hooters met at the Home Guard Club, Tiddington, for this seasons Christmas shoot, in which air rifles with “open” sights were used. The first of two competitions held was the Bill Amos challenge, where shooters compete using a Webley Mk 3 rifle donated by Bill Amos, who shot in the Stratford league for over 40 years. Each shooter had five shots to amass the highest total of the evening, but as the shooters found out, mastering the gun was not as easy as lining up the front and rear sights. However, after several attempts, Fred Williams (who won last year with a score of 24.1) succeeded in attaining a score of 21.0 which proved good enough this year to take the title again. Three shooters attained a score of 20.0 and after a shoot-off, second place was awarded to Paul Clingan.
 
In the Open competition, shooters were allowed to bring their own “open sighted” rifles, and had five shots to attain a qualifying score of 22.0. The only shooter to bring a rifle was Paul Clingan who qualified with ease scoring an impressive 23.2. Paul kindly lent out his rifle to other members but no-one could match his consistency. At the end of the evening, Paul Clingan was the only qualifier and claimed the title, with Ray Hodgkins being awarded second place by scoring the highest non-qualifying score of 21.2.
  


Report by Andrew Smith, to be published around 25th December 2008