STEVE ROGERS is the new island sporting clay champion, but even the Island Games bronze medallist would admit his big rival, Andy Ashplant, was suffering from an unusual handicap. Rogers beat Ashplant on the last stand of a shoot-off, but it was quite remarkable the latter got so close to landing the title. He completed the whole day’s shoot with a broken ankle.

‘I broke my leg setting the shoot up,’ said Ashplant, self-employed and off work for another month.

‘Yes, it did hurt,’ said the shot, who took the cast off his ankle and put on a shoe for the competition.

The accident had happened several days before the big Talbot Valley event which attracted 81 shooters over the two days.

‘I was coming down a slope and slipped on some bluebells. I went down and the leg didn’t follow,’ recalled Ashplant.

But even with two good legs, it is doubtful Ashplant would have overhauled the overall winner, Oxfordshire’s Steven Cox.

He scored 95 ex 120, three clear of Rogers and Tim Haywood, the current Sussex FITASC sporting champion.

The 12-stand lay-out was designed and coordinated by the Guernsey Sporting Clay Club and the Guernsey Association for Shooting and Conservation.

The targets consisted of a wide variety of simulated game, including driven pheasant, running rabbit, walked-up partridge and flushed-up woodcock.

These were shot over 12 stands of 10 targets with 60 in each day.