Friendly rivalry at Cobb charity shoot

Competitors taking part in the Cobb charity shoot at High Lodge, Darsham. (Image: Archant)

Around 100 competitors took part in the all-day event at John Bidwell’s shooting grounds at High Lodge at Darsham, near Yoxford. There were teams from all the major UK poultry production companies and most major suppliers to the industry, with 150 people in all at the event.

The competition consisted of an 80-bird sporting layout, broken into two separate courses with every competitor shooting each stand. Two 80 bird, four-man team flushes were included, one as part of each course.

“We set a varied but challenging course using some of High Lodge’s array of sporting stands. There were several top shots in the various teams,” said John Vincent, Cobb Europe director of quality assurance, who organised the event.

“Although our intention was for the event not to be taken too seriously, there was plenty of healthy competition and no lack of friendly rivalry between teams. I’d like to thank all our suppliers and customers, and everyone who took part, for their support to achieve such a fantastic result for Papworth Hospital. It will be difficult to top this in future years — but we’ll give it a go.”

The overall winner was Jonathan Balls with a score of 71/80. Second individual was shared between Ben Beavis and Darren Pratt with 67/80.

The winning team, who managed to achieve a combined score of 390, was comprised of Cobb production members and friends Jimmy and Allen Lambert, Darren Pratt and Jonathan Balls.

Runner up with 346 was the team from Faccenda — Reg Smith, Chris Durrant, David Beavis and Torbjörn Persson. Third place with 338 was shared between ‘The Red Devils’ Patrick Garland, Andy Payne, Tony Bartley and Paul Reeve and the team from G W Padley — David, Steven, Richard and George Padley.

Cobb-Vantress, Inc. is a poultry research and development company involved in the production improvement and sale of broiler breeding stock.