Don’t miss out on the 2010 Arizona State Sporting Clay Championship.  The ASCA is going all out to bring you a fantastic shoot on September 23-26 at the Ben Avery Clay Target Center.  If your looking for one last blast before the Nationals this will be a good one.  There will be 850 targets on offer with a Main, FITASC, Sub-gauge and Side-by events, along with $10,000 added money, in-state and out-of-state trophies.  The targets will be set by Dan Twitchell who has a bit of a rep in the Southwest for "interesting" targets.  What that means I’m not sure because I haven’t shot his targets before but I look forward to it. 

Ben Avery Clay Target Center is a state of the art facility run by the Arizona Game & Fish Department and located north of Phoenix at the intersection of I-17 and SH-74.  The host hotel is the Hampton Inn Anthem located north of the shooting center near outlet malls and restaurants.  Click the icons on the custom Google map below for more. 

For more info and to register:

2010 Arizona State Sporting Clay Championship
Official website

The Triple Classic sporting clay event will be held May 3-8, 2011 at Rio Brazos Hunting Preserve in Simonton, TX.  The shoot is designed to come hot on the heels of the NSCA World English Sporting Championships in San Antonio (which ends May 2nd) in what the organizers are billing as a 10 day festival of sporting clays.

Targets are to be set by Ben Husthwaite and Ben Brunton.  There will be multiple events, with well over 800 targets a shooter could register.  The 300 target main sporting clays and the 150 target FITASC events will both have a six-person super-final.

A magazine ad and Editors Column will be in the upcoming issue of ClayShootingUSA.  iClays registration will open by the end of September and they will be taking registrations at the Nationals.  See the program below for more info.

Triple Classic Program (Download .pdf)

Confirmed dates for the 2011 World English Sporting Clays Championship (Northern Hemisphere) have been released.  They are April 28-May 1st at the National Gun Club in San Antonio, TX.

FITASC has released the latest confirmed updates to the 2011 calendar including dates for the World Championship in Orville, France.  See our calendars above for links and info as it becomes available.

2011 FITASC Calendar

This is the second post of our series on the rules of FITASC.  If you’ve never shot FITASC sporting this is the series for you.  We will spotlight several key areas of the rules to help new shooters of the game understand it and feel more comfortable the first time they shoot it.

If you have been shooting English sporting you are already equipped with the basics of shooting Parcours de Chasse.  Parcours de Chasse means "Course of Hunting" in English and is the proper name of the game.  It has however been increasingly known by the name of its governing body FITASC.

In this second video I show you all about the line and low gun mount requirement of the sport.  In FITASC sporting there can be no "pretense/mock shooting" as the rule book states.  To be specific:

No pretense/mock shooting is authorized on the shooting ranges or outside. If a shooter, before calling “ready”, engages in mock shooting (e.g. shouldering the gun and following the theoretical line of the target trajectory) or fires a shot involuntarily, the referee must give the shooter a warning. After the first warning, any further occurrence is scored “zero” for the next target hit.

The shooter uses a low gun ready position where the butt of the stock must be touching the body below a line marked on the shooters vest or shirt.  Again, to be specific the rule book states:

Shooters must adopt the ready position, i.e. standing with both feet within the limits of the shooting stand, with the heel of the gun stock touching the body under a horizontal line marked on the shooter’s jacket. This line is 25 cm (9.85") below the axis of the shoulder and in parallel with this axis (see diagram below). Shooters must remain in this position until the target is released and is visible.

Also, shooters must fire with their guns shouldered on all targets, including rabbits.

Link to Official FITASC Rules of Parcours de Chasse

This is the first post of our series on the rules of FITASC.  If you’ve never shot FITASC sporting this is the series for you.  We will spotlight several key areas of the rules to help new shooters of the game understand it and feel more comfortable the first time they shoot it.

If you have been shooting English sporting you are already equipped with the basics of shooting Parcours de Chasse.  Parcours de Chasse means "Course of Hunting" in English and is the proper name of the game.  It has however been increasingly known by the name of its governing body FITASC. 

In this first video I give you a "chalk talk" on the basic layout of an "Old System" parcour and how the six person rotation works.  A parcour consists of 25 targets shot over three pegs.  A peg is the shooting position witch is either a one meter square or circle (hoop).  There will be two pegs of four singles and two doubles and one peg of five singles and two doubles to make up the 25 targets.  The five single peg could be any of the three and the doubles on any peg can be on report, true (simo) or Rafale (following) pairs.  BTW: Rafale is properly pronounced something like "Rah’Fah’La".  Old habits die hard.

The parcour is shot in squads of six shooters.  Every shooter will be up first for something, either singles or doubles from one of the three pegs.  On the first peg the first shooter is up for the singles.  After the entire squad has shot the singles from the first peg the second shooter will rotate up and shoot the doubles first.  After the entire squad has shot the doubles they will move to the second peg where the third man in the squad is up first for the singles.  Get it?  The squad rotates between singles and doubles and from peg to peg.

Link to Official FITASC Rules of Parcours de Chasse

The month of July saw temperatures heating up all over the globe and the competition was just as hot.  As reported in our story Back to Back Super Blasts! 2010 World ESP and World FITASC Championships the World English Sporting Championship and the World FITASC Championships took place on two consecutive weekends.  Our stats show that many of you all over the world were accessing that page running up to and during the competitions.  I hope you found it to be a valuable resource. 

First up was the Promatic World English Sporting Championship held the weekend of July 10-11 at Lakenheath CTC in Lakenheath U.K.  The  club has mostly flat terrain with a few trees but they have several towers and lifts to make target presentations more interesting.  "They did a good job.  A few eyesight tests," said event champion Ben Husthwaite, "but we shot over new ground where a huge berm has been put in place, so it was new to everyone."  It wasn’t hard to miss the fact the highest finishing American, Scott Robertson, was only 15th and that individually U.S. shooters seemed to fare better at the World FITASC.  I wondered was this due to the target presentations, "Anthony (Matarese Jr. who finished 3rd at the World FITASC) is a class competitor and a good friend.  I believe the problem in the States is that there are too many instructors that really are of a poor standard but claim to be great.  What they are teaching is of no use to people at all.  I shot with some Americans in the prelim and what they were trying was simply horrible, luckily they have booked in for slots with me in Texas in August!" said Husthwaite. 

World FITASC champ George Digweed had another more cryptic take on the subject, "Whilst both shoots were technical, an ability to read a target once is easier than having to do it four times on the bounce."  Further, Team USA Manager Jeff Demmon said in a report, "Driven targets. I have not seen so many fast, high driven targets. We just do not get to see these in the States. I suppose it is a liability concern for club owners, worried about the target chips falling on the shooter. I expect that most Americans had a bit of trouble with these, so we need to find a way to practice these prior to our next outing across the pond."  At any rate the one thing that is certain in sporting is that nothing is certain.  You just never know how and event is going to fall out.

The U.S. however fared well in the team events winning the Waktare trophy which is given to the country with the highest combined team score.  The Ladies and Juniors won Gold, Seniors won Silver, Vets took Bronze and Super Vets clinched another Silver.  In overall scores it stacked up like this, Gold Ben Husthwaite, Silver Paul Simpson and Bronze George Digweed.

The next weekend the international shooting community moved to Laterina, Arezzo, Italy for the World FITASC Championships held at the club ASD Laterina.  It was even hotter in Italy and again Ben Husthwaite was in the thick of things. "The world english is a 2 day sprint where the FITASC is a marathon." said Husthwaite, "Mentally it was torture, the heat and knowing that George and I were so far in front and one sloppy miss could cost you, really took its toll."  Digweed meanwhile was putting on perhaps his best effort ever in a World competition.  Will this man ever stop?  He was 100 straight on day two, 149ex150 by day three and finished on 197ex200, phenomenal.  When asked about his high level of shooting the reply was an understatement, "Personally I was very pleased with my performance.  I always give every shoot 110% and this was no different."  Of Digweed’s performance and his Husthwaite said, "I have huge confidence in my mental game and knowing I’m one of the best there is at finishing a competition really helped.  Sometimes you shoot average and win, other times you leave nothing and just get beat by a special performance, this was one of the latter.  To lose by one still hurts though."

By all accounts the targets set by Veniero Spada were some of the best in recent World Championship history.  Digweed said, "I concur to this, Spada sets excellent targets.  We have been to two or three Italian Championships where he has set the targets and they have been equally as good."  Husthwaite and Bronze medalist Anthony Matarese Jr. have stated they were excellent targets except the harder birds were not thrown in the pairs.  "Targets were superb, I would have thrown harder doubles to lower the scores but all in all a great event.  If you shot six, 24s and two, 23s that’s 190, you wouldn’t have medalled.  However, saying that I estimate the winning score should have been 191." said Husthwaite.  Targets consisted of a deep variety with many colors and specials used, even the "Wombat" was seen.  Digweed was shooting a new set of Perazzi barrels on the weekend and when asked was this a factor said, "Two year ago in Austria at the European (FITASC Championship) I was found wanting on a Spada course by his short, close targets shooting Full and Full.  I had a second set of barrels made choked 3/8 and 5/8 and only used them on his close targets."  When asked about his equipment Husthwaite said, "I believe all of my equipment is the best available, Krieghoff, Briley, Gamebore and Pilla." 

As stated earlier U.S. shooters fared much better at the World FITASC with the highest finisher on the podium, Anthony Matarese Jr. with Bronze, a great follow up to his Silver in Cyprus two years ago.  Wendell Cherry was 7th and Andy Duffy, Cory Kruse and Gregg Wolff all tied for 12th.  In the team events Team USA took home Gold in the Senior and Super-Vet categories.

In closing Digweed had some interesting things to say, "I am very disappointed with what has been sent to me regarding comments on line etc. and what I hear at shoots regarding target quality.  Shooting needs to drop its macho male dominated, puff your chest out image created by a few delusionary shooters who have ideas of grandeur.

A target is a target.  It still counts the same whether it is thrown at 10 meters or 70 meters.  The reason some people like to shoot extreme targets is that their technical inadequacy is not shown up to as great a degree as it is with normal targets.  For some reason certain areas of the Southern Hemisphere think that you can only have fun by shooting extreme targets.  If we are to grow the sport we have to make it enjoyable for all.  The best shots will always win but coming down the stretch on a Sunday night there may be 8-10 shooters in with a chance instead of just 1-2.

I get told all of the time that the targets are crap and it is a 25ex25 layout.  When asked how they got on, "Oh I shot an 18 or a 20 but it should have been a 25."  My response to all of this is when 15 people shoot 195+ then come and speak to me.  Until then wind your necks back in and keep quiet for a bit.  Standards and equipment improve year after year and these are all relative to the end results."

Promatic World English Event Results

World FITASC Event Results

 All other pictures ©2010 Lori Buschmann

After the GM on July 13, 2010 a tentative calendar has been released by FITASC for 2011.  The sporting schedule is as follows…

Event	Country	Federation	Venue	Date
Chp EUROPEAN	Spain	RFEC	Castillejo de Robledo, Soria (150 km de Madrid)
Chp WORLD	France	FFBT	Orville, Amiens
Chp AFRICA	South Africa	CTSASA	Cape Town
Chp OCEANIA	New Caledonia	FFBT	Noumea	22/24 Apr.2011
Chp LATIN AMERICA	Brazil	CBCT	Curitiba
Chp NORTH AMERICA	USA	NSCA
Grand Prix of New-Zealand	New-Zealand	NZCTA	Wanganui, Rangitikei Club	26/27 Mar. 2011
Grand Prix of Australia	Australia	FGFA	Geelong	5/6 Mar.2011

More can be found at the 2011 FITASC Calendar page on the FITASC.com site.

Triple B Clays in South El Monte, CA (just minutes from downtown L.A.) invites you to the 2010 Southern California Sporting Clay Championship on July 31- August 1st.  Events will consist of a Saturday 100 target Prelim event, a Saturday and Sunday 50 target 5-Stand event and a 150 target Sunday Main event.  Targets will be set by Bruce Barsotti, Zach Kienbaum and Jun Vergara.  Online pre-registration is available through iClays.  Shooters who register through iClays will be able to go through a "VIP" line at the club for a quick check in. 

If you haven’t been to TBC lately, I suggest you go and see the improvements they have made.  Targets and service have been above par lately and with Club Pro Zach Kienbaum and new General Manager Jeff Maiorino at the helm they are poised for great things.

iClays Scores

iClays Squads

Here is a press release from Digweed’s media officials.  He makes some Interesting, possibly inflammatory comments on the state of sporting clays in Europe. 

DIGWEED IMPRESSED BY LATVIAN SHOOTING SET UP
- George praises innovation and professionalism -

George Digweed believes the shooting facilities in Latvia are among the best in the world and that Britain is lagging behind Eastern Europe in the development of the sport.

The Sussex-based shooter was at the country’s Viesaki shooting range last weekend for the latest stage in the World Cup: the Latvian Grand Prix.

He took gold with a total score of 184, edging out his nearest competitor by six clays, and came away full of praise for Viesaki’s innovation and professional organisation.

Speaking on www.georgedigweed.com, he explained: "The ground is privately-owned, but it’s leased to the Latvian Federation, and I would say that it’s probably one of the best-equipped, if not the best-equipped, facilities anywhere in the world.

"They’ve got eight separate FITASC layouts and eight separate COMPAK layouts, all with a large selection of traps on each stand. The whole thing is very professional and they think of new innovations.

"One of the innovations is a tower they’ve built, which has three or four flights of stairs, ten yards apart. You’re probably forty or fifty yards up in the air, you walk up to the top of the tower and shoot down on the targets.

"So that’s very innovative with regards to how you see target presentations. It’s a very efficient, very well-run shoot."

George has previously praised advancements in the sport in Russia, and he has called upon Western Europe to keep the pace with their Eastern neighbours.

"I think that the majority of Westernised Europe has sat on its heels for a long period," he continued. "Eastern bloc countries are now getting heavily involved in the shooting disciplines, and they are pushing forward and aspiring to do bigger and better things and that definitely shows.

"I think that Westernised Europe is being left behind a little bit, and the emerging countries are pushing forward. Countries like England, France and Belgium are remaining fairly staid and their shooting or their shooters are probably not going to improve the way they do things.”

George also believes there’s a lack of winning mentality, along with a bad attitude to success, which plagues Britain when it comes to sport.

In the wake of England’s disappointing exit from the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, George added: "There’s been a big drive over the last 10-15 years to make everybody equal and take the competition side out of all school sports.

"There’s no winners – it’s the taking part that counts. Well for me, that’s rubbish. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have winners in everything.

"Also, if you go to America and you’re a winner, you’re a local, regional and national hero. Over here, as soon as you get to the winning scenario, everyone’s there to take a pot-shot at you."

George is next in action in the World English Sporting Championships at Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Visit George Digweed’s official website www.georgedigweed.com for news updates.

- Ends -

Interesting right?  George has previously said that he believes Eastern Europe has a vast untapped potential for sporting clays growth.  That is certainly true, discretionary income is increasing as investment flows in to those regions creating jobs that pay well.

What say you?  Do you agree or disagree with Digweed’s statements? Post a comment and discuss below!