I started shooting when I was four, using an old air rifle Grandad kept in the umbrella stand. I soon graduated to a Gat, air guns with proper springs in them, a garden gun, .410 and ultimately the 12 bore shotgun. I’ve shot tin cans, pests, game and paper targets with my all signing and dancing competition .22 Anchutz target rifle in Framlingham Rifle Club but clays have always been the most important part of my shooting.

My first experience of clays came at a friend’s laser clay shooting party in the late 1980’s. She had organised the event in her back garden when it was a relatively new game; it was a brilliant evening, I was able to use a ‘proper’ gun fairly well and the clay bug bit.

There followed an introduction to Sporting clays with my side-by-side and within a couple of shoots I’d traded it in for an over and under. Since then I’ve shot at High Lodge, headed by many-times-over World Champion, European Champion and English Open Champion John Bidwell, who also taught me to shoot successfully at his shooting ground on the Henham estate before moving to the wonderful High Lodge a bit further down the road in Suffolk.

From a 3 day charity shoot to one trap and two guns in a field it’s all thoroughly enjoyable entertainment – whatever people want, I’ve probably setup and shot my own version. My clay shooting experiences are based on many years of hands-on experience running regular clay shoots as well as being a qualified CPSA Safety Officer.

Since 2010 I have run my own business buying and selling professional traps and until recently providing private shooting parties for the leisure industry, whether that’s hosting a back garden bar-be-que shoot or teaching global titans of industry, actors and rock stars on the prestigious Wilderness Reserve estates in Suffolk. I specialised in one-to-one and small groups, introducing people with absolutely no knowledge of shotguns to the fantastic world of the clay shooting sports. If any of my guests has never seen a gun before in their life then so much the better, the look on their face when they hit the first target is the reason I started to do all this.