A CRISP morning with blue skies welcomed the members and visitors to Throckmorton CPSC where members were invited to shoot the Skeet Handicap Trophy.

With all the regular protagonists having low handicaps it was expected an occasional Skeet shooter might lift the trophy.

Ray Marsden set the standard on card one, with a combined handicap score of 25.33. Late in the morning Brian King (24/25), achieved his best Skeet return of the year to post an unassailable score of 28.66.

Marsden was relegated down to third after Kevin Cotton returned a combined score of 25.83.

Dave Barnfield and Roy Hampton were the only competitors to achieve a maximum on the layout. John Arnold, Phil Clarke, Kevin Cotton, Frank Harrison (2) all missed single targets.

On the Down the Line layout, David Barnfield was at the fore again achieving 25/25 (73ex75) but it was David Crowley and Lewis Thorner who topped the scoring with 25/25 (74ex75).

A revitalised Alan Ayres 24/25 (71ex75) completed the leader board with the evergreen John Ford (2), Gary Shaw and Dave Hart all missing a solitary target.

Roy Hampton finished with a 24/25 (68ex75), while rookie Mal McColl achieved another milestone breaking into the twenties for the first time.

The 50-bird Sporting layout proved to be a testing course with Alan Ayres (43/50), Mark Doughty (42/50) and Stuart Emms (40/50) the only competitors to break into the forties.

The next home shoot is on Sunday, October 19 when DTL Trophy will be up for grabs.