by Willie Hourihan (Asst. Sec) 

Again the closing day social was held in the newly refurbished Roaring Donkey Bar Cobh and a big thank you to Killian, JoAnne, Holly and barman Owen.

The night was well attended with a great turn out not only of members but  people from other clubs and people associated with the local field sports in the area, a warm welcome to all those.

Tom Houlihan of TH Sports was in attendance and all were delighted to see him and to see that he was in good form and enjoyed the night.

The food was as usual the highlight of the night and a big thank you to Martin Drake for providing the venison sausage, burger and steak.

Entertainment was provided by the pub patrons who have a trad night every Wed night.

The Longest Bird, Heaviest Bird and mixed bag were as usual well contested with 7 contesting the longest 5 the heaviest and 3 the mixed bag. Results are as follows.

Longest Bird

1. Martin Drake 39’’ ¾
2. Joe Whelan 39’’ ¼
3. Anthony Ryan 38’’ ½
4. Tony Gilmartin 37’’ ¾
5. Eric Field 37’’
6. Frank Dorrity 36’’ ½
7. Danny Brown 36 1/8

Heaviest Bird

1. Pat Aherne 1.55 kg
2. Joe Whelan 1.52 kg
3. Tony Gilmartin 1.3 kg
4. Danny Brown 1.29 kg
5. Walden Drake 1.02 kg

Mixed Bag

1. Walden Drake
2. Peter Halpin
3. Anthony Ryan

The winners received vouchers for Paul McCarthy Butchers Midleton Street Cobh.

The Committee would again like to thank all who participated and attended the event which makes this such a success year after year.

The club has organised a duck shoot around the Cobh and Carrigtwohill shorelines for December 30th.

There will be shooting for everyone.

Meet at Bramley Lodge at 1pm – 1.30pm to draw places.

Shooting until 5pm and then back to MAnsworths after for refreshments and swapping tales.

East Cork Gun Club was back at the Donkey to celebrate the opening of the season. As usual there was stiff competition for the honours of winning the Longest Bird, Heaviest Bird and Mixed Bag awards. An for the unlucky ones there was always the chance of a spot prize of to take home something a bit better in the Opening Day Draw.  Apart from all the usual spot prizes we had a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd as follows; €300, €200 and €100. Nearly everyone won something, and the few who didn’t were consoled by generous helpings from the wild game barbeque.

Charity Shoot Presentation

We also used this opportunity to to present the proceedings from our Charity Clay shoot to John from the National Liver Transplant Unit in St Vincent’s Hospital with a cheque for €5,300. It was great to see so many of our generous sponsors on the night.

The competitions

There were a good number of birds and game for the competitions and so we’ll go straight to the results.

Longest Cock

There were 6 birds entered for the longest bird. All but one of these was more than 90cm

1. Joe Whelan – 96.5cm
2. Walden Drake – 93.5cm (heavier bird takes 2nd)
3. Danny Browne – 93.5cm

Heaviest Cock

The Heaviest cock competition was fiercely fought and there were 10 entrants. All the birds topped 3lbs. Joe Whelan was back on the podium again

1. Eric Field – 3lb 8oz
2. Joe Whelan – 3lb 7oz (longer bird takes 2nd)
3. Aidan Fahy – 3lb 7oz

Mixed Bag

In the mixed bag competition there were just 2 guns in the running. Danny Browne too 1st place with his 6 species bag – Pheasant, Rabbit, Mallard, Woodcock, snipe and pigeon. Martin Drake was just short the pigeon and came in 2nd.

Thanks to all who came out. Looking forward to seeing you at the Duck Shoot and closing Day competition later in the season.

A reminder to all club members that we will be back in the Donkey for our traditional Opening Day competition. Apart from the trophies and prizes for the longest, heaviest and mixed bag we are holding a big raffle and also hosting a wild game barbecue.

The other big event taking place on the night will be the presentation of a cheque in excess of €5,000 to the  National Liver Transplant Unit in St Vincent’s Hospital following our hugely successful  charity clay shoot on 22 October at Belvelly, Cobh.

We expect a big turn out of members to mark this very special occasion.

Good shooting next week and looking forward to see you on the night.