Province of Surrey Charity Clay Shoot

During April the Province of Surrey hosted their annual Charity Clay Shoot at the Surrey Shooting School near Reigate. Fifty-six shooters met on a fine sunny morning to enjoy their obligatory bacon/sausage roll, tea and coffee before setting off on the 70 clay shoot in this picturesque wooded shooting ground.  Six intrepid East Kent Shooters travelled to the event: Nick Jenkins, Kevin Wood, Chris Ray, Tony Playford, Roger Wilkes and Brian Warren and they faced some very cunningly designed stands where maybe the distance wasn’t great but the viewing window was very short.

The Shoot, as well as raising funds for their charity, was also to celebrate the retirement of Surrey’s Provincial Grand Master who has been a stanch supporter of the shooting section for many years as well as being a very keen shot.  After two hours of shooting enjoyment everyone re-assembled at the Plough Inn in Leigh, a short drive from the ground, where they were served a delicious lunch of bangers & mash followed by apple pie and custard.

After the meal, some speeches and presentations, a special presentation was made to Eric Stuart-Bamford – Surrey’s retiring PGM – by his provincial shooting section. During his response he thanked everyone that had supported the day and acknowledged that very many of the faces before him had been supporters of Surrey’s shoots for a good number of years and he thanked everyone for that support.

This was followed by the raffle where East Kent managed a double win and then the announcement of the competition winners.  The High Gun runner up, with a score of 57/70, was Roger Wilkes of East Kent and the High Gun of the competition was Chris Ray, also from East Kent, with a score of 64/70.  So at one of the first competitions of the season the team were able to come away with the top two prizes; now they have to keep up the standard.  A great day’s clay shooting in wonderful company.

Reporter: Roger Wilkes