Nottinghamshire HBD County Championship

Sunday the 27th of March saw just ten Nottinghamshire County shooters turn up at Nottingham and District Gun Club for the 2016 Handicap by Distance Championship. The weather on the day was far from ideal with a strong cold wind blowing across the ground making the targets tricky at times, and perhaps this was a factor that accounted for the low attendance.

For those of you that have never shot HBD it is basically DTL but with an handicap system built in to help level the playing field with “C” class shooters standing 17 yards from the trap, “B”class at 19 yards, “A”class at 21 yards and “AA”standing in the next village. The first man to record a score was Gordon Hodgkinson shooting as a B class competitor he managed to hit 90 targets for a total score of 264, which was more than enough to earn him the B class shield.

Next up were Jack Richards and Chris Twigger shooting from the A class mark, young Jack shot well and finished the day on 91/262 a score that wasn't quite good enough to win his class but was just enough to edge out Freddy Brown to claim the junior trophy.

The next four shooters were the only ones daft … I mean brave enough to tackle the targets from the AA class mark. Lee Clements, Russ Hufton, Ken Rimington and Granville Hodgkinson. Granville and Ken scored 96/282 and 93/274 respectively, scores that were good enough to give Granville the AA class shield and Ken the veterans title.

The last two men to shoot on the day were Pete Martin and Andy Brown, both shooting from the A class mark. Both men shot superbly as expected with Pete scoring 93/272 a score good enough to win the A class shield, and Andy shooting better than anyone else on the day finishing on a fantastic 97/287 thus crowning him the 2016 Nottinghamshire Handicap by Distance county champion.

Thanks once again to Carl and the team at Notts for running a faultless shoot.

One last thing HBD is a real leveller and a thus a real chance for anyone to win a county championship, so don't be afraid to have a go next year…. If you are a C class shooter you stand as much of a chance as a AA class shooter so why not have a go!

Nottinghamshire County results for the handicap by distance 2016 held at Nottingham and District Gun Club on 27 March 2016:

High gun - Andy Brown - 287

AA - Granville Hodgkinson - 282

A - Pete Martin - 272

B - Gordon Hodgkinson - 264

Vets - Ken Rimington - 274

Juniors - Jack Richards - 262

Overall results for the competition

High gun - John Winn (Lincolnshire) - 294

2nd - Andy Brown (Nottinghamshire) - 287

3rd - Granville Hodgkinson (Nottinghamshire) - 282

Vets - Ken Rimington (Nottinghamshire) - 274