Clay Pigeon Shoot - 2012

We enjoyed great weather - for once - on what may well turn out to be the last day of summer.

And we were very pleased to welcome members from the Rotary Clubs of Thornaby and Yarm, Middlesbrough Erimus, and Longbenton with Killingworth.

The "Novice Stand" was particularly popular this year - with a queue waiting to "have a go" for most of the morning ...

    
President Arthur's daughter Laura decided to try her hand - and she turned out to be quite a good shot, despite the fact that she'd never handled a gun before.

Then it was her father's turn for some tuition...

 
 ... but he only improved on last year's duck by one bird!  (Perhaps this was due to his rather strange stance?)

Meanwhile Rtn's. Barbara and Ann ran the raffle stall.  Yes - I know I shouldn't say this, but the ladies can do this sort of thing much more efficiently than the men.

And the experts got on with the main competition ...

... in what are quite scenic surroundings at the Gun Club site.
In this picture, the person at the end of the queue is Baxi Sinha, current President of the Rotary Club of Thornaby and Yarm.  He had been so pleased with his trial on the Novice Stand that he decided to enter the main competition - so he borrowed a gun, bought some cartridges and got on with it!

Then it was prize-giving time.  Here we see Mel Scott (from Middlesbrough?) who took the Novice prize with a score of ten out of ten!

The High Gun winner was Barry Radford ...

High Gun Runner-Up was Lee Jackson ...

  
... and third prize went to Chris Asprey - who said he'd rather I photographed his back!

Baxi Sinha of the Thornaby & Yarm Club won the Rotary Top-Gun prize - but he had left before the prize-giving!

An enjoyable morning that raised over