Dan Hudson has only been shooting for three months – and took the English Open DTL Championship on Sunday with his first ever perfect score of 100/300. “To do it on a day like this, I’m ecstatic,” said Dan (pictured above with the trophy). “It’s still not sunk in.”
Dan shoots a Browning Ultra XT with Fiocchi FBlack cartridges, and so far has only shot DTL. “Hopefully I’d like to make the England team one day, but we’ll see how it goes,” he said.
CPSA director Nicola Heron commented “Absolutely fantastic to see a brand new shooter win this important event. Impressive performance from Dan who has only been shooting for about three months. As he is new to the sport he will not have realised yet that he took some big scalps with that win.”
The English Open was the culmination of the annual three-day festival of trap shooting that is the ‘DTL Weekend’ at Bywell Shooting Ground.
The first event, held on Friday 11 June, was the Sponsored DTL, won by Tom Robinson with 99/297. Runner-up was Nick McKeown who hit every target but needed his second barrel more often, for a score of 100/296. He had to beat Emma Holden in a shoot-off to claim his runner-up spot. Emma’s score was more than enough to secure her top place in ladies.
The following day, Saturday 12 June, saw Paul Turner put in a perfect 100/300 to take the Dougall Memorial trophy, with Paul Morgan in second place on 100/298.
The English Open on the Sunday saw many of the same names on the leaderboard, with Phil Morgan shooting 100/298 to take third place after a shoot-off, and Emma Holden again winning ladies.
Second place went to Robert Clarke with 100/299 – but the big surprise was outsider Dan Hudson coming through with a perfect 100/300 and snatching the historic trophy away from the big names.
Elsewhere over the weekend, Jack Fairclough won the English Olympic Skeet Grand Prix with a tremendous score of 121 ex 125 shot at the National Clay Shooting Centre at Bisley in Surrey.
Runner-up was Hugh Westminster, who won a shoot-off with Mitchell Brooker-Smith after they tied on 120.
Watch a video of 2021 English Open DTL champion Dan Hudson on the CPSA Facebook page.
Full scores from the English Open DTL, and the other events of the weekend, are on the CPSA website.
Photo: CPSA
