- PHOTOS BY RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
LEFT: Charles Walker waiting to have a go at the NCB Capital Markets Sporting Clay Open at the Caymanas Golf and County Club last Sunday. RIGHT: Milade Azan waits his turn to take aim.
Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
A BREEZY Sunday morning at the Caymanas Golf and Country club found over a hundred participants in keen competition, but wait! Not a golf club was in sight.
No, for the NCB Capital Markets Sporting Clay Open, the instruments of choice weren't nine irons and putters, but shotguns, bullets and plenty of earplugs. Though the targets weren't real (for clay shooting they use discs fired from a sort of pulley) the shots were as real as they come.
Competitors made their way around all 15 stations (spots from where you shoot), to complete the course. Three golf carts were assigned to each station to help teams lug their equipment around. Participants were more than happy for the carts to help them get around the spacious course.
Every station had two spots from which the discs are released. Give the command 'pull' to the referee/scorer and the target goes flying. Take aim and squeeze the trigger. Like golf holes, every station provides its own difficulty, like trees blocking your view. Also, the flight and trajectory of the discs will vary, based on where the machines are placed. Bottom line: this isn't for the scattershot shooter who fires a bunch of rounds and hopes he hits the target.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
Seasoned shooters know it's all about keeping your hands steady and following the flight of the discs, even through the greenery in your line of vision. They turned teacher at times to the children, yes, children - who acquitted themselves quite well with shotguns almost taller than they were. You don't have to hit the clay bird dead centre, just take off a piece of it. If you miss completely, the score is zero for that target.
For our first vantage point, we gathered to see the action at Station 14, which was one of the 'true pair' stations. This means that both the disc-firing machines are triggered at the same time. So you have two targets coming toward you simultaneously.
When the smoke cleared (in this case almost literally), Joseph Chin took the title with a score of 93 out of 100. Bobby Chung with a score of 90 took the A class with Bruce DuQuesnay taking the B class with a score of 86. Patsy Kelly topped the women with a score of 82 while Richard Azan and Daniel Shwapp took the Juniors and Sub-Juniors categories, respectively.
