The 11^th August was a ridiculously glorious day. The weather was absolutely glorious, the setting was idyllic and the girls were all superstars – what more could we have asked for?

So the day started beautifully; we arrived at Churchills – which looked absolutely splendid with it’s wonderfully manicured grounds and it’s inviting lodge style club house and shop. We were greeted by the lovely Jane and Charlie, the Churchill ladies, who are probably the friendliest and most hospitable girls around. The function room was our very own private S&CBC cake and mingling room. The high ceilings and plenty of glass made for a really lovely meeting place and a great first impression of this stunning ground.

The girls started to arrive, first to join was Cathy who had kindly driven all the way up from Essex to join us, a keen shot who you may remember wrote the review on her Blaser F3 over/under some time ago.

A steady stream of girls started to congregate and were allotted name badges and introduced to other girls. Our team of Instructors waited patiently at the back (all looking fabulous in their tweed vests by the way), whilst we chatted, got acquainted and tucked into tea and Cathys custard powder biccies!

The girls were split up, given their score cards and cheerily set of to the stands with their Instructors. The groups were all fab, there was a really nice mix of absolute beginners, novice and one or two really experienced girls.

In one group there was Lynda (who has been to the S&CBC on a few occasions), Cathy, Dawn (a brand newbie), Anna and Sophie.

Then we had the more experienced girls who had their own guns. Annie, a real sweetheart, Erin another S&CBC regular who was sporting a Ladies Shooting Pheasant T Shirt, Marielle – an experienced lady & wine lover, Aileen with a newly fitted gun, Michelle who was a really good shot and Marcel a keen dog trainer who was joining us for her 2nd time. The girls all shot really well indeed and were all a really good fun!

Jill looked fabulous in her leather waistcoat, floral shirt & Spanish riding boots, we were sworn not to mention it was her birthday – so a very happy belated birthday from all of us. Kat came will Jill, who were grouped with the gorgeous Jemima, Louise and Amy.

We were also joined by the following gorgeous girls; Fiona, Kate, Jen, Jess (amazing baker), Jo – three friends who had travelled up from London. Helen joined us, as did the charming Rosie, Lucy, Samina, Shawna and Kitty. All if whom looked fantastic & were really good fun! Mark Lord from www.thesportingpicture.com was our photographer for the day, a genuinely lovely chap who took these fantastic pics on our behalf.

Everyone seemed pleased with the variety of targets we were given, which were situated in our own little private area (lovely the privacy, as it felt like we had the grounds to ourselves, even though the car park was chocka). The stands comprised of a driven target, which most people seemed delighted with, an incomer, a crosser and the dreaded rabbit! The instruction was fabulous of course, just as you would expect at an award winning ground, the Instructors were patient, helpful and had a cracking sense of humour! It was nice to have a rare lady instructor too, Roberta who was absolutely wonderful.

So, once the shooting had finished and under the heat of the midday sun, we all gathered once more in the beautiful function room – this time the tea cups were at the ready and cake stands were set up and adorned with a mouth watering array of home made goodies. With everything from gorgeous Ginger cake, a shotgun and broken clay cake made by Charlie, the most pretty macaroons in pastel colours, moist chocolate brownies, Aileens awesome iced flower sponge and the most amazing chocolate sqaures as baked by Jo.

As the tea flowed and the cake was slowly disappeared, the score cards were totted up and the winners were announced: Anna won the hip flask for the most experienced lady who shot 23/30 and Dawn won the beginners – huge congrats to both of them.

Aileen kindly surveyed all of the ladies as to their favourite cake, Jess’ chocolate square romped home with the majority vote.

It was a delight to have Mr Adam Calvert on hand to talk about gun fitting etc, I know some girls went away thrilled with some suggestions.

Massive thanks to Jane, Charlie and the team at EJ Churchill for their supreme efforts which ensured the day ran seamlessly, the gun cleaning, the goodie bags and the caps were all sincerely appreciated and very nice touches indeed. HUGE thanks also for everyone who came along, all who helped promote it with the endless retweeting and link sharing, and a very special thanks to Aileen and Nico for cooking me a gorgeous dinner and having me to stay the night before.

Our next shoot at Churchills will be confirmed shortly, it’s going to be in December so if you would like to come along, do get in touch on info@ladies-shooting.com – we’re thinking mince pies, fruitcake and a few cheeky mulled wines in front of the log fire.

We’re also having a S&CBC Sporting Competition next Saturday at the Oxfordshire Shooting School, with a class for absolute beginners, novices and an open shoot for experienced ladies, husband and boyfriends. There are still a few places left should you like to come along.

Look forward to seeing you all soon,

Much love, Victoria xx