With snow falling heavily all around the Oldham area on the Friday evening it was looking as though the comp would have to be cancelled. Fortunately, a decision was taken to go ahead as planned and wait to see how many competitors turned up on the Saturday morning. As it turned out, all the competitors made it pretty much on time, an achievement in itself.
After a short delay to allow the sun to melt a couple of ice patches on the approach road to the range, RCO Steve Hooper ushered all the shooters out onto the range to get the shoot underway.

In order to open the scores up a bit, it was decided to score the Fig 11’s 5 for inner (80mm) circle, 4 for inside blue circle and 3 for rest of target, Fig 12’s were scored 5 for inner circle, 4 for outer circle, 3 for rest of target. The fig14 window targets were scored in the usual way.

Stage 1. CQB
A walk down with four exposures of fig14 window targets, ten rounds, and the onus left on the shooter to decide how many shots to take on each exposure. One shot had to be taken from the standing position at each exposure, followed by any number of shots from the kneeling or squatting position. Neil Beeby took the stage with an excellent score of 47, followed by Dave Green and Steve Oakland on 45, a single point ahead of Steve Rees.

Stage 2. The Diggle Warm Up
A one minute exposure of two fig 11’s, unlimited rounds, but only best five hits per target to count,. Targets had to be engaged one shot from standing, squatting, kneeling, sitting and prone unsupported. The sequence to be repeated as many times as possible. Neil Beeby proved to be the nimblest of all, winning with another excellent score of 41. Alan Canavan was next up with a respectable 38, followed by the Cumbrian Daves, Green and Hodgson on 36.

Stage 3. The Standing
This was the standard 100yrd practice. It was that man again, Neil Beeby with another impressive score of 42, a full four points ahead of Steve Rees on 38, followed by Dave Green on 36.

Stage 4. The Diggle Bullet
Back to 200yrds, and the first sighters of the day, followed by ten three second random exposures of the fig14 window target. Dave Hodgson and Steve Rees tied for first place on 41, with Dave Green hot on their heels with 40. Neil Beeby was next up on 39 (can only assume he had a jam or some other problem)

Stage 5. The Sitting
Again this was the standard practice. Well, things were back to normal with Neil Beeby taking the stage with a 39, highly impressive giving the new scoring format. Close behind, only two points adrift came Alan Canavan on 37, with Steve Rees and Dave Green sharing third spot on 32.

Stage 6. The Stephens
Back to 300yrds, two sighters, and ten shots in a forty second exposure of two Fig 11’s from the prone unsupported position. Dave Hodgson and Steve Rees tied again for first place with 33 points, closely followed by Alan Canavan and Steve Oakland on 32. This pair of duo’s was followed by a trio comprising Dave Cowley, Dave Green and Neil Beeby

Stage 7. The Wantage
Another standard stage, and the only possible of the day achieved by Big Dave Hodgson – well shot! Next up were Ed Handley and Steve Rees on 46. Third place was taken by Diggle newcomer, Paul Bowker, in what was only his second comp – well done.

Stage 8. The Unsupported
Time to leave B Range, and move over to the 400yrd firing point on C Range. Two sighters, and then a single exposure of one minute to engage the single fig11 target from the prone unsupported position with ten rounds. Dave Green and Steve Oakland won the stage on 39 points followed by Big Dave on 37, and Steve Rees on 35.

Time was running out, so the last stage was pulled, and everyone made their way back to the Range House for a hot brew while Reecy worked his magic on the results.

First place overall was tied between Neil Beeby and Steve Rees on 299 points. No doubt Neil will be cursing for losing a few points more than he would have liked on the last stage. A good solid performance on all stages paid off in the end for Reecy. The match was awarded to Neil after a countback showed him to have the higher number of A zone hits. A strong performance by Dave Green with his Grendel put him in third place with 290 points. Just as well really, as a poor performance would probably have resulted in cancelled orders for his Grendels !!

The other Cumbrian- Big Dave – was next up on a creditable 284. It was good to see Diggle members Ken Hall and Chris Hollinsworth venture out with a SMLE and No4 respectively. It will also be interesting to see whether it is Ryan or Simon who is first to beat their dad, they both keep edging closer to him.

It is worth noting that Neil and Reecy both shot 308, and Dave his Grendel. It looks as though the dominance of the 223 is under challenge, we shall see.

A big thanks to all the competitors for making the effort, RCO Steve Hooper, Reecy for doing the scoring, and Graham and Eric for putting in a big effort at short notice, to ensure all the targetry was ready on time.