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Report on GB FITASC Sporting Team Performance - European Championship, La Cerisaille, France

Report on the GB FITASC Sporting Team Performance At The European FITASC Sporting Championships La' Cerisaille France 21-24 June 2007

La' Cerisaille shooting club is located approximately 60 kilometre's South of Paris near a small village called La' Ferte Alias.

This region is typically rolling arable farmland with wooded hillsides the European championships took place in this setting.

On first appearance the ground had made a lot of effort for the domestic requirements of the 500 plus competitors that had booked in for this event, however, the domestics where very quickly put to the test and after two days competition, certain aspects of the hygiene arrangements rapidly became squalid; action taken by the various FITASC Technical representatives resolved the hygiene issue after the second days competition.

There where 8 courses set for the competition all had 4 stands per layout, the courses where named:

Beretta, Tunet, Euro Vert, Browning, Laporte, Kreighoff, Peltor and Deco Garde.

All the layouts with the exception of Beretta were in clearings in the wooded areas thus ensuring a very high percentage of targets had natural limits and also small windows for the competitor to acquire and break the target.

These small windows also made it very difficult for the referees to position themselves to judge the shooter was in the correct position before calling for the targets release and then for the referee to register the correct result of the shot.

A number of competitors took advantage of the difficulties the referees were having with this complication and either jumped the target or had their gun in an advantageous position knowing full well it was difficult for the referee to penalise this action.

When the referees attempted to apply the rules correctly certain competitors tried to claim targets scored beyond the limits and as a result either the benefit was given to the competitor or the target was shot again second barrel to count not an ideal situation for fair competition.

All in all the referees struggled to maintain the equity of the competition but they conducted themselves extremely well. Hazel Bennet represented the GB referees working on stand four of the Beretta layout and was successful in her appraisal for International Referee, well done Hazel.

The competition ran over four days; as usual the first day is a settling in period with not a lot to report, however, Pete Hurst (Avon) was joint leader on 49 ex 50 together with the Spaniard, Juan Carlos Navarro Asin

On completion of day two it became obvious that certain layouts would shoot tougher than others with Beretta, Browning and Laporte taking their toll on the earlier high scores on the other layouts.

George Digweed led the field at this stage on 97 with Charles Bardou (FR) 95 Ben Husthwaite 94 and Mark Vessey 93 close on his heels.

In the team placing the French Senior team had the lead on 365 with GB 358 Spain 348. The Ladies saw Italy on 226, GB 221 with France 200. Juniors had GB 256 with Italy 238.

Italy was leading the Veterans 240 with GB on 239 and the Swiss 234 all very tight in this category. Finally the GB Super Veterans led by Paddy Howe were well ahead of the rest on 237 with France 220 and Germany 215.

By now the Brits on tour had gripped these nip and tuck targets forcing the home nation onto the back foot, with a good showing in all the individual categories and a fist full in the top ten across the board.

The teams moved closer on the third day but the French seniors looked untouchable, the GB Ladies moved up a pace and Cheryl Hall, Ruth Naunton and Georgie Jones putting pressure on the Italian Katuscia Spada but Inna Alexandrova (RU) was defending her title strongly having registered a 50 straight earlier on. Inna after a little wobble posting a 15 on one layout would prove to be un-catchable and successfully defended her title won at Lanato 2006.

Meanwhile Paddy Howe was storming ahead in Super Vets and David Payne had to repair his trusty auto that had fallen apart and still be competitive.

The lead in the seniors had changed and with the top three having the same two layouts to shoot, Browning and Laporte, Ben was on 143, George 142 and Christophe Auvert (FR) 142 with Mark Vessy just slightly behind on 141 the final day would be interesting indeed.

Come the finish Ben Husthwaite had a disasterous (by his standards) 21 on Laporte, George does not miss an opportunity shooting 190 to run out Champion with Bardou and Vessey in a shoot off (188/188) for Silver/Bronze with Bardu just beating Mark come the shoot off. Sean Bramley and Ben fourth on 187.

The Ladies was won by Inna Alexandrova (RU) 171 with Beatriz Laparra Cuenca 167 and Georie Jones 164 for Bronze. Cheryl Hall and Ruth Naunton tied for fourth on 163 very close.

Juniors was won by Bastien Harvart (FR) 185 Brett Winstasnley Silver 182 and Mark Winser Bronze 177.

Veterans saw John Bidwell shoot off against Colin Saich (GB) 173/173 with John taking the honours Claudio Bortot (IT) Bronze 172 very close.

Super Vets saw a clean sweep by the GB team with Paddy Howe Gold, 171, Roger Ward, Silver 161 and David Payne with repaired auto Bronze on 153.

Team placings were as follows:

Seniors: France Gold, 729, GB Silver 704 with Andy Moon 178 top senior GB score. Spain, Bronze, 693.

Ladies: GB Gold 458, Italy, 449 and France Bronze, 386.

Juniors: GB Gold, 520, France Silver, 505, and Italy Bronze, 491.

Vets: GB Gold, 493, Italy Silver, 490 and Swiss Bronze, 482.

Super Vets: GB Gold, 485, France Silver, 439 and Germany Bronze, 427.

GB Team Individuals were:

Seniors: Andy Moon 178, Matt Hance 177, John Pool 175 and Steve Brightwell 174.

Ladies: Cherrl Hall and Ruth Naunton 163, Dee Ward 132.

Juniors: Mark Winser 177, Michael Simpson 174 and Kyle Storey 169.

Veterans: John Bidwell 173, Neville Jay 162 and Dave Asher 158.

Sup Vets: Paddy Howe 171, Roger Ward 161 and David Payne 153.

All the GB Team members worked hard to overcome the French home territory advantage and produced a fantastic result of 4 team Golds and one Silver together with additional individual achievements.

All team members were exceptional ambassadors for their country, they were supportive of one another throughout the competition and I am extremely proud of their hard fought outstanding result.

In addition many thanks to Alan Rhone, Krieghoff & Blaser, Darren Hull, Blaser and Mike Haw, Hull Cartridge Company, for your generous support of Team GB FITASC Sporting 2007.

With luck, David Payne having taken an un-intentional detour of the centre of Paris will be home in time to meet up again in the CZ Republic for the Worlds in July.

Hugh Smith
Chairman BICTSF FITASC Sporting and Temporary Manager for this event.

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