2016 British Open English Sporting Finals Day Report

Mark Winser won the 2016 British Open English Sporting on Sunday afternoon, after a superb round of shooting to earn him the title.

Having qualified for the finals day on Wednesday, Mark returned in confident fashion and made no mistakes in claiming his first ever British Open English Sporting crown.

The day consisted of 75 targets over ten stands, with the top six shooters progressing to the Super Final, taking their score with them, to shoot a further 30 targets.

Mark and Phil Smith shot the highest score in the final, both registering 73 ex 75 to book their places in the six man Super Final. They were joined by George Digweed MBE and Nick Portlock who both shot 71 ex 75, followed by Paul Simpson and Martin Myers who earned their places in the Super Final after a five way shoot-off.

In the Super Final Mark made all, recording two straight tens to give him a healthy advantage. Despite dropping four targets on the last stand, Mark finished on 99 ex 105, three points ahead of runner-up Martin Myers, who defeated Phil Smith in a shoot-off to secure second place.

Upon receiving his trophy, Mark said: “I’m very pleased to have won it. It’s the one trophy that I wanted to get my hands on, at least I wanted to get my name on it anyway. If anybody has got the time to look at it there are some historic names on there, a lot of guys have won that who I looked up to as a youngster.”

He added: “Coming off stands two and three I felt something was going to go right today. I shot the first stand nicely and then my kills and timing got ten times better. Once I set off on the run round the sporting stands, the rhythm just kept getting better and the kills got harder. The more you do that the more confidence lifts.”

“Going into the last three stands in the Super Final, I set off really well, hitting them really hard in the middle and timing them sweet and it carried on through. I had an advantage to carry through on the last stand and I’m really pleased that I did enough to get the title.”

Elsewhere, Arnie Palmer took the Veteran High Gun with a score of 70 ex 75. Last year’s overall winner Steve Brightwell came third in the Veterans category after a shoot-off with Jim Munday to determine category runner-up.

In the Ladies category, Hannah Gibson denied Cheryl Hall of her fourth successive category High Gun. Hannah shot 66, beating Cheryl’s score by two to take the honours, before narrowly losing out to Justin Bladen in a shoot-off for A Class High Gun.

Joshua Bennion recorded 62 ex 75 to win the Colt High Gun as well as coming first in C Class, whilst Aaron Harvey beat Josh Bridges in a shoot-off to take the Junior High Gun.

Our thanks must go to John Bidwell and his team at High Lodge Shooting Ground for hosting the 2016 British Open. The team did a fantastic job. We hope that all shooters who attended throughout the week enjoyed themselves.

For a full list of results for the 2016 British Open English Sporting, click here.