3rd will do nicely.

Drama aside, this shoot had something else quite special at the close, with the presentation of the new Pat Farey Memorial Junior Trophy, for best overall Junior shot. In memory of course for the much loved Editor of GunMart over so many years. I feel proud to have worked with Pat for much of that time, and this annual presentation in his honour is a lovely idea. Congratulations go to Jess Ellis too, for winning the inaugural title.

RESULTS:

TIER 1:

Open: 1st Justin Grice 59ex60, 2nd Vince Holland 58, 3rd Mark Camoccio 58
Junior: 1ST Tom Willingham 50
.22 Class: 1st Steve Youngs 47
Recoiling: 1st Neil Wakelin 56
Veteran Class: 1st Geoff Ryder 54

TIER 2:

Open Winners: Tony Ward 52, Scott Coe 51, John Oakley 51
Junior Winners: Jess Ellis 41, Emily Palmer 39, Liam Oakley 39
Ladies Winners: Pennie Holland 47, Barbara Pearce 41, Lucy Sharp 38
Recoiling Winners: Roy Pearce 51, Andy Sexton 44, Wayne Pearce 44
Veteran Winners: Dave George 50, Keith Warburton 50, Bob Brand 48

GATHERING

The Gathering is the final UKAHFT event of the year, and this is effectively the national final, for which we try and qualify. I couldn’t make the day, despite scraping a late qualification, but what made this years event stand out was former World Champion, Vince Holland, beating everyone in sight, using a spring gun!

Furniss Mill is a tricky venue at the best of times, shooting up on the ridge, overlooking the fishing lakes, and with less than ideal conditions, an excellent score of 77ex 80, was plenty enough to see off his rivals, and blow away the majority of amassed big names from the sport, mainly using PCP’s! So brilliant shooting Vince, - a big thank you to Mike Burgess, for his Gathering prize winner photos!

RESULTS:

1st Vince Holland 77ex80
2nd James McLachla 76
3rd Ian Clark 76

UKAHFT 2016 RESULTS OVERALL

And so with the national rounds all completed, the scrappy battle for the top three placings is now complete. I didn’t manage enough rounds, but for those that did, I think we can well and truly say the cream rose to the top, with three genuinely talented shooters sitting pretty.

Open Class: 1st Richard Woods, 2nd Dave Ramshead, 3rd Justin Grice, 4th James McLachlan0, 5th Dave Taylor, 6th Paul kelly, 7th Colin Wilson, 8th Pete Dutton, 9th Vince Holland, 10th Darren Taylor
9-13 Juniors: 1st Connor McSherry
14-16 Juniors: 1st Tom Wilingham
Ladies Class: 1st Theresa Reed
Recoiling: 1st Perry Broad
.22 Class: 1st Nick Hopkinson
Veteran: 1st Mike Burgess
Top Club: 1st Maldon & District
Manufacturers: 1st Steyr, 2nd Air Arms, 3rd Walther

HFT MASTERS OVERALL PLACINGS 2016

Open Class:1st Justin Grice, 2nd Dave Ramshead, 3rd Roger Lait, 4th Simon Vant, 5th Richard Woods, 6th Vince Holland, 7th Colin Wilson, 8th Daz Taylor, 9th Jennie Stone, 10th Mark Camoccio
Juniors: 1st Jess Ellis -winner: Pat Farey Memorial, Junior Trophy
Ladies Class: 1st Katy Ellis
Recoiling: 1st Kyle Hampton
.22 Class: 1st Kevin Turner
Veteran: 1st Dave Welham