ROUND 1 LEA VALLEY - 17-03-2010

Well , having concluded my 1st UKAHFT season in 2009 at The Gathering at Emley Moor in November, I was looking forward to the 2010 series, starting at Lea Valley, like I used to look forward to my wedding anniversaries. And after a busy winter Shooting at MAD, Kibby and a couple of Regional shoots, we're finally here.

The Saturday before, was spent by a few at Mad, getting ready with a typically tricky wind laden 30 shot course, followed by some Chrono'ing , gun tuning and final adjustments. For me , from November to April, Mad is too far to travel, apart from the monthly opens, so my preparations were, chrono my gun in the garden in the dark under the security light on Thursday evening , followed by 30 shots to check my new 25m zero at NTSC, my indoor range club near my home.
After an uneventful 70 mile trip to Lea valley with my 'UKA' virgin son, arriving just after 8am, the LV car park was already busy with shooters, new and old, preparing theirs , and friends guns. The booking in queue was already snaking backwards and the kitchen and bacon butty van were busy.

The morning was bright and clear, the sun was warm and the car park was calm wind wise, but the tops of the trees in the woods were already telling a different story. Groups were chatting, and shooters were checking zero, or trying to on the range, with the tricky LV wind already evident.
The 'peace' was shattered by Laity's Scooby, kicking up a dust storm Colin Macrae style in to the car park. Captain Laity, and Highland Outdoors sponsored WTFB emerged resplendent in Camo and the now common, but much valued and revered Red Cap.

Whilst I gassed up my Mk3, and my HW100 for my lad, Capt Laity was scouring the thronging shooters and pellet suppliers for some more 4.53 pellets which he thinks perform best in his BSA, the Bastid son of SOD.
As time ticked, and the car park filled, Sparky announced Safety speech at 9.20 and KO at 9.30. Ian called The Mad team together for the captains team talk, but Laity was unavailable, still trying to wring some performance from his 453's out of the barrel of son of SOD, so Ian did it.
His wise words of preparation and personal performance are now much valued, with several respected members of rival clubs trying to creep up to hear, Jane Sparkes thought that Quarry would benefit so, relayed his wise words down the car park like a foreign translator mimics our world leaders, well her words sounded more foreign than Ian's!

Safety speech over and off to our shooting pegs, the entry to the woods was greeted by a wind howling down the opposite hill and up through the trees, seemingly from all directions.
Pegs attended, we wait an age for the starting klaxon and finally it is heard faintly at the extremity of the wood at peg 17, my starting point. As the pegs progress, the banter starts, In my group, with both myself and Steve Light battling with new zero points and the LV wind, we've soon become despondent, dropping silly shots, with word, down the lines of how everybody is doing, and apparently, Chris Sutcliffe claims he's being raped, so its either by a big bitch, or the wind, but who was he shooting with?? Pete Dutton ??
We exit the woods and tackle a few targets, mainly uneventfully, towards the Chrono tent, and after my night time session, I am confident that my consistent FTR will be ok, and so it was.

Surprisingly, out of the woods , the wind was nearly non existent, however, after pegs 1-3, its back into hell. The wind continues to whip in from the side and behind, back down the hill and back to where we started, and all of a sudden three and a half hours from when we began,our session was over. My wheels fell off 6 targets from the end with 4 straight misses, leaving me with a now common, but disappointing 51.

The walk back to the car park, was met by many others who, initially disappointed, now appear to be in a similar boat. The wind had destroyed many cards, Sparky included, but there was still talk of shooters with 57's (including Nick the English Bok , borrowing SOD, which had previously only ever attained much lower scores,) 58's and a 59.

Incredibly, Laity's 453s had helped him and son of SOD to a rare 50!

More Surprisingly, Saturdays tuning session obviously didn't help MAD's top brick chucker, Lloyd, his highly modified Logun cannon having failed the chrono check , leaving him disqualified.

After ditching the Camo, sharing a bacon roll with m'dawg, and a cup of tea, I prepared Aaron for his first 'solo' shoot in the long delayed second session, with some words of kindly advice, 'look after my gun'.
The car park banter was again fierce, with talk, now of individuals scores replaced with team scores, and MADs A team having scored 281, with some good second session shooters possibly to improve it.

With the second session underway, I donned a yellow vest and radio, for my 1st run out as a marshal, trainee status this time though, a wander back through the woods with Chilly , my reward. If anything, the wind seemed to have worsened for the many Dads withs their offspring, so after half a session I handed my trainees vest to WTFB for his stint, his mentor being Capt Laity.
Much of the next hour or so, was spent under the chrono tent, listening to Dave the Hats tale of disqualifying the owner of a brand spanking £1800 Walther, also overpowered, and an unhappy owner of a new Daystate, running at 10.5ft/lbs, MADs new resident gun tuner and chronomaster, Chilly put his mind at rest by telling him that thats as high as it would ever go without a trip back to Staffordshire.

Pleasingly there were many tales of woe, all due to the howling LV wind, and the odd borrowing of un familiar guns due to last minute malfunctions.
A confident approach was made to the tent by another victim of Chilly's expert gun tuning, with Ian's new S400 running at 805fps on the newly calibrated but conservative uk Chrono, the air was thick with the bluest of expletives , and word quickly went down the marshals radios that Chilly should avoid Ian's Burgers for the foreseeable future.

As the steady trickle of returning shooters began, it was clear that LV had taken many victims, including some of the best shooters in the country, but also some had been either exceptionally skilfully, or incredibly lucky with the wind, or both.
Another 59 shooter took the honours in session 2, and Mad A team picked up 3 more points to take their 1st team title of the series and hopefully the first of many this year.

Terrys car boot clearout completed the afternoon prior to the final gathering of all who remained, and after nine and a half hours at the ground, the presentations were made, the raffles drawn and some people going home ecstatic with a prize, and the rest thinking of the 'if onlys', we jumped in our cars to begin, for some, some very long journeys.

But for many, we'll meet again in a couple of weeks at Kelmarsh for the WHFTA , and soon after that round 2 at Bisley.

Roll on.

Wayne.