Rootin' tootin' shootin'
Neon Play has been on a fun studio outings in its time, including go-karting, our extraordinary Christmas party and the annual trip to the fair. So it was time for something a little different this time - the whole team went clay pigeon shooting.
Look at us in our snazzy matching caps and protective eyewear!
Lock, stock and two shmokin' barrels
Only a couple of the team had ever held a 12-bore shotgun before, so there was a lot of trepidation and a buzz of anticipation as we arrived at the magnificent Ian Coley Shooting School in Andoversford.
As with most days this glorious British summer, it was a balmy and sunny evening (OK, not really, it was peeing with rain), but luckily all the shooting was under cover, so this wasn’t a problem.
Here's some of the team getting briefed on how to use a shotgun. Look at the puzzled concentration...
Olympic coach!
What we didn’t know was that Ian Coley was the British Olympic Team’s clay pigeon shooting coach, which was pretty cool. And in fact, the next day, he was off to the Olympic Village with his team. And he gave the whole team a briefing and reassured us that the recoil on the guns wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be (but we were hard men, so this was never going to be an issue of course...).
Here's a few hotshots with the great Ian Coley...
We were split into teams of three and we headed off into the rainy mist to each of the five different stands. Here's Oli showing the team how it should be done!
The competition was fierce, the banter flew, the instructors were fantastic and full of support, eg, “Do you fish...? It’s time you started!”, and the whole team all shot at five clays at different stands. Left to right, going away, a high bird, right to left and coming towards you - all giving a great variety of types of shooting.
Here's Jon showing that practice makes perfect...
After a tightly-fought contest, Billy came out the winner on the day (just), but we all managed to shoot several clays each. PS Mark came last!
