Sport Number 1. Clay Pigeon Shooting.

Yesterday afternoon Steve and I had a nice drive over to the Forest of Dean to have a clay pigeon shooting lesson. I was anxious to get my first sport of the challenge over and done with, and was pleased that Steve wanted to have a go at shooting himself (even though he is a bit of a pro as he used to do it at school). We arrived at Chessgrove Shooting School and were greeting with a nice cuppa. We were taught by Lord Andrew Hollingrove a local shooting teacher and began with a couple of the slower clays. Steve got back in the swing of things quickly and was hitting them left, right and centre- it took me a bit longer but after some adjustments (and some fetching goggles with one eye blacked out) I managed to hit a few. I got a little concerned when half way through Andrew mentioned that we're going to be shooting rabbits next- and was worried I would have to say no (being a vegetarian and all I don't want to shoot any live animals!) but was relieved to find it was 'clay rabbit shooting' and we weren't going in the fields to shoot real ones (not that I would have got it on target). It turns out rabbits are harder to shoot than pigeons but think we both managed to chip one. We ended with one last go shooting clay pigeons and I was pleased to end on a high- hitting my last two. I had a great afternoon learning to clay pigeon shooting and would love to have another go in the future. Am glad to have got my challenge started and continue with table tennis on Tuesday (work permitting). Don't forget- I am doing this 20 sport Gold Challenge to help Dementia UK. If you can- please sponsor me here.

Ready to go.

I know I have been harping on about this challenge for some time, but an injured knee and a two week holiday (to Hawaii- yes I am bragging) held things up a bit. I have properly arranged my first sport- I had to rethink what sports I was starting with due to my knee, judo and taekwondo will have to wait until it is 100%. I'm at about 90% now so I have arranged to go the the local table tennis club next week to do my first session. I have also contacted the local tennis club, hopefully they'll get back to me in the next few days and I can go down this Sunday. As promised I will upload reports and pictures. Will also start getting on at you all to sponsor me once I have my first sport under my belt (but feel free to sponsor me now if you want- link on the right!) My next update will be after I have done my first session. Wish me luck!