The Monkstone Petanque Club recently hosted the long-awaited semi-finals and final of the Precision Shooting Championship on Saturday 7th, September.

Although the event was not cram-packed with spectators, there was a definite tension in the air.

The first of the two semi-finals was set between Len Field (SWBRC-PS) and David Languerand (Caerleon RFC PC), while the second semi-final should have been between Roger Green and Sean Smith (both Monkstone PC). Unfortunately, Roger Green could not attend the final, so Sean Smith progressed to the final. We are sure this will not be the last time we see Roger’s name in a semi-final for the Precision Shooting Championship.

However, Sean had to wait on the sidelines to see who his opponent would be in the final.

David won the toss of the coin and elected to start. At the end of the first discipline, Len led David 9/6. Len remained in the lead after the second discipline on 12/9. Discipline three saw a change; David took the lead 16/15, and it now came down to the last two disciplines. Discipline four saw David increase his lead by three points as Len failed to score (19/15). However, the last discipline can change everything, as rounds can be won by shooting the jack out of the ring with a maximum of 20 points on offer. At 7m, Len hit the jack but was not removed from the ring; 3 points were added to Len’s score, making 19/18 to David. It came down to the last shot at 9m; either player could win the semi-final. David shot first and removed the jack from the circle, scoring 24 points and winning the semi-final 24/18.

The final between David Languerand (Caerleon RFC PC) and Sean Smith (Monkstone PC) was tense, which showed in the scores of both finalists. Again, David won the coin toss and elected to shoot first.

At the end of the first discipline, the scores were equal at 3/3. Sean then took the lead, scoring 4 points in the second discipline 7/3. Discipline three saw a change in the leader, with Sean failing to score and David scoring 5 points, taking his score to an 8/7 lead. A combination of tension and frustration was affecting both players. The penultimate discipline saw Sean score two additional points while David failed to score. This put Sean back into the lead on 9/8 with the final discipline left. Could David come back and take the title by shooting the jack? Sean hit the jack at 8m, which added another 5 points to his score.  This gave David his last chance to shoot the jack at 9m, which he did in his semi-final. Unfortunately, as did Sean, David missed the shot, which resulted in Sean winning the final and the title with a score of 14/8.

Congratulations to Sean and David for demonstrating their skills and to everyone participating in this year’s competition.

Tony Smith WPA President with David Languerand – 2024 Runner-Up.

Sean Smith 2024 National Precision Shooting Champion with David Languerand – Runner-Up.

Tony Smith WPA President with Sean Smith 2024 National Precision Shooting Champion.

The WPA would like to thank Monkstone PC for allowing the use of their facilities to hold the final.