The day did not start well, my new TomTom decided it needed an update, I decided to cancel and by the end of my road, we had no map to use, so back to the house to spend 40 minutes downloading one, thanks a lot Mr TomTom. Phil was in a good mood as I picked him up at junction 31, by junction 29 he was asleep, cracking company Phil. I did think about not waking him up for breakfast at Watford Gap but I’m not that cruel.
ETL is one of our favourite grounds and we often travel to it to do the Essex 50, it may be nearly 4hrs away but it’s worth the drive as the courses are always well balanced and we’ve both put good scores in so that always brings us back for more. I was hoping the Field of Doom wasn’t in play because getting your eye in on that horseshoe is mega hard as the wind really does whip across it.
Landed and no field, brilliant and a new firing line carved out, always welcome in my book. Off to say hello to people and to take some pictures. Course looking great, Doz was still clear and Mangers had only dropped one so I was thinking I could be on here, not that I shoot at that level but I know when I’m focused I can step up and without a thousand things to do and people nagging me, well, you’ve seen the results that can happen. That said, it’s great to see people knocking them over and enjoying the shoot.
A quick session on the plinker to do my checks, everything was fine, my gun has been solid this season and to be fair I’m the one who’s let it down since it’s been Zenithed. Lane 11 start, standers on the next lane and shooting with the chilled out pointer of boing John Farbrother, great stuff.
And that dear reader is where I felt the good stuff ended, I split the first target at 9 and then split the next one but it fell, not sure how because there was 80% of the pellet on the plate. I then missed both standers, this was not going well at all and with 2 on the bank to go, this could be the worst start this year. Focus, focus and more focus, I dropped both of them on the bank before we had a whistle before the first set of kneelers.
It was a pretty strange kneeling position, with your knee pointing upwards, I couldn’t get comfortable at all, so in protest, I promptly missed them both, that moment when you can feel the game slipping how of your hands, this was not good. I had a serious word with myself, 5 down in 4 lanes, time to get a grip of myself. I knew Phil would be doing well and I couldn’t let him hammer me at ETL.
A couple of deep breaths and time to mentally start again, let’s see if we can sort this. I missed one more going up to the last lane at the top of the hill. I was overthinking them but what do you do when you know you can’t drop anymore, word was that Phil was doing well so I had to pull everything out of the bag.
Target 1 had wind but it was flicking and with no clues on the plate as it was splatted, I picked the wrong time and the wrong edge, bollocks! No more Martin no more rang the mantra in my head, I hadn’t looked at my card but I knew I couldn’t afford any. Head down again, used all my time and didn’t miss again! Mega, a PB of 43! It should have been at least 45-47 but I’ve got no-one else but myself to blame for that.
I was mildly chuffed, Phil came over the hill with the daftest grin on his face, I asked him if he’s got a 45? No, 44, No, 43, yes. His face when I told him I’d scored the same was a picture, he wanted that win.
Nothing left for us to do but have a shoot off. 50yder and 40yder, this wasn’t going to be easy. Phil got down for them and nailed both kneelers, dang, this was going to be tough. I dropped the mag and then dropped them both, 2 all. The wind was picking up and we both missed the standers, sudden death on the 40yder. Phil is much better at standers than I am and I was hoping nerves would get the better of him but he sank it and I split it at 9. He’d done me and won his first badge in B Grade, I think I was more pleased for him than he was, after 12yrs in the game he deserved a break and a change of luck. He was buzzing all the way home, a great thing to witness, well-done mate.
Next GP
