Finally, the morning of the 17th of May had arrived – Weeks of work had gone into preparing Tawd Vale for the 2nd round of the 2015 BFTA Grand Prix Series. I arrived about 8am and after booking in headed to the plinking range. A difficult to read wind was blowing across, changing both direction and strength. The wind was taking pellets in differing amounts and I was struggling to hit much beyond 40-45 yards! After a briefing I made my way to lane 5 and met up with Gary and Alan. We decided on a shooting order by picking our score cards at random and settled on Gary first, followed by myself then Andy. I settled into my bean bag and completed the first lane consisting of a 25 yard or so 25mm and a 30 yard 40mm which was wavering about along with the young tree it was attached to. The reducer was dispatched and I turned to the 40mm target. A strong wind was blowing and I elected to go about 5mm outside the left hand edge. The pellet deviated and snuck in on the right hand side. A nervy start but a clear lane. Alas, that was to be one of only a handful and I began a series of misses resulting in my worst run (and soon to be score) ever. 6 lanes in I had only hit the opening 2 targets and was banging my head at the wind that I just couldn’t work out. When I went big on a target and came 40mm of the edge of the plate the pellet only moved about 20mm and missed the whole thing to left. Another occasion saw my windicator blowing strongly along my air cylinder but the pellet missed right by well over an inch. By the last lane in the lower section I was barely off counting my score on one hand. Two high up targets were dropped and I was slightly reassured that I wasn’t totally useless. Lots of hanging heads muttering about the wind were passed on our way up to the top part of the course. All 3 of us were finding things hard going with Andy fairing slightly better than Gary and I. We continued with kneelers at 3/4 and standers at 2/6. By the time we had got to the last few lanes my score card was a mass of zeros although I had hit a few good long targets a final insult of a 60 second rain shower on my last lane meant I had finished on 17. A score I would consider 10-15 too low on a 40 shot course let alone a 50! Gary finished on 16 and Andy 23. Not shooting my best, a horrendous wind and a national length course had resulted in a shocking session for my first time in a competition since having my Leupold back from the States. Really hope the next NWFTA GP can result in a return to A or AA grade ways! AA grade winner was Dan Eley with an amazing 41 beating James Osbourne by 1 shot. Keith Gilyard stormed A grade again with 41. B grade winner was Gordon Eley with 30 and Gavin Hopps monstered C grade with 35. Springer class was also won with a 35 by Nick Murhpy and Ian Challis won open with 32. Well done to all the winners. A final well done goes to everyone at Tawd Vale and the couple of non Tawd members who helped with all that goes in to running a BFTA shoot. We promise less wind next time ;) |