Home | Notices | Saturday 8th October 2011

Saturday 8th October 2011

10 October, 2011

Font size:

The inaugural holding of the John Wickham Memorial and ICPSA Open Challenge shoots combined with the ICPSA dinner dance and awards took place on Saturday last.

At Esker Shooting Grounds 76 guns competed over the all round National Skeet-ABT-DTL-Sporting event and the rivalry between the various combined discipline Teams carried over into the two individual events also.

To start with those not familiar with National Skeet found that sometimes things are not as simple as they appear and the only 25 straight's returned on the day came from Peter Hannifin and James McGarry although a large number of 24's and 23's were returned also which gave most shooters a good start.

Next up was the ABT and there with many fallers at this fence as the speed and angles took their tolls even among those who shoot the discipline regularly (indeed internationally!) with all rounder Mark Craven leading the way on a very creditable 23.

The DTL allowed everyone (or almost everyone) an opportunity to catch their breath after the mauling of the ABT with no fewer than 16 shooters returning straights to give a boost to morale entering the final leg.

With 25 targets to go the sporting element was shot over 4 stands and while there were 5 24's returned on the day no one cleared the course with over half the field scoring 19 or better.

When the scores were totalled it was Malcolm Graham who took the High Gun among the 2011 ICPSA Ireland Team members on an excellent score of 95 while Mark Craven won the ICPSA Open Challenge on an equally impressive 93 with the only other 90 plus score on the day coming from Naji el Mayss.

In the Inter-Teams Challenge it was the combined Sporting-FITASC Team who triumphed with a total of 522 while the OT-ABT Team was only 6 targets adrift on 516.

After the shooting it was on to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Athlone for the ICPSA annual dinner dance and awards with almost 130 people in attendance on the night.

Following an enjoyable meal the Life Members draw took place and it was M10587 Denis Carroll whose ticket was drawn from the hat to claim the prize which is valued at €2,500.

Courtesy of Ewan Plenderleith and The Herbert Park Hotel there were three one night stays in an Executive Suite up for grabs also with Hugh McVitty, Catherine Dowdall and Sean P. Tracey being the lucky winners.

After that it was the turn of Matt Cotter, Sara McLoughlin, Adrien Kneale, Chris Moriarty, Mary Coleman, Garry Mannering, Mark Thorne, Gerry Lawless, Aoife Gormally, Anne Ridgeway, Glenn Ross, Ivor Fannin, Noel Kearns, Niall O'Hara, Peter Hannifin, Ziad Chammas, Tara Jackson, Pat Donaghy and Lisa Hoban to also win spot prize's on the night (including boxes of Jaffa Cakes which claimed to be taller than the average Elf!).

It was then on to the 2011 ICPSA Ireland Teams and those who attended the ICTSF World Sporting Championships, FITASC European Championships, FITASC World Championships, DTL HCIT, European DTL Championships, Olympic Skeet HCIT, Olympic Trap HCIT, National Skeet HCIT, ABT HCIT, Sporting HCIT and FITASC HCIT all received their international Team badges.

It was noted that the ICPSA spent almost €40,000 supporting members on non-ISSF Ireland Teams in 2010 and all the Teams were congratulated on their performances while special mention was made of the Ireland DTL Teams and individuals who dominated the HCIT and European Championships as well as the OSK Team who won the HCIT for the very first time and the Ireland Junior Team who took the honours at the FITASC HCIT.

After that it was on to the 2011 AIB Shooting Star Awards which were presented to Jim Doherty (DTL) and David Christie (OSK) in absentia while Patrick Cole (FITASC), Aoife Gormally (ABT), Maurice Cavanagh (Spt), Enda Clerkin (OT) and Gordon Roulston (NSK) collected their awards in person.

Next up were special presentations to Bishops Mountain SC, Esker SG and Mill Hill CPSC who all hosted international competitions in 2011 on behalf of the ICPSA.

Following a minutes silence in memory of all ICPSA members who had passed away since the last awards night (and in particular John Wickham, John Howlin, John Ellis and Don Rennicks), Mark Wickham presented the John Wickham Memorial Trophy to the winning Sporting/FITASC Team as well as runners up badges to the ABT/OT Team while the ICPSA Chairman presented Mark Craven with the ICPSA Open Challenge Trophy following which he said a few words to those assembled.

After that it was time for everyone to let their hair down and thankfully this year members brought their dancing shoes and took to the floor for firstly the live band and then the following disco but while the music stopped at 3am, for some die hard's it was after 8am before they finally called it a night...

We would like to thank everyone who supported the shoot and night out and if the feedback to date is anything to go by we can look forward to the same again next year.

Last but not least we would like to thank Manus Quinn (Smith and Williamson Freaney), Derek Burnett (Derek's Fieldsports Supplies) and Kevin Kilty (Merrion Capital) who generously sponsored the three new trophies awarded on the day as well as Thomas Houlihan (Trophycraft) who went to great lengths to ensure that the trophies were something which anyone would be proud to have their name on.

Esker Shooting Grounds
Saturday 8th October 2011
ICPSA Open Challenge Trophy
High Gun	Mark Craven	93
	Gerry Ellis	87
	Aiden Fogarty	87
	Mathew Sheedy	87
	John Tomkins	85
ICPSA Individual Ireland Team Challenge Trophy
	Malcolm C Graham	95
	Naji El Mayss	90
	Ian O'Sullivan	88
	Michael Noone	88
	Hugh McVitty	88
	Patrick Cole	88
	Peter Hanifin	88
The John Wickham Memorial Trophy
Spt/FITASC	Naji El Mayss
	Patrick Cole
	Peter Hanifin
	Brian Smyth
	Colin Dunne
	Billy Kearns	522
ABT/OT	Malcolm C Graham
	Ian O'Sullivan
	Glenn Ross
	David Callaghan
	Ivor Fannin
	Adam Howard	516