he
Christmas Shoot, hosted on 20 December, by Wilmcote Social Club, was very well
attended. Two shooting competitions were held with open sight rifles. In the
first, all entrants used Bill Amos’ rifle which was generously provided by
veteran shooter Brian Portman. Twenty four shooters had between them forty five
attempts to get the highest score from five pellets, for the first prize, a
bottle of whisky. Seven attempts ended with scores of ten or less! Out of the
225 pellets fired, there were only 14 bulls, 47 fours, 102 threes, 34 twos and
28 outers which failed to score. Will Cemis scored a bull and four fours for a
winning score of 21 points but this was the best of his five attempts with the
rifle. Fred Williams managed a clean bull and three fours but a three with his
final pellet gave him runner up position with 20.1 points at his first attempt
but he did try twice more to better his score but unfortunately did not. In the second competition, an “Open Shoot”, entrants were allowed to shoot with their own open sight rifle. There are not so many of this type of rifle about these days and owners generously allowed their guns to be borrowed by all comers. Eighteen shooters had between them thirty five attempts to reach a qualifying score of 22 from five pellets for a shoot off. Marksmanship was on the whole better with 8% of the 175 pellets fired scoring 5 or 5.1 points and only 11 pellets being outers. However none reached the required standard so the prize went to Ian Perkins with the highest score of 21.1. Brian Adshead was runner up with a score of 21 points.
Jackie Mills and Irene Parsons organised a very successful raffle. Andy Clingan kindly brought along a PA system and marked most of the night. The added volume of his microphone helped a great deal with the busy Wilmcote room. A great selection of food was provided by all the teams, along with generous raffle prizes. Shooters ended the season with a really good night.
Webley League matches start on 3 January - Avenue vs Wilmcote; Binton B vs Avon; Home Guard vs Binton A and MEB vs Clifford.