After 14 Weeks last Sunday August 18th we reached the penultimate and final stage of this years Browning Summer League. on the last day to enter scores on the 14th of August there was 51 entries with shooters eager to drop one of their lowest score to get a class placing.
The Semi Final seen a total of 65 shooters in who qualified to participate in the final. This years League was our most successful to date with 849 entries and 42,450 clays thrown over the 14 weeks, these figures do not include re-entries which would bring the total entries to well over 1,000. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Sponsors Browning International, CCI Clays and Countryside Alliance Ireland.
The League success is down to the competitors who participated every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning we had on average 60+ entries each week and we would like to this opportunity to thank all those who participated and made the league the success it was. The standard of competition from week 1 was strong and you really needed to shoot out of your skin each week to be in the reckoning for the class prizes. The class prizes went right down to the wire and nothing was decided till the final week.
The final itself was a great success with everything running on time and schedule. The Flush was proving to be great success early in the morning for those competitors keen to loosen up before shooting the final. The Novice Class C & D shooters were out first at 11am and John Gilligan returned the highest score in qualifying with a 43 followed by Stephen Kiernan on 42. The 6 Grand Finalists from the Novice Class were John Gilligan, Constatine Shumakov, Valeriy Yavtushenko, Stephen, Kiernan, Rob McNally and Gerard Keogh. Next out at 12pm we had 6 squads for the Senior Semi Final with Chris Adams returning with a 47 for the highest qualifying score followed by Shaun Teeling on 45. We had a tie for the last place to get into the final were Declan Hogan beat Aaron Cuddy 10-9 in a shoot off. Our 6 Grand finalist in the AA, A, B category were Chris Adams, Shaun Teeling, Warren Hogan, James Hogan, Barry Clegg and Declan Hogan.
In the Grand Final the 2 highest qualifiers in their sections Chris Adams & John Gilligan continued where they left off earlier in the day. Rob McNally kept the pressure on John the whole way around the course and in the end both tied on 42. Then we had another shoot off where John won the toss and sent Rob in to shoot first he scored 7, John knew what he had to shoot and duly obliged with 8 to clinch the Novice High Gun for 2013. Meanwhile in the Senior category Chris Adams set the tone in the first 2 stands clearing both of them piling the pressure on his opponents. Declan Hogan was hanging onto his coat tails the whole way and kept the pressure on Chris and if it wasn’t for missing a full pair on the second stand it could have been a different result. In the end Chris finished on 46 and along with his 47 earlier in the day 93/100 overall which given the course was exceptional shooting. Speaking to the other finalists after there was no qualms and was put quite simply the best man won on the day! Congratulations to Chris and John on their fantastic achievements and also all the other Class Winners we look forward to another successful league next year.
Given the great success of the League this year there is a few people who need to be thanked for their tireless efforts which goes on in the back ground they are as follows:
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Sponsors Browning International, CCI Clays and Countryside Alliance Ireland.
Johnny Murphy took the entries every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning. Garrett Ruigrok who provided hours of coaching and tuition to the Novice classes and a lot of his pupils went on to claim Class Prizes. The groundsman Sam for setting the courses each week and keeping the Traps filled and in tip top condition. Mark Gaffney, Danny Bryan & Gerry Cowley for there help with setting up the course for the Final. Luke Boardman who kept track of all the scores, statistics, classes and handicaps and his excellent organisational skills on the final day he ensured everything ran smoothly and on schedule.
Details of the Winter League will be announced in the coming weeks keep an eye here on the Website for details. All results from the League and finals are available to download in the links below.
Again we would just like to thank all those that participated and contributed in making the league the success it was.
Yours in Sport,
Courtlough Shooting Grounds
Photos from the Summer League Final are available here
Browing Summer League 2013 Classes AA A B Grand Finalists
Browning Summer League 2013 C & D Class Grand Finalists
Courtlough Summer League 2013 21.07.2013 Week 14 and Semi Final