A SHARP frost and bright winter sunshine was the backdrop for Sunday's home shoot at Throckmorton CPSC.

The prestigious John Ford Trophy entered into its final week and the leading protagonists were given the chance to post their final scores for all the disciplines.

The Sporting layout invited members to tackle a variety of English Sporting targets and the 50-target competition over five stands was to the liking of Stuart Emms.

First on to the layout, he posted the winning score 46/50 at his first attempt.

Tom Partridge returned to form with a creditable score of 44/50 but it was left to Jon Smith at the close of the competition to come closest to the top berth position ending the day with 45/50.

John Tarplee had to settle for fourth position (42/50) with Jim Ford scoring 41/50.

The low angle of the sun made the Skeet discipline hard work with no maximums achieved.

Closest to the magic 25 were John Arnold, David Barnfield, Phil Clarke and Pat Smith, who all missed a single target. Wes Harris was the pick of the visitors also with one target unscathed.

The Down the Line layout saw Dave Crowley and Tony Smith slugging it out for the top gun title.

Both Smith and Crowley scored maximums but Smith (25/25=74ex75) edged it by having to resort to his second barrel only once with Crowley (25/2 =73ex75) using his twice.

Brian King completed the leaderboard finishing with 24/25=70ex75 with Emms in fourth (24/25=69 ex75).

John Hadley (24/25=71ex75) was the pick of the visitors along with Gary Shaw (24/25=68ex75) and R Haines (24/25 = 67ex75) who all failed to achieve maximums by missing single targets.

The next home shoot is on Sunday, December 21.