A deceptively tricky 100 Sporting course at Owls Lodge left some shooters scratching their heads, James Simon reports

James Simon

Step out of the clubhouse at Richard and Tanya Faulds’ Owls Lodge Shooting School onto the green, immaculately manicured grounds and you’ll fall under the knowing gaze of two statuesque owls. A clue that this is a ground that favours the wise over the bold.

High gun was within reach for Josh Brown until the penultimate stand

This is certainly true of the CPSA registered 100 English Sporting fixture that was shot on 18 July. Conditions were near perfect, with the sun breaking through the clouds bang on cue at 9.30am, just as the first competitors were being welcomed at reception. It turned out to be a glorious English summer’s day, all blue skies and sunshine, with a light westerly breeze taking the heat out of what would have been a scorching afternoon.

The 13 stand layout was set by the mischievous Graham Smith, the ground manager. We caught up with him as the first few squads were making their way around. “My primary intention is to make the day fun,” said Graham, with a glint in his eye and broad smile on his face. “I want the course to be challenging but not impossible. I also want to offer variety, so people feel they’ve had a really good day out. There are some straightforward stands out there, together with others that may look simple, but will leave a few shooters scratching their heads and thinking ‘what happened there!?’.

“It will be interesting to see what happens on Stand 3. There’s a teal that rises quite fast, so shooters will need to carefully judge where to shoot it before it gets too far away from them. Then, a high-climbing left to right bird that’s going to test a few nerves.