The Game Fair 2025

                                                                                                                       L-R Aaron Christie, Connor Davies, Thomas Croucher

L-R Tom Miller, Chris Biddlecombe, Phil Easeman

The Game Fair 2025 at Ragley Hall, Alcester over the 25 - 27 July.

The Fair returned to Ragley Hall in Warwickshire over the last weekend in July after a brief hiatus at Blenheim Palace in 2024. This is a firm favourite for everyone interested in shooting, fishing and all manner of countryside sports and activities and if you've never been before, you really should give it a go next year as it's a great day out!

Our team were there in force with a stand on Gunmakers Row complete with welcoming garden area for members to enjoy complimentary tea and coffee and just relax for a few minutes to watch the world (and the endless crowds) go by. The team were there to help with all manner of questions from membership benefits, training courses and the hot topic of the lead ban announcement to name but a few.

We were delighted to welcome 75 new and re-joining members to the CPSA over the 3-day weekend, which was a 53% increase over Blenheim Palace in 2024 and a 29% increase when we were last at Ragley Hall in 2023. Welcome all to the CPSA!

We also had our team of qualified Instructors and Coaches on the Clayline with five have-a-go stands operating from 9.00am to 6.00pm each day, come rain or shine, getting people safely shooting clays and leaving with huge smiles on their faces. We had approximately 1,000 people go thru the line, so I'd like to thank our brilliant clayline team for another mammoth effort!

It's not just the membership stand and the clayline for us though, we also run two separate competitions over the weekend featuring our Champion of Champions on Saturday 26^th July and The Colts Challenge on Sunday 27^th July.

Both competitions followed the same format with the competitors shooting the 50 English Sporting competition set by E J Churchill with the top five scores progressing to a 25 target Sportrap final. 27 County nominated shooters took to the course on Saturday morning in the cooler, slightly windier conditions compared to the very hot day we experienced on the Friday and after the dust had settled, 40ex50 was the cut-off point to get into the final. Unfortunately, there were six shooters on 40 and above, so a shoot-off was required to determine the final 5^th place between Suffolk shooter Harry Jude and Bucks shooter Phil Easeman. After the toss of a coin to decide the starting order, Harry shot first, with 5 sim pairs on an adjacent Sportrap layout and not previously available to shoot. Harry scored 8 and then Phil straighted the stand to take the final spot in the final.

We then enjoyed the spectacle of five top level shooters, Phil Easeman (Bucks), Chris Biddlecombe (Gloucs), Scott Shuckford (Beds), Marc Ivey (Warwickshire) and Tom Miller(Derbyshire) battle it out in front of a good-sized crowd to be crowned Champion of Champions. No shoot-offs were required again as Chris Biddlecombe took the top spot with a superb 23ex25, followed by Tom Miller on 22ex25 Runner Up and Phil Easeman as Third with 21ex25. Marc and Scott were very close behind, both on 20ex25 - great shooting guys.

On Sunday the 11 Colts (from the Top 20 rankings on 01/03/2025) took to the same 50 ESP course as the Champions with some fine shooting displays from all, and Connor Davies, Thomas Croucher, Aaron Christie, Aimee Addison & Euan Pope all making it through to the final in front of an expectant crowd of parents and spectators.

This time a shoot-off was required as both Aaron & Connor scored a very impressive 23ex25 to tie for first place and require a shoot-off to decide first and second. They then shot 5 sim pairs, not featured on their 25-target sequence, with Connor emerging as High Gun with 8ex10, one ahead of Aaron's 7ex10. Thomas finished Third on 21ex25 with Euan & Aimee both on 16ex25. Well done all!

We look forward to doing it all again at Ragley Hall next year on the 24 - 26^th July, but in the meantime, our thanks go to our sponsors Eley, Evolution Glasses, Rizzini, Swatcom & E J Churchill."