IN THE vast majority of clay target shooting events, the ‘over and under’ shotgun is the preferred gun. Occasionally however, there are instances when the traditional ‘side- by-side gun is used for clays and to cater for that the Guernsey Clay Target Shooting Association stage the annual Side by Side trophy event which brings out old pride and joys, family heirlooms and good old bramble bashers.

This year’s competition at Portinfer consisted of 50 sport-trap style targets.

Overall, the testing nature of the targets coupled with the fact that competitors were not shooting their usual competition guns, produced scores below those usually expected.

Eleven took part and high gun went to Martin Domaille with a score of 28 ex 50. Dean Wilson followed one target behind with Mick Le Pelley taking the third position with 25.

As for the monthly sport-trap half of the 20-striong entry returned a score in excess of 80%.

In this, competitors are permitted to shoot several rounds, with the highest score counting towards the annual championship.

John Wild shot a superb round of 24 ex 25 only to improve further with a maximum 25 at his second attempt.

His nearest rival on 23 was Colin Marquis with joint-third position going to Colin Goubert and Denis O’Regan on 22.

The monthly Olympic trap event was dominated by Darren Burtenshaw on 23 ex 25 followed by Wilson and Shane Harley both on 21.

The Olympic trap shooters also participated in a selection shoot shot over four rounds of 25 targets plus a single barrel final.

Wilson took the early lead but dropped to third behind Burtenshaw and Ken Laine by the second round.

An excellent third round of 24 put Laine into first place only for Wilson to take the lead again after round four. Thereafter positions remained unchanged, with Wilson on 103, Laine on 101 and Burtenshaw on 100.