A warm, bright and sunny Saturday morning at a shooting ground on Longton Marsh was the ideal setting for a return visit to West Lancashire of a combined clay pigeon shooting team comprising brethren and guests of the Province of Yorkshire West Riding and the Province of Yorkshire North and East Ridings.
In 2024, the event was held in Yorkshire at the Coniston Hall Shooting Ground near Skipton, which saw the West Lancashire Masonic Clay Pigeon Shooting Society (WLMCPSS) win in splendid form. The Yorkshire Masons had come to take the beautiful glass trophy back to the other side of the Pennines.
Upon arrival at The Dolphin public house at Longton, the West Lancashire and Yorkshire teams checked in with the WLMCPSS secretary Chris Tittley and prepared themselves in small Provincial teams for an 80-bird tournament, where each entrant would shoot 4 pairs from within 10 traps.
For two hours, the sound of shotguns rang out across the River Ribble, the buzz of excitement within each team continued from start to finish, as well as the team tactics and motivational guidance as to how best to hit each fast-moving clay. Just after 12:30pm, it was all over and the scores were in, to be processed by Chris Tittley and assistant secretary David Jenkinson.
Inside The Dolphin, everyone in attendance was getting ready for a splendid hotpot and chips lunch, the raffle and the all-important scores. A ticket raffle was conducted speedily by WLMCPSS Chairman Ian Heyes and the prizes collected by the lucky winners. Ian Heyes announced all the winners, commencing with the high gun scores. Runner up was John Broadhead from the visiting team with 69. The high gun winner was Dave Smith with a magnificent 71.
The team scores were read out by Ian Heyes and Yorkshire were runners up with their top six brethren achieving a commendable 334 score between them. Ian and Mick presented the Yorkshire team members with a special ‘war of the roses’ ceramic mug. The West Lancashire top six succeeded in scoring a superb 382 between them.
The guest high gun bottle prize was won by West Lancashire guest Holly Coxhead with a massive 70 score.
The raffle and proceeds from other monies by the event raised the significant amount of £402.50 for Masonic and non-Masonic charities. The 2025 ‘war of the roses’ was concluded by Ian Heyes and William Watson (chairman of the combined Yorkshire team) who both thanked everyone for their attendance, for donating raffle prizes and for organising such a great sporting event.
Report and pictures by John Topping.