Cambridgeshire OT Championship 2007

Nuthampstead SG 14/10/07

A large turnout for an East Midlands and multiple-county Championships saw 61 entrants - a new record for East Midlands OT. There was a sudden death shoot-off to determine Ladies' and Veterans' Champions: in Olympic Trap there is a sudden-death, single-barrel shoot-off. It can be quite sudden - including the East Midlands' Shoot-offs, there were four of them. They were decided with ten targets between them!

In Cambridgeshire the team-GB nationally ranked James Sole (10th in the September 2007 Men's Rankings) and Anita North (3rd in the September 2007 Ladies' Rankings) took the County and Ladies' Titles, although Nick Evans and Michele Conway tied with Anita on 84. Nick - normally known for coming second (see ZZ 2007, UT 2007, ABT 2007/06/05 etc) exploited the loophole of coming second in East Midland's Vets, preserving his (ahem) Nickname, to allow himself the space to take the County Veterans' title in the shoot-off.

There was (apparently) also gossip in the clubhouse after the husband and wife pair of Sarah and David [your correspondent] Christensen each scored 18/19/21 in the first three rounds of domestic diplomacy. Only a slight gap on the last round split the difference.

On a personal note, I would just like to say that as a novice shooter I was scared off Olympic Trap, but I would now have to say that I don't think it is that much harder than ABT. And for those worrying about recoil, it has the advantage of being a 24g discipline. And whilst Nuthampstead isn't actually in Cambridgeshire, it is very close. With the approaching London Olympics, I think now is a great time for more people to give OT a try!

Sadly there were no junior entrants, not least because young Master Waller has broken his ankle in a daring display of playground derring-do. We wish him a speedy and full recovery.