Delhi Games: 0:0:0:0

London Olympics: 0:0:0:0

Glasgow Games: years

To check on County scores or look at members averages by CPSA number click here. I am grateful to David Christensen for this facility.

Cheshire CPSA: AGM/Hotpot Supper/Presentation Evening: Wednesday 13 January @ 8pm
@ The Three Greyhounds, Allostock, WA16 9JY

Dolphin Clay Target Centre are holding a 30 bird ABT re-entry on the 20th December, to see more click here.

Jack Gradwell reports and has also supplied us with the library photo: The cream of Cheshire’s Trap shooters formed a small but orderly queue of entries at East Yorkshire Gun Club, on the15th November 2009 for this big boys’ trap game. The weather was good with a weak winter sun forming long shadows over the immaculate OT layouts. The light caused some difficulty in trying to pick up the fast-moving targets as they passed from light to shadow, this had the effect of making consistent timing very difficult. The lead for the Cheshire Championship changed after every round, and the event was in close dispute up to the last target, with the final placings: Jack Gradwell 87 Cheshire Champ, Fred Thornley 86, Runner-up &Paul Gowrie 85 3rd place Special mention must go to Nick Gowrie’s 'Santa’s Little Helper' headgear which was the envy of no-one. The day went very smoothly and thanks to the staff of EYGC. This event was organised at short notice by your dedicated Competitions Secretary, Dave Wathen, (is this a back-handed compliment - Ed?) and was in place of the Cheshire Championships which should have been shot at Nuthampstead on 20th September as part of the West Midlands Inter-Counties match. This event was not attended by any Cheshire folk due to a clash of Cheshire County fixtures, namely the Single Barrel and Double Rise at the A6 Trap Club. The fact that Nuthampstead is around 170 miles away may not be unadjacent to the lack of interest. (yes it is! - Ed)

Shiron Dean reports:
Sunday 18th October was the date. Two of the last County titles of the year up for grabs - Skeet Doubles and Sportrap. The venue: Doveridge.
The weather variable, starting with bright sunshine.
Mike Faux having a good year took on the sportrap first, 24 ex 25 on the first layout followed by a 19 on the technically more difficult second layout which included a fast orange teal and a mad mini quartering away from the left. A strong 43. I J Cunnliffe finished on 37.
Meanwhile, on the skeet doubles, Joe Jackson (also having a good year) put together a 93. Mike Faux couldn't quite match it, finishing on 90. Tony Dean hit 98 on the doubles and popped in a 44 on the sportrap to take both titles.
Thanks to Doveridge for hosting the event.

John Yarwood reports:
Cheshire sent three teams to the National inter-counties DTL championship at Nottingham gun club. The veteran team of Roy Birchall, Gordon Mellor and Geoff Rogers were again the stars of the show retaining their title for another year. Well done lads!
Our junior team of Jack Richards, Harry Oldham and Dan Band performed admirably, they are improving all the time. Jack shot his best ever score. Well done lads.
The senior team could have shot better. Not so well done lads!

Scott Barnett reports:
Boys and Girls of Cheshire, it gives me great pleasure to write a report on the sterling job of our sporting shooters from the 27th September to the 5th October.
The inter-counties sporting was the first competition and our scores were all in the eighties bar a few, which was a great team effort at Westfield of all places and every one should be very proud; especially as we only had ten men when a so called team member failed to show, or to even phone (name names - Ed)
Unfortunately it was not enough and we ended up missing Gold by only one clay, "aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr": I feel better now!
The ladies took silver so well done Janet and Hazel and the Juniors shot well on first attempt. I made the shoot off at the end but didn't fair well on the roller more practice needed, I need to gamble more with Faux to afford it.
A week later the team rolled up again at Doveridge. The five man team consisting of Dean, Bevis, Mo, Faux and Barnett(S). Again, we posted scores in the eighties apart from Tony who shot a great 93; it was good enough for third place. How did Staffs fair? We didn't bother looking down the list that far! Please send answers to team Staffs Headquarters, Loserville; also well done girls!, no medal but again a good performance.

John Yarwood (modest as always) reports: Cheshire Double Rise and Single Barrel championships were held at A6 CTC. The Cheshire Double Rise champion was John Barnett who retained the trophy from last year. After a tense shoot-off the Single Barrel champion was John Yarwood. Last year's champion, John Barnett, was unable to keep his nerve during the shoot-off and eventually succumbed to the pressure.

Scott Barnett reports on the WMIC FITASC Sporting competition: We sent an impressive line up to the inter-counties FITASC at Longridge on the 13 Sept. Steve Nutbeam set a very tricky course but our men on the front line were faultless.
Cheshire came a well deserved third overall, with our new hot shot Mike Faux topping the Cheshire boys with a strong 80, followed by young Morris's with 77, Brett 75, Andy J 74, and a few not so bright sparks on the day Barnett, Bevis, and Dean all in the 70s. Thanks again for you all turning in a good performance.

Cheshire Championship & WMIC Universal Trench Championship Rugby, 6th September 2009 The team shot exceedingly well, putting in an average of 92.4 for the 5 scores ex 6 to count. The team consisted of: Paul Gowrie, Fred Thornley, Nick Gowrie, Jack Gradwell, Chris Bushell & John Barnett Cheshire were placed 3rd on 462, points behind Derbyshire on 464 and Warwickshire on 469: a close run thing! Paul Gowrie, with a magnificent 98, is the Cheshire Champion and West Midlands Champion, with young Nick Gowrie the West Midlands Junior Champion. All in all: a right good do!

The WMIC DTL championship was held at mid-Wales on the 30 August. Cheshire fielded a team of seniors, veterans and juniors but unfortunately no ladies this year.
The junior team of Chris Harris, Gareth Stanford and Harry Oldham shot manfully but unfortunately did not figure in the medals. It is difficult to compete in the junior cateogry now the limit is 21 but our young team were very promising and we are expecting great things in the future.
The veterans team were runners-up. Roy Birchall, Gordon Mellor and Geoff Rogers again represented the county admirably. Hearty congratulations must go to Geoff who had just returned the previous evening from France having won the silver medal in the super vets category at the European DTL championships.
Our senior team was depleted due to certain indiviudals seeking individual glory at the Perazzi weekend at Bywell rather than representing their county. The team were narrowly beaten into bronze medal position by Warwickshire and Staffordshire. The margin between gold and bronze medals was a mere nine points. Our new caps Pete Richards and Mike Gibbens shot well and again I'm sure they will improve with more experience of the inter-counties atmosphere. John Yarwood received the trophy for Cheshire high gun with a 295.

Cheshire shooter, 18 year old Joe Jackson’s success at Skeet continues! After winning the Junior section at the English Open and coming third overall he triumphed in the UK Open Skeet competition at Oxton. It was Jackson’s long but very successful weekend. The UK Open is a 400 bird competition comprising the Iron Man ex 200 which he won; he also came first in the Doubles, 28 gauge and 20 gauge. His scores were unbeatable and therefore earned him the title of UK Open Skeet Champion. Joe’s sights are fixed on domination in the colonies; he intends to compete in NSSA competitions in America. Look out for his name in the Worlds in Australia, he may be running into a bit of form then!

John Yarwood reports:
A small but dedicated band of DTL shooters turned up at the A6 shooting ground to compete for the prestigious title of Cheshire DTL champion. The battle was closely fought at the 50 bird stage but by the end a clear victor had emerged in the substantial form of Marcus Iddon - a new and very welcome resident in Cheshire. The Iddon family also took the junior title when the very promising Gareth Stanford beat off the opposition. Gareth is Marcus's stepson and we are looking forward to them both representing Cheshire at the trap disciplines in the future.

The ladies title was won by Janette Bushell but the highlight of the competition for the majority of shooters was when John Yarwood, who was shooting well at the time, failed to load a cartridge in his gun and despite every excuse known to man could not convince the referee to give him the target again! This caused great amusement to everyone except John.

The winning Veteran was Michael Matthews who narrowly pipped Gordon Mellor for the title.

Fred (David) Thornley has been shooting exceptionally well this year. I believe he made the senior team for ABT and the veterans team for OT,where he was veteran high gun at the OT home international.

Jack Gradwell reports:
West Midlands Inter-Counties ABT, Rugby Trap Club 16th August 2009
Cheshire Team – We Woz Robbed!
The West Midlands committee informed our Mr John Barnett that there would be a team of 5 for this event, not 6 as in previous years. Your hard-working Cheshire committee members could see no good reason for this, disagreed but complied.
The team of 5 duly arrived at Rugby, only to find that everyone else had teams of 6 with the lowest score to be discounted, to leave the best 5 scores to count and paying no attention to the new ruling!
Was this a deliberate misinformation scheme to scupper the chances of Cheshire’s finest ?
Cries of Cheat! Fix! and Ya! Boo! did no good fell on deaf ears: the match went ahead.
Your heroic team of:
Fred Thornley, Chris Bushell, Paul Gowrie, Jack Gradwell, & John Barnett
battled bravely against the odds to become creditable 3rd bronze medal winners on 431 points to Staffordshire’s 440 and Warwickshire’s 455.

Our team High Gun was Fred Thornley, fresh from the OT Home International where he was Veteran High Gun.

The event was well staged by John Nightingale, from whom the Cheshire lads could not extract the slightest amount of sympathy.

Consolation is gained from the fact that we were the first-placed 5-man team!

Cheshire ABT Championship, A6 ctc, Westhoughton 26th July The weather was pretty atrocious: continuous rain varying from heavy to very heavy, and a wind which made the targets bob somewhat, were the conditions presented to a goodly number of Cheshire diehards. This shoot was also, in part, being used to select the Cheshire ABT team for the WMIC ABT event in August. As can be imagined, good scores were hard to come by but, at the end of the event, Jack Gradwell and Chris Bushell had tied on 94. The event was decided in a tense shoot-off (ever heard of a relaxed one?) where Chris Bushell came out on top with Chris on 24 and Jack on 23. Third place went to Paul Gowrie on a steady 90. The overall winner was ground owner, Ken Grime, who led after the first 2 rounds on a 50 straight, with a 96. Thanks to all who turned up to brave the weather

Olympic Skeet Inter-Counties…..(THE MIGHTY FAUX) Mike Faux recently demonstrated what could be achieved following valuable instruction, dedication and practice. One week before the Olympic Skeet Inter-Counties Mike didn’t even know the basic rules or sequence of targets, but an evening with Team Captain and professional shooting instructor Tony Dean, working on technique and timing, brought Mike up to speed to tackle this most demanding discipline to finish on top. Galvanising the squad in testing windy conditions Tony, carrying a shoulder injury, finished team second, and third in A class overall. Scott Barnett anchored the team which took a very creditable bronze medal position behind Gloucester and Warwickshire. Paul Ellis and Dave Weatherby completed the squad in solid supporting roles. Congratulations to Mike on his first County title. “So it was worth the effort and long haul to Gloucester Clay Shooting Club”. Many thanks to hosts Gloucester for their friendly hospitality. Mike is now looking forward to next year’s captaincy and maybe the 2012 Olympics if he feels like practicing for two weeks.

Dean’s Mean Machine The steam roller of the Cheshire All-Round Team was triumphant for the 2nd consecutive year at Doveridge on 19th April in glorious weather. Doveridge put on their usual display of immaculate timing and organisation the squad going out promptly to shoot 25 ABT, 25 Skeet, 25 Sporting and 25 DTL. Captain Tony Dean was fresh from his triumph winning the English All-Round at Southern Counties over the Easter weekend with a tremendous 98 and kept the good form going. The Cheshire Team, consisted: Tony Dean, Nick Beavis, Scott Barnett, Albert Moss, Jack Gradwell & Roy Birchall Cheshire’s score was magnificent 462 (5 scores to count) showing an average of 92.4.Our result was not finalised until late afternoon as Scott and Nick didn’t shoot until the 1430 afternoon session. Warwickshire came 2nd with 458. (never mind) Tony Dean was runner-up in the final pecking order with 96, and Nick Beavis one behind on 95. Allan Millington, a Cheshire Veteran, shot a 91 to top the Veteran scores. Duncan Fox Off - Special mention of Duncan Fox, whose car broke down on the way to the shoot and who therefore never made it. Hard luck Duncan.....but get that car serviced properly next time!

County Skeet Championships - Shiron Dean reports A bright but cloudy day saw 19 Cheshire shooters turn up for the County Skeet Championships held at Doveridge on April 26th. Joe Jackson looked to be heading for the top score shooting a flawless first 50, only to drop three on his third layout and one on his last to finish on 96. Sean Smith shot early, finishing with 50 straight after dropping five targets to post a score of 95, while P Ellis, MJ Jackson and AJ Williams all tied on 94, closely followed by a further 5 Cheshire shooters in the 90's. With no perfect scores recorded all day, the variable blustery conditions meant holding concentration was paramount. Tony Dean's concentration skills have not been in doubt recently, as April has seen him switch disciplines seamlessly four times, maintaining good form at sporting, all round and FITASC, culminating with a 98 to take the skeet title. Joe Jackson won top junior and runner up, while Janet Gornall is ladies champion. Tony is seen here undergoing the usual WADA requirements for the winner.

Click on to the 'Committee' link to see the 2009 Cheshire team selection criteria and procedures.