High winds greeted the shooters to the first day of the Caboolture Clay Target Club Annual Skeet Carnival and the official opening of the new (3rd) skeet layout. The $3,220 prize table was heavily laden with a variety of prizes and donations of ammunition in addition to donated prize money.

As the hopeful and eager shooters lined up at the nominations office with their nomination forms for two person teams, three person club team and sweep stakes, the wind appeared to increase further blowing over cartridge bins, wheelie bins and stealing a variety of baseball caps!

All shooters were advised that shooting a 25/25 on the new skeet layout would give them an entry into a draw to win back their nomination fee for the weekend, but the high winds ensured that no one achieved a perfect round in the first 25 target eye opener event.

The ever-hopeful skeet shooters appeared undaunted by the challenge of shooting in such high winds and so, with cartridge bins weighted down with rocks, baseball caps duly tightened and small children firmly secured, the first three squads filed out to address the 100 target annual skeet championship event. Both Lorraine Hughes and Glenn Walker were able to achieve a perfect 25/25 on the new skeet layout but were unable to follow it up with a further perfect round. At the half-way point only Nigel Hughes has achieved an elusive 50/50.

The skeet contingent then took a break for lunch and swapped stories of targets shot in self-defence, low 8's skimming just overhead and much laughter over shoot officials trying to set any targets. Lunch of home cooked butter chicken curry, lasagne and home baking was deliberated upon slowly while people hoped that the high winds would ease a little.

After shooting the final 50 of the 100 target event, Nigel Hughes emerged the victor with a 95/100. AA and A grade were fought for in a short doubles shoot off between Lorraine Hughes and Shane Bennet and Mathew Rhue and Laurie Rodden. Paul Bozier won B grade outright closely followed by Brad Mensforth. Jim Rodden had a very successful weekend starting with his C Grade win with 86/100 followed by a loyal Caboolture Club supporter Rob Wilkie with 79/100. The overall winner was sponsored with a great prize by Glenn Walker and the grade winners taking away a combined $500 plus ancilliary prizes.

Due to smooth running over the three layouts the day looked set to finish earlier than planned and so a fun Deauville Doubles event was suggested. Each of the 14 participating shooters paid $5 to brave the continued high winds. Shooters wanting to choose a shooting partner had to then pay a premium price with Nigel Hughes fetching the highest bid from Laurie Chelepy which turned out to be a wise buy. Seven shooters each lined up on stations 3 and stations 5 to commence shooting their pairs. After 6 pairs, only 3 sets of shooters remained and their ammunition quota was reduced to 3 shells between them per pair of targets. After a further 6 pairs, only the teams of Nigel Hughes/Laurie Chelepy and Frank Cooper/Lorraine Hughes remained with their ammunition allowance reduced to one shell each per pair of targets. A further 6 pairs of targets saw both sets of shooters on the same score and so a "miss and out" round was commenced with saw a jubilant Laurie Chelepy and Nigel Hughes emerge the victors and walk away to the bar with their pot of cash!

Day two commenced (with much relief) to the absence of high winds. A beautiful Queensland day, with bright sunshine and light winds greeted a few additional shooters for day two.

Despite the renowned great Caboolture targets, only two shooters were able to achieve a perfect 25 in the first event. Fortunately both of those 25 were on the new layout and so the names of Craig O'Neill and Chris Larsen were added to the draw to win back their nomination fees.

The inaugural "super handicap" was next and much deliberation was undertaken over the merits of gaining more "lives' by shooting a small gauge versus the effect of the score shot on overall and grade high gun places. With final choices made and no-one brave enough to the shoot the .410g, the results of the 50 target qualifying rounds event saw 10 hardy shooters line up for the shoot off.

With the generosity of a new/returning skeet shooter, Kevin Aitchison, donated a $75 spot prize for the shooter who hits the rogue black target placed in the stack of flouro orange targets. The crowd sat outside in the perfect Qld sunshine to eat their lunch and watch the squad of 10 shooters dwindle to five by station 7 of the first round. On station 7, Mark Fanning's eyes widened a little when he saw that rogue black target emerge and a round of applause from everyone as he successfully smoked the target. The second shoot off round saw four shooters commence being Craig O'Neill (20 gauge), Mark Fanning (28 gauge), Jaco Pieterse (12 gauge) and Laurie Chelepy (20 gauge). The second round was completed by Craig O'Neill and Jaco Pieterse with high one in the third round being Craig's downfall to see a very nervous Jaco, in his first ever skeet competition, emerge as the winner and sash bearing of the 2011 handicap event. This event was enthusiastically supported and will be definite in next year's calendar and Skeet Captain Nigel Hughes is determined to have a shotgun as the winner's prize next year so mark this event in your calendar!

With the start of the final "love it or hate it" doubles event, there were only 2 targets separating the top 7 shooters. Only Laurie Chelepy was able to achieve the elusive 50/50 doubles to emerge the overall winner and Craig O'Neill with a great 49/50 winning AA Grade. A shoot off between Dubbo shooter Shane Bennet (on his way to the Qld State Titles in Townsville) and Glenn Walker saw Shane as the victor for AA grade 2nd with a score of 61/66. Paulette Walker continued her ever improving great form and recent move to A grade with a doubles win with 46/50 with Frank Cooper 2nd with a score of 61/66 after a shoot off with Mathew Rhue. Tracey Ashton won B grade on 42/50 closely followed by Sarah Bennet with 41/50. C Grade was won by Fay Mills with John Reynolds 2nd.

After the final shoot offs were complete, an army of helpers descended on the layouts to tidy up and pack away at the end of a great carnival.

With so many prizes and large number of sponsors the prize giving was the real highlight of the weekend, with heartfelt acknowledgements by Nigel Hughes to all of the sponsors and numerous helpers involved in making the shoot such a success, including those working in the background who are often overlooked. A special announcement was then made that Frank Cooper, Mark Fanning and Brad Mensforth have agreed to sponsor and accompany Caboolture junior and current National 28 gauge champion Thomas Rhue to attend the New Zealand Skeet Nationals by providing his flights, accommodation, ammunition, entry fees and to chaperone him during the whole of the shoot. Their amazing generosity and support for our great sport is overwhelming and there was more than one person with a tear in their eye at the look of total surprise and joy on Thomas's face. Thomas Rhue's sportsmanship, talent and hard work at every shoot is an inspiration to everyone and not least his very proud parents, Mathew and Helen. Thank you to Frank, Mark and Brad for your generosity, it is people and gestures such as this which make our sport a pleasure to be involved in.

Sponsors included Billabong Off-Road, a first time and major sponsor of the event who not only provided a major prize but also supplied two off-road vehicles for display. Bob Katter's Australian Party, also a new sponsor to the event, provided 3 cases of shells in addition to prizes provided by Winchester, Fay & Allan Mills, Glenn Walker, Coffee Club, Dining Out Magazine, Pine Rivers Lock & Gun and Ray Trade Distributors. A HUGE thank you to each and every one of you.

The prize giving commenced with a draw by Frank Cooper, who was instrumental in the building of the new skeet layout, to find the winner of the 'refunded nominations' for shooting 25/25 on the new layout. There were a large number of compliments for Frank's painstaking and exacting work with several people commenting on the '"perfect layout". Lorraine Hughes emerged the winner and after some jovial requests to check that there were other peoples name in the draw, Lorraine took away her refunded nominations of $110.

Next came the hotly contested team shoots. Commencing with the Frank & Sherrill Cooper Perpetual Trophy for the three person club team which is scored over 100 targets plus any handicap allowance to entice lower grade shooters into the teams. An effective strategy when a tie break was announced between the Caboolture A Team consisting of all C Grade shooters of Fay Mills, Theo Pieterse and Jaco Pieterse and the mixed grade Caboolture B Team of Frank Cooper, Mathew Rhue and Thomas Rhue. A count back was applied with Caboolture B team being the victor to have their names engraved on the trophy (the second consecutive year for Thomas Rhue).

The two man team was won outright by a jubilant Shane Bennett and Nigel Hughes with a score of 459/500.

The section winners were next with Thomas Rhue being the Junior High Gun with 203/250, Lorraine Hughes for Ladies High Gun with 222/250 and Neil Dimmick for veterans with 221/250. AA Grade Glenn Walker 233/250, A Grade Mathew Rhue 230/250, B Grade Tracey Ashton 215/150 and C Grade Jim Rodden 206/250.

The biggest accolade of the weekend, and the one all skeet shooters strive for, is the overall high gun. The winner of the Caboolture Clay Target Club 2011 Skeet Champion goes to Rockhampton's Laurie Chelepy with a score of 235/250. Laurie, with arms laden full of prizes, thanked everyone for a great fun weekend, with the usual outstanding Caboolture Club hospitality and he was thrilled to have won after having shot in some of the toughest conditions he has ever experienced on the Saturday.