The 2017 Inter Livery Clay pigeon shoot was be held on Wednesday 17 May 2017 at the shooting grounds of Holland & Holland, Northwood Middlesex.
This event is organized by the Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners and raises money for charity, with many livery companies taking part. This year the Paviors able to field two teams: the Master, Miles Ashley, along with Jack Ashley (guest gun), Neil Ashley, Christopher Laing, John Catton (guest gun), James and Richard Harding. The team was captained by our Master.
The team headed off to the official start at 8.30am, duly fortified with a breakfast of bacon and sausages in rolls. Sadly, the team was not welcomed by perfect weather, but the experience of shooting in the rain is very familiar to all of the team members. The way the day works is for teams to process around and shoot at each of ten different stands. Each one provides four pairs of different tricky ‘birds’ for liverymen to try and down, each person shooting individually. A friendly Holland & Holland official efficiently manages the process, issues cartridges and notes the scores. The final activity is the ‘flush’ or ‘flurry’, where the team all shoot together and try to hit waves of four or five clays that are sent overhead. This is great fun and has the adrenaline flowing to keep up with the demanding pace of loading and firing as a total of 80 clays fly overhead.
No livery event could take place without a good meal so, when the shooting was over, all participants joined the queue for a splendid buffet lunch served in a huge marquee, which as is now traditional at the inter-livery shoot. This included two cooked whole pigs.
Unfortunately, the Pavior’s shooting was not quite good enough to allow any trophies to be brought back but, despite the rain, everyone had a good day.