2009 followed on from last years individual’s successes and again saw individual members achieving personal bests with John Ormerod picking up his highest individual achievement in police competition coming in 3^rd place in the PSUK North West regional Sporting finals held at Catton Hall, Frodsham.

Keith Whitwell followed on from his previous successes and won an individual 2^nd in the Down the Line North West regional finals. No mean feet when the North West region is blessed with several Great Britain Shooters from other forces.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the team, which at times, was missing some vital serving members (including the Secretary hee hee) who due to work commitments meant they were unable to attend some of the shoot this year. As such the team were unable to reclaim their Down the Line Title and the team finished in 3^rd place in North West Regional, Sporting, Down the Line and Skeet competitions.

On a positive note 5 of the members did qualified for the National Championships held in September 2009 and although there were no prizes given to individual Lancashire members (Including the raffle) or collectively as a team all members shot well and finished in the top 25% of the leader boards.

Unfortunately the shooting year finished off on a sad note, with the sad lost of GMP Shooter Bill Scott.

Bill had originally joined the Lancashire Constabulary and served at Middleton and Rochdale which later became part of the newly formed Greater Manchester Police. Bill had always been proud of the fact that he was originally a “County man” first and he was presented many years ago with a Lancashire Constabulary Police tie which he treasured. His family inform me that as a fitting tribute to his “first force” they had placed the tie in his coffin.

Bill had attended every National Championship for the last 30 years, winning his only ever team trophy this year for GMP who came second in the National Sporting competition.

He was a familiar face in all shooting circles, a gent in every word and will be sadly missed.

The club continues to get enquires from sports and socials members wishing to shoot for the “County” and the Secretary John Ormerod would like to invite anybody who has previously shot “clay’s” or is interested in starting to get in touch. The club has plenty of experienced members willing to freely give advice on the sport and there are always opportunities to compete for the Police team.

2008 top

Clay Shooting Sports Section

By Secretary DC John Ormerod

2008 will be seen as a highly successful year for individual members of the Lancashire Clay Shooting Team both in the North West Regional and British National finals.

In particular PS Craig Leech from Pennine Division who in only his second year as a member achieved his first straight 25/25 in the NW regional English skeet competition at Sealand.

Another individual achieving his first straight 25/25 in the NW regional English skeet competition was DC John Ormerod (Club Secretary) from Pennine.

Thanks must go to member retired officer Keith Whitwell who organised the presentation of the perfect score certificates which had been signed by the members particular favourite football managers.

Craig also went on to win the Novice British National Down the Line (DTL) competition with a score of 99/294 points out of a possible 100/300 pts and also took the bronze in the overall DTL British Nationals after a shoot off. Not since 1975 when Lancashire won gold in the National DTL team have we had a winner in that discipline.

Seven members of the Lancashire Team qualified for the National Championships held over 4 days in August.

I would also like to mention Christine Milne from Ormskirk who with a borrowed gun also achieved her highest score ever in the DTL 90/100 not far behind the ladies winner L. Palmer (Leicestershire) with 96/100 kills.

The start of the 2008 season saw the Lancashire team coming in second place in the North West Regional Down the line finals. The winners, Cheshire, having been placed last for many years set about the season with a new gusto with the reinstatement of a past secretary, Paul Ellis. Paul has competed at a high level for many years and has previously represented Great Britain Police in the DTL. The change obviously paid off as Paul took the individual high gun with Lancashire’s Ken Tyson and Craig Leech coming second and third respectfully.

In the North West Regional Skeet and Sporting finals Lancashire came 2nd and 3rd respectfully.

Picture: http://www.slateman.co.uk/lcssc/off-duty/lcssc-offduty5-clay.jpg

Caption: Craig Leech British National Championships 2008 receiving one of his two DTL Medals

2007 top

By Secretary John Ormerod

Report pending...

2006 top

By Secretary John Ormerod

The 2006 season saw the Lancashire’s clay shooting team missing a few of the top scoring members at the North West regional shoots and took a bit of a backward step in the team events. Having finished in 2^ndplace in the down the line event (DTL), and 3^rd place in the Skeet and Sporting events, with Greater Manchester Police taking 1^st place in all 3 events. Although to be fair there weren’t many points separating the top 3 places.

On a positive note individually John Pemberton (retired) was the 3^rd high gun in the Regional DTL event. With Matt Kneale and John Ormerod (Captain) gaining their highest individual points so far in the Novice section of the National Championships and finishing joint 5^th and 7^th in the country in the Sporting event.

2006 also saw some new members introduced to the team and will no doubt in 2007 show the existing members what they made off. (Nothing like a bit of internal competition to keep you on your toes). The Captain is now force to wear spectacles for distance and hopes this may lead to better scores.

2005 top

By Secretary PC John Ormerod

2005 saw the members of the Clay shooting section enjoying an excellent team spirit and coming first in the Team North West Regional, 100 Bird, Down the Line Championship. With members Keith Whitwell and Ken Tyson collecting individual prizes for coming 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. Lancashire had won this competition in 2003 and having lost it to GMP in 2004 by 1 point the win in 2005 was all the more sweeter. That set the scene for the rest of the regional competitions and Lancashire “A” team came second to G.M.P. in all the other competitions.

Several members also qualified for the National Competition which cover the 3 disciplines, held over 4 days in September, but unfortunately in the Skeet and DTL competitions, Lancashire were unable to form a team of 5 members so all competed as individuals.

2005 also saw the newer members now beginning to challenged the shall I say the “more mature shooters” and I think I have to include my self in that category now. With Dave Sumner and Warren Clough adding to the team score and gaining their first awards.

The end of 2005 also saw an increase in enquiries from sport and social members wishing to join the team.

The Clay Shooting Section will try to encourage all levels of clay shooters. On average to compete in the PSUK, regional competitions a starting level would be score of 60% in Sporting and 75% in DTL and Skeet with increases to 85% to compete in the Nationals.

There are always opportunities on the three annual social shoots, for sports and social members wishing to gain experience in competition shoots. Anyone with a basic knowledge of clay shooting wishing to gain this experience can contact the Secretary.

2004

By Secretary PC John Ormerod

2004 saw the members of the Clay shooting section enjoying excellent camaraderie and were unfortunate to not walk away with a few prizes this year. The year started on a high when in the Regional Down the line event the Lancashire team who had won the competition in 2003 turned in an even higher score this year. However, the feeling of confidence of another success was short lived with the late arrival of Insp Graham Nield from G.M.P. Graham needed to return a perfect score for the team to take the title, which over 100 targets isn’t easy. Well he did it in style and G.M.P took the title for 2004 with just 1 point in front. Well he does shoot for Great Britain so we’ve tried to arrange it that he’s on leave next year. (Only kidding)

That set the scene for the rest of the regional competitions and Lancashire “A” team came second to G.M.P. in all the other competitions, however, the team took consolation in that their scores where higher than last year. Everyone agreed that the increased scores were put down to the increase in practise the team were able to enjoy with the help of PSUK. PSUK provided subsidised funds to allow the team to compete in three additional events this year. The sport of clay shooting requires a degree of natural ability combined with experience through practice, which the team members certainly were able to get through the additional fixtures.

Due to the high scores obtained by the members this year Lancashire was well represented in the National Championships. With full teams of 5 members competing in the sporting and down the line events. A change of rules this year saw the obligatory wearing of protective eye wear in all disciplines, which threw some of the seasoned (another word for old) shooters, me included. It was one of those days when the glasses seemed to permanently steam up, well that’s our excuse anyway.

The clay section currently has 20 active members from new to seasoned shooters and is always actively seeking new members. The secretary personally would like to thank Ken Tyson on behalf of the members for all his help in the organising of the teams. Ken Tyson who has been shooting throughout his career retired this year but still acts as Chairman.

Finally...

One of the members Matthew Kneale has utilised his skills this year in obtained some sponsorship from a local gun dealer who has provided 5 skeet vests for the use of the team. The last gun jointly owned by the team has been sold but the transfer to the new owner has yet to take place.

2003

By Section Secretary PC John Ormerod

The Clay Shooting Section has gone from strength to strength over the last few years, with membership increasing to 20 active members. The membership now includes serving, retired officers and support staff.

The PAA NW Regional sporting competition saw more Lancashire members than ever before competing in a single competition. There was a change of venue for the sporting competition this year and the grounds of Catton Hall in Frodsham provided a fresh and testing competition. Unfortunately, Lancashire couldn’t repeat the win from 2002 but came in second, fourth and fifth places in the team competition.

Two thousand and three saw Lancashire winning the team PAA North West Regional Down-the-Line competition with the second team coming in fourth. In the individual competition Lancashire members Keith Whitwell and John Pemberton came in second and third overall respectively.

The other competition we compete in is the discipline of Skeet. It a long time since Lancashire featured anything better than 3^rd in this, but with the introduction of Keith Whitwell’s skill and coaching, the members are hoping for better things to come in 2004.

In 2003 several members of the section qualified and competed in the annual PAA Nationals held over 5 days and covering all three disciplines held in Hull. Even though we failed to make any impact on the competition everyone thought it was all good experience.

The dates for the PAA and Section shoots for 2004 have now been set and are available to anybody on request. It is anticipated that 2004 will see more members benefiting from more planned section shoots this year and continued the recent successes. The section would also like to encourage more female members to join as we only have one active female member at this time. So if there is any body out there that is interested they can contact me on the below listed numbers.

2004

2003

2002

No report received

2001

No report received