AT BRAIDWOOD on Sunday, Donald Livingston (Edinburgh) set out to defend the Winter Series title over the course set by Jim Black and refereed by clubmate, Joe Baumgart (Hawick).
Livingston and Jim Brodie (Denholm) were joint-favourites with an average winter placing of 1.5. Stuart Dawson (Bedlington), Gordon Boertien Lockerbie), Rab Neil (North Berwick), John Ross (Whitburn) and wild card, Keith Learmonth (Heriot) also had glory in sight, with only 80 targets between any one of them and victory.
The result of the 2011-12 Winter Series Championship was quite clear-cut, Brodie the undisputed title holder on a total score of 75 ex-80.
He began his attack on the trophy, early carding 36 ex-40 over the first layout, a full three points clear of Boertien, Dawson and Livingston.
After a short break they headed out on to layout two, where Brodie proceeded to give a demonstration in shooting. Unbelievably to those watching and Brodie himself, he missed one of the easiest clays of the day to fall just short of a perfect 40. Ross and Learmonth made up for weaker first halves by popping in 38 and 36 ex-40 respectively, Learmonth sharing the third slot with Boertien.
Running alongside the Shoot-off event, another 50+ guns took part in the regular 40/40 sporting competition over the same targets.
Stuart Donaldson (Musselburgh) rose to the challenge, securing the Best of the Rest Shield from a score of 36 ex-40, Tam Patterson (Galashiels) shot a blinder to take runner-up slot, just a single clay less on 35, while third place was split between a pack of six members all on 33.
Round two went to a three-way tie between Eric Forster (Heriot), Jack Carlyle (Dalton) and Lindsay Gordon (Prestonpans), who all broke 38 ex-40. George Brown (Cumbria) shared the next highest score on 37 with trophy winner Donaldson.
When overall scores were tallied, Donaldson was revealed as the aggregate winner, breaking 73 ex-80. Forster, Carlyle, Dave Allison (Hawick) and Kyle Smith (Dunbar) were closest at 69.
The next shoot at Braidwood is on Sunday, April 8, when the ground reverts to summer hours. Dawson has the opportunity to defend the Yarrow Trophy.
Entries close at 12.30pm. All welcome.