Sport Number 1. Clay Pigeon Shooting.

Yesterday afternoon Steve and I had a nice drive over to the Forest of Dean to have a clay pigeon shooting lesson. I was anxious to get my first sport of the challenge over and done with, and was pleased that Steve wanted to have a go at shooting himself (even though he is a bit of a pro as he used to do it at school). We arrived at Chessgrove Shooting School and were greeting with a nice cuppa. We were taught by Lord Andrew Hollingrove a local shooting teacher and began with a couple of the slower clays. Steve got back in the swing of things quickly and was hitting them left, right and centre- it took me a bit longer but after some adjustments (and some fetching goggles with one eye blacked out) I managed to hit a few. I got a little concerned when half way through Andrew mentioned that we're going to be shooting rabbits next- and was worried I would have to say no (being a vegetarian and all I don't want to shoot any live animals!) but was relieved to find it was 'clay rabbit shooting' and we weren't going in the fields to shoot real ones (not that I would have got it on target). It turns out rabbits are harder to shoot than pigeons but think we both managed to chip one. We ended with one last go shooting clay pigeons and I was pleased to end on a high- hitting my last two. I had a great afternoon learning to clay pigeon shooting and would love to have another go in the future. Am glad to have got my challenge started and continue with table tennis on Tuesday (work permitting). Don't forget- I am doing this 20 sport Gold Challenge to help Dementia UK. If you can- please sponsor me here.