Help for Heroes DTL Match
One of the most eagerly anticipated events in the local DTL calendar took place at Nottingham and District Gun Club on Sunday the 20th of March. A total of 46 shooters turned out on a glorious spring day all eager to to gain bragging rights for their respective counties.
Tradition dictates that Team Notts are the firm favourites to lift the shield at the end of proceedings, but with Derbyshire fielding a total of 27 shooters and Notts mustering just 19 perhaps an upset could be on the cards!
Young George Lewis was the first shooter to post a score that would be included in the top 10 Notts scores with a credible 98/288, but with the likes of Derbyshire's Dave Weston and Dave Hinchliffe yet to shoot more would need to be done. The four Notts shooters on squad 6 piled the pressure onto Derby, with Ash Parfrement scoring 98/289, Granville Hodgkinson 99/292, Tom Tristram 96/282 and Gordon Hodgkinson 95/277, things had started to look up.
As expected though Dave Weston reinstated the Derby challenge finishing strongly with 99/293, something big was going to be needed, the answer came in the form of three big things, Russ Hufton, Paul Meakin and Lee Clements, all three shot well, with the immaculately groomed Lee finishing on 99/294, Paul finishing on 99/296 and Russ scoring an incredible 100/300 it looked like the writing was on the wall for Derbyshire.
Gary Webster and Dave Hinchliffe had other ideas though scoring 100/294 and 99/297 respectively, all of a sudden things started to look tight again.
Notts however still had two aces up their sleeve in the form of Ken Rimington and Curtis Woolley, when the heat is on they never let you down, and this time was to be no exception with Ken scoring 99/297 and Curtis smashing a superb 100/299.
By the time Curtis’s score had been written on the score board most of the Derbyshire shooters had gallantly and graciously sped off down the drive leaving the victorious Notts squad to lift the shield.
A special mention must go to Roland Mottishaw and Gordon and Granville Hodgkinson for the sterling work done in recruiting shooters to attend on the day. Over £700.00 was raised for Help for Heroes.