Following an impressive fourth-place finish at the St Andrews Challenge in the Michaelmas term, the University Clay Pigeon Shooting team made the journey to the West Midlands Shooting Ground in Hodnet for the annual BUCS championships.  The two day competition was attended by 16 universities and colleges and saw nearly 300 entrants with Cambridge finishing fifth overall, and Caian Andreas Koltes placed in the top ten.

After a shaky start the team soon found their feet, with few targets escaping them after one or two stands. This trend continued over most of the course until the last two stands; generally considered to be the hardest, gusty winds compounded the difficulty but Cambridge's top shots responded strongly, with Paul Saunders shooting exceptionally well to hit all but two targets on the final stand.

Once the last shot had been fired, the team retreated to the clubhouse to await the publication of scores. The teams who had shot earlier in the weekend had been on very good form and achieved some very impressive scores, however Cambridge had outperformed almost all of them, finishing fifth in the student class and with all 1st team members in the top 50 scores. Oxford finished in 16th place having had a difficult round, the superior standing providing the team with an early psychological advantage ahead of the Varsity competition in the Easter term. 

Cambridge 1st Team

Andreas Koltes - Gonville & Caius (84/100)

Paul Saunders - St Edmund's (80/100)

Theodore Cosco - Trinity Hall (74/100)

David Godwin - Homerton (74/100)