Trap shooters compete in Five Nations tournament
Shetland trap shooters made up one third of the Scotland senior squad which competed in the Five Nations Home International at Dungannon in Northern Ireland on 10th and 11th September.
The local shooters were Ewen Johnson, Peter Davies, Alan Moar and Jim Work. Ewen and Alan were making their first international appearance. Jim and Peter have both made several international teams.
The competition was shot over two days with a total of 17 squads of six shooters shooting on four layouts. Day one was fine and produced high scores with Tom Cummings of Ireland on 97 and Northern Ireland’s Tom Beattie on 96 followed by Ewen Johnson and Douglas Henderson of Scotland on 95.
Day two saw changeable conditions with heavy showers and ever changing light. Many potential good scores suffered from one bad round that reduced the total.
Scotland’s top score remained in a close battle between Johnson and Henderson from Inverness who shot in Shetland at the recent Highland and Islands shoot. At the halfway stage on day two the pair were still neck and neck for the Scottish high gun.
This was a title that Johnson was not going to let slip and he hit a 24 in his third round to a 22 from Henderson. Johnson then hit a maximum 25 in his last round to take the high gun title with scores of 95 and 96, giving a total of 191, a score that was third overall from the 60 seniors representing the five nations.
On Sunday the club held two of the club trophy shoots, the first being a 50-target Olympic Skeet (OSK). Only three entered and as has been the case in recent years there was close competition between John Magnus Laurenson and Bryan Sutherland. After 50 targets they were equal.
A further round saw them both hitting 22 so it was on to pairs. On pin four John was first to shoot and hit on from his first pair. Sutherland went on and missed the pair, giving Laurenson the win for the tenth year in succession.
The Universal Trap club trophy was also shot over 50 targets. The best scores over the first 25 targets were 22s from Ewen Johnson, Jim Work and Peter Davies with Alan Moar on 21, all in with a chance of winning.
In the second round Johnson hit 24 to leave Work and Davies both needing a maximum to win. Davies dropped two while Work appeared to be in with a chance until he missed his last target having hit 24 straight.
That miss resulted in a shoot-off between Johnson and Work. The shoot-off resulted in an easy win for Johnson who hit another 24 to 18 from Work.
Scores were: 1 Ewen Johnson 46 plus 24; 2 Jim Work 46 plus 18; 3 Peter Davies 45; 4 Alan Moar 44; 5 Bryan Sutherland 38.
This Sunday, weather permitting, the club has selection shoots for Automatic Ball Trap (ABT) and OSK for 2011 Scottish team places, both with 10am starts.
