Season Finale

The final GP of the season took place at Sywell near Northampton. This is the traditional end venue and it offers excellent facilities including a lot of space to accommodate the prize ceremony and the end of season raffle.
Sywell is famed for its wind and today would offer a severe test. The course consists of a three sections. The first is open grassland and although the wind was strong it was, to a degree, consistent. Next was a garden area, here the wind was switching and swirling and flags, indicating wind direction, showed it was going left and right at the same time! The third section was "the bank of death", here targets were placed at varying heights and the wind was blowing a hooley. The strong wind gusted up the slope of the bank and lifted pellets well above the killzone.
Of the five competitions the winner of B grade and SFT had already been determined. The C and A grade winners were still uncertain and the big one could still be won by a number of shooters.
The last 2 seasons had seen the Sywell GP won with scores of 43 and 42. Today's conditions suggested that a score close to 40 would probably win the day.
Here's Andy Gillott negotiating the bank; he posted an impressive 36 to further his challenge for the overall title.Roger shows off his kneeling technique.
Big Neil bags a pair on his way to 36 to tie for third on the day and 6th overall.
The morning session was topped by Andy Calpin who scored an impressive 38 to lead by 2. It looked like this score would not be troubled by the afternoon shooters as the wind seemed to increasing in ferocity. Dorian Falconer came close with a 37 but the day was to belong to Mr Calpin.
So to the award of trophies and the end of season mega raffle with lots of prizes on offer; many thanks to Napier for the sponsorship of the GP series.
Kate Green won a shoot off to claim her first piece of FT glassware; third in C grade. In her excitement Kate unfortunately dropped her newly won brandy glass. As soon as Mr Calpin received his then he offered it to Kate, what a gent!
Paul Schofield won A grade with an excellent 35 which was 1 more than Dave!
After the day's trophies were awarded it was on to the overall placements for the season.
Congratulation to Brian Samson who dominated the SFT class.
Piston class was a two way contest between Nick Murphy and Marc Fisher, both had won four of the previous eight rounds. Nick triumphed today and added the Piston title to the British Championship he won in April.
Ian Harford had started the season with 3 rounds of SFT before constructing six strong rounds to comfortably win C grade. Second place went to Roy Boliver, well done Arby!
Simon Higgins came top in B grade after an impressive first GP season. Tenth place belonged to Baltipal!
Midway through the presentation we were treated to some overhead aerobatics which temporarily took everyone's attention.
Ian Stoddart had a brilliant season and won A grade at a canter, Ian c'mon!
Karl Clarke finished 6th in A grade in his first GP season for many a year. And to the top man. British FT Champion Andrew Gillott.
It's been a great season and I daren't add up the miles that we have travelled. The grounds, the courses and the weather have all been variable but one thing has remained constant - we all had a great time.
So goodbye for a while, it's time for a blogging recess. Follow the adventures of the MFTA WL starting in October.