IC shooters on target
Imperial impress up North
After traveling on the M25 for approximately 4 hours the Imperial College Shooting team arrived at the prestigious BUCS Clay Shooting Championship in Hodnet, Shropshire.
Imperial College took 8 shooters to the competition who were split into two equal teams, the undergraduates and overgraduates. As much as the BUCS win was the ultimate goal, the Imperial Quint-Aplin Trophy, that underlines the rivalry between the students and the ones with money, was also what the Imperial shooters were aiming for.
The 4-hour competition consisted of each individual shooting at 100 clay targets that are launched into the sky at up to 100mph in all kinds of directions - some will fly from behind over your head, whilst others are practically launched straight at you.
The aim is to break as many of the targets as possible by firing shots from a shotgun.
The 100 targets are spread out over 14 stands and the day consists of the team visiting each stand and obliterating the clays that it produces. Each stand will be different so you’re always kept on your toes.
In total the Imperial team hit 504 clays out of 800. The undergraduate team contributed to 255 of these whilst the graduates picked up the other 249. Hence this year the young, poor students claimed just enough points to have their names on the Q-A trophy once again.
With outstanding performances from Ed Poore (94) and Ayman Sleiman (83), they ensured that Imperial took three of the five first place titles with Ed coming first overall (out of 340 shooters) and first undergraduate, while Ayman took first place out of all the graduates. The undergraduate team as a whole came in joint 25th of the 51 teams.
Imperial Team: Ed Poore, David Wall, Richard Fox and Pete Lusted for the undergraduates and Ayman Sleiman, Jacob Thorne, Geoff Quint and Anthony Meisner for the graduates.
