The Field`s Top Shots 2012

The Field’s
Top Shots 2012
ALAMY
Somewhere in London there’s great excitement over the four-yearly hop-skip-and-jump
festival that’s the modern Olympics. But, excepting the “tweedy events”, the annual Top
Shots is the only competition that really counts. Do we care that someone has chucked
something farther? Not terribly. But we do want to know who are the gods of grouse, the
paragons of the pheasant. So, here they are, the Splendid 75 who have been awarded this
year’s gold medals and will soon be appearing on a moor or in a covert near you
JASON ABBOT
JIM ALBONE
WILLIAM ASHBY
This specialist in English game guns always
walks the talk. At this year’s Inter Livery shoot
he won the side-by-side event using an 1881
Purdey hammer pigeon gun, “which we have
just restored from the dead”. A professional pigeon guide with more than
360,000 acres of shooting. Famous for delivering sport: “A few years ago, I had 10 guns out
on 10 different areas of cut maize and they
shot 2,280 birds between them.”
Now in his mid-thirties, he started shooting
pigeon and moved on to game. Fellow guns are
not sure whether the wearing of odd socks is
due to superstition or poor eyesight. Judging
by his performance, it’s the former.
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Peter Chantler with his
wife, Sara
NICK BAIRD
Rated as one of the best shots in Sussex, Baird
could possibly get sponsorship from the NFU
as he recently shot a thousand pigeon to his
own gun.
JULIE BAKER
The long-term partner of high-pheasant guru
Bill Joyce spent two years shooting nothing
but driven clays under the tuition of David
Olive. On a testing day in Wiltshire last season,
her consistency was embarrassing for the
neighbouring chaps.
Getty images
JONATHAN BALL
ce Harry
The Duke of Cambridge and Prin
This son of a gamekeeper shows high birds at
Borde Hill and is no slouch at bringing down
distant birds. “Jonathan is great company but
6ft 6in and takes a very dim view of people
poaching his birds!” says a neighbouring gun.
Liam Botham
LOUISE BALTESZ
Don’t be fooled by her effortless style. Louise
Baltesz, née Nickerson, has inherited Sir Joe’s
absolute passion for grouse-shooting. And,
like him, she takes no prisoners. PHIL BEASLEY
Professional pigeon guide and inventor of the
Pigeon Magnet, the whirling decoy device
that pulls birds within killable range –
which, when Beasley’s behind
the gun, is pretty much
anywhere in the
same county.
JOHN
BIDWELL
Six-times FITASC
Sporting World Champion,
twice European Champion
and English Open Champion,
John Bidwell is well qualified to
organise the Game Fair clays.
His “maintained lead” system of
shooting means the barrels are
always in front of the bird.
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JOHN DAVISON
NICK FANE
Son of Beefy, Botham junior is irritatingly
good at everything, including county cricket
and rugby. He played for Newcastle Falcons
when the team won the Tetley Bitter Cup and
reached the final of the European Shield. Now
does “extraordinary things with a shotgun on
high pheasants”, according to one admirer.
Described by one senior shooting figure as “a
truly outstanding game-shot”, Davison shot
for the British skeet team in the 2000
Olympics before going on to forge a successful
career in private investment. Shooting skill is
matched by brains: he has a MA from
Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard.
Noted locally for the hours he spends generously teaching the next generation of young
shots the intricacies of game-shooting, Nick
Fane displays unfailing mastery with a shotgun, whether on the grouse moors or in
Argentinean scrub after doves.
PHIL BURTT
GEORGE DIGWEED
Possessing a legendary ability with birds,
Burtt is especially deadly on partridges,
grouse and pigeon, despatching them effortlessly with a veteran English side-by-side.
Digweed remains the gold standard for gameshooting. Yes, he’s fabulous at sporting clay
shooting, having won 19 world titles (11 sporting and eight FITASC), 15 European titles and
nine World Cups. But his ability on all live
quarry defines what a shotgun can achieve
when in the hands of the master.
An Olympic gold medallist, Faulds will again
represent his country at the London Games.
As well as shooting double trap, he’s won the
World Sporting Championships four times,
the World FITASC Championship four times
and the Beretta World Sporting Championship five times. His ability to despatch the
highest pheasant with ease is uncanny.
MARK EDWARDS
TANYA FAULDS
Nobu’s Michelin Star-winning executive head
chef is as dedicated to shooting as he is to cooking. He is lethal wielding his side-by-sides
with special Hellfire “Nobu” cartridges (26g
No 6 paper cases) and has been known to
belt up north to enjoy his sport between
two full evening services so shoots straight
on no sleep. One fan thinks he “makes
Marco look like an amateur”.
Adding class and excitement to any day, Tanya
set a women’s world record in Argentina, recently despatching 1,513
flighting doves for 1,825
shots while wielding
28-bore Beretta overand-unders.
PETER CHANTLER
At 86, Peter Chantler is maintaining a 3:1 ratio
across the season, which includes a fair
amount of grouse. Most impressively, his wife
is hugely proud of his shooting. Most guns can
only dream of emulating either feat.
HARRY BUSCALL
This farmer and fund manager’s elegance and
accuracy made an indelible impression on his
nominators. A true gentleman who can tackle
birds “that many would just tip their hat to”.
Curling pheasants, driven grouse and flighted
duck all fall before his aged AyA No 4.
VIC CHAPMAN
“He’s such good company, and so relaxed, that
you forget entirely that he hardly ever misses
– until you watch him,” enthuses a fellow gun.
Particularly good on partridges, which he
drops with a 30in-barrelled Arrieta 20-bore.
JAMES BUTLER
This Hampshire farmer’s shooting is “anything but standard”, despite his no-bells-orwhistles English boxlock side-by-side and
off-the-peg ammo. Drives a gun bus “like he’s
qualifying for pole position at Silverstone”, but
is known to be a natural and self-effacing shot. IAN COLEY
As the owner of an award-winning shooting
school, Coley’s shooting ability is easily summarised: he’s the current GB Olympic team
coach and successfully trained Richard
Faulds for Olympic Gold at Sydney 2000.
DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE/
PRINCE HARRY of wales
Both princes are now
on top form following several
good wild-bird
seasons.
William retains
the
edge, but his brother
could rightly claim that
he’s received additional coaching. His wife used to work for the
Royal Berkshire Shooting School.
SIR EDWARD DASHWOOD
“Great fun and life and soul of a shoot day,”
says one commendation, but nothing
distracts Sir Edward from the
serious business of shooting birds with his pair
of EJ Churchill
side-by-sides.
SALLY CANNON
RICHARD FAULDS
Tanya Faulds
PROFESSOR SIR
CHRISTOPHER EVANS
A stalwart of British shooting
from the Twelfth onwards,
Sir Christopher can be seen
at many of the best shoots,
from Scotland to Devon,
renowned for high birds
and challenging grouse.
This proud Welshman
is often heard leg-pulling his English counterparts about rugby
between drives.
Ian Coley
Richard Faulds
Sir Christopher
Evans
As mustard-keen as her husband, Michael,
Sally possesses the eyesight of a hawk and a
Spartan’s resilience: no matter how awful the
weather, she’s on the grouse moors shooting
her share of the bag.
ANDY CASTLE
A fast-talking, big-smiling, Kemen-carrying,
smooth-shooting charmer. Great shot. Great
at shooting. But not so great at staying on
his horse. His last fall shook the earth – and
his bones.
Tim Scrivener/Rex Features
Phil Burtt
LIAM BOTHAM
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Rob Fenwick
Charlotte
Kerwood
Pru Horsell
WILLIAM
GASCOIGNE
ROB FENWICK
Managing director of EJ
Churchill Shooting Group.
Elegant, accurate shot who can shoot the highest gamebirds with ease and demolish tall clay
targets (once he’s stopped over-leading them).
SIMON FORD
Along with his Perazzi SCO 32in, laughter and
wine travel to shoots all over the country with
Simon Ford from his Cotswold home. The
long barrels are particularly useful on his regular visits to Devon. Even when he wipes your
eye, “He is no nice you can’t begrudge it.”
WILL GARFIT
Yet another top shot devoted to woodpigeon and grouse. Living proof of
the Yorkshire maxim, “If yer
can shoot pigeon, yer
can shoot owt.”
MARK GILCHRIST
The ultimate shopper-with-a-shotgun,
Gilchrist is a professional chef who owns
Game For Everything catering and personally
despatches most of the meat courses. And, like
all shoppers, he does like a two-for-one deal.
Especially when it’s a cartridge-to-kill ratio.
JOHNNY GOODHART
Based in Corby, home of the trouser press,
Goodhart is always sharp at the crease,
whether the quarry’s grouse, pheasants or
gigantic Turkish wild boar. Can also drink
Irishmen under the table, when duty and
national pride demand.
KEITH HALSEY
Despite owning Boss and Heckler & Koch,
“Tosh” maintains a scarcely credible 2:1 ratio
with a pair of Mirokus. Between bringing
down distant birds at North Molton
he smokes Cuban cigars.
Commendations maintain he “never pinches
other people’s birds”.
Perhaps he really is
“taking the sport to
a new level”.
JOHN HEAGREN
The DUKE OF
NORTHUMBERLAND
The chief coach and shooting manager at
Bisley Shooting Ground, Heagren is a genius
at instruction and a devastating shot. Has now
swapped his ancient Miroku for a snazzy
Perazzi and is at the top of his game.
“There are very, very few who
can hold a candle to Ralph
Northumberland on everything
from pigeon to pheasants,
partridges and, especially,
grouse,” says one informant.
“He should get a prize for utter
dedication and unfailing
devotion to the cause.”
JEREMY HERRMANN
Mad about wild birds “like a machine-gun on
grouse and takes on anything” says one correspondent. “Incredibly quick and pretty
deadly, but he does get an awful lot of practice,” says another. Having Allenheads and
Muggleswick should keep your eye in. His
weapons of choice are Perazzi. He’s nifty with
a rod, too, once “catching a salmon before the
rotas of his helicopter had stopped spinning”.
The Duke
of Norfolk
NIGEL MUSTILL
JONATHAN KENNEDY
“Awesome grouse shot, great fun guy and
charming to shoot with,” says his nominator.
“Still as deadly as they get but the fact that he is
so nice just makes it even more great that he is
a fantastic shot.” This permanent fixture on
the grouse moors shoots Beretta EELLs fed
with EJ Churchill Hellfire Cartridges.
MICHAEL HILLyeR
Son of shooting stars Anthea and Ray, 28-yearold Michael comes from the finest pedigree.
Taught by Ray since he was eight, Michael just
closes up the highest pheasants and shoots in
the style of Richard Faulds, a family friend.
Shoots game with a 32in Miroku and delights
in shooting ridiculously high birds behind
other people – especially his father.
CHARLOTTE KERWOOD
The 25-year-old from Sussex will be competing in the Olympics for the second time. Won
gold in Double Trap at the Commonwealth
Games, aged 15, and has won two more golds
since. At London 2012 she will be representing Great Britain in the Women’s Trap. Funny
and vivacious, Miss Kerwood is a demon with
her Perazzi on live quarry and, like many top
shots, superstitious. “When I’m competing I
carry a towel I haven’t washed for years – I
won’t use it, it’s just my good-luck charm.”
PRU HORSELL
Known as “Assassin” in Argentina after her
deadly performance on the doves, Pru Horsell
has 25 years’ game-shooting experience and is
a great all-rounder, “equally at home on traditional partridges or sky-high pheasants”.
JONO IRBY
Former manager of West London Shooting
School, now general manager of Woburn
Estates, he hasn’t lost his touch. “On one drive
at Ashcombe he could not buy a low pheasant,
to the satisfaction of all,” says our source. “But
on every other occasion I saw him shoot last
season it was with his usual level of accuracy.
What most impresses is how quickly he
shoots while appearing to move so calmly.
Most birds were dead well out in front.”
JAMIE LEE
Close friends of the many in rock’n’roll who
also rock with a shotgun, Lee has taken over
the shooting on Ashcombe, the uber-high
Dorset shoot owned by Guy Ritchie.
Madonna, Ritchie’s ex-wife, is no longer part
of the attraction for visiting guns. However,
some hardened covertmen, when asked if
they’d like to take tea with Madge, replied:
“That’s so kind, but really we’d rather not.”
www.kevinmilnercountryside.co.uk
Johnny
Goodhart
“Basically, never misses
when on form and occasionally misses when off
form.” This endorsement
of the “Gazzer”, from one
of our finest, becomes all
the more startling when
you realise that far from
reaching for the big guns,
he shares the old King’s
view, “that a gun without
hammers is like a spaniel
without ears”.
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The Duke of
Northumberland
CHRIS MAYBURY
All-round sportsman Chris Maybury has
more than a baker’s dozen of Purdeys. Now
living in America, this English gun still
impresses at shoots from Essex to Wales on
the full gamut of avian quarry. Rod and gun
follow him all over the world.
“Lovely to see in action,” is the verdict of
our informant. “The birds aren’t pricked,
they are head back, stone dead.” Salisburybased Mustill has been turning the heads of
pickers-up in Wales as he brings down the
Principality’s highest offerings. “Second only
to George Digweed,” says another fan.
LORD JAMES PERCY
A perennial of The Field’s list. “Last season
he was having a problem with his shoulder
and was ‘really off form’, when three grouse
crossed his butt in front of him, coming to
me at about 50yd out, and he shot them all
stone dead! So this was his idea of ‘off
form’!” spluttered one observer.
Amelia, Lady
Northbrook
IAN MUSTOE
Maintaining a ratio of 2:1 at North Molton,
Castle Hill and Whitfield is not bad going, but
not unusual for Mustoe. “Ian is a fine host and
a great shot and has deserved some recognition for a few years now,” so we hear.
The DUKE OF NORFOLK
The living embodiment of a practical conservationist. While shooting’s opponents bleat
about declining farm birds, Eddie Norfolk has
seen skylarks treble on his Peppering shoot in
West Sussex. The spur to his endeavours was
the desire to establish a true wild grey partridge manor. Having succeeded, Norfolk
harvests the “little brown birds” with the efficiency expected from Britain’s Earl Marshal.
JOHN NORRIS
Founder and owner of the eponymous mailorder emporium in Penrith, Norris knows
exactly what sportsmen require. He is one
of the best high-bird men in the country,
dealing with Linhope’s cloudscrapers with
supreme nonchalance.
AMELIA, LADY NORTHBROOK
One of Hampshire’s most consistent and elegant shots. Unlike most of her fellow guns,
Northbrook recognises the value of regular
shooting lessons and is living proof of the
maxim that practice makes perfect.
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William van Cutsem
and dog Caper
PAUL PORTZ
He’s as keen as a cocker spaniel on amphetamines. Portz’s second home is a grouse butt;
his third a pigeon hide. Friends with grousekeepers and pigeon guides countrywide.
SALLY PRENDERGAST
Petite and well dressed, Mrs Prendergast’s
skill matches her appearance. At a recent
shoot, her husband thought about hiding her
spare 20-bore squibs after she’d added considerably to the bag, pulling down pheasants and
partridges in a brute of a wind.
DAVID ROSS
Owns a brace of grouse moors, a high-pheasant shoot and a traditionally shown Leicestershire partridge-shoot, so gets a little practice.
More than capable of holding his own with the
grouse “assassins” but “extremely humble
about his achievements”, according to our
source. “Though he wouldn’t like to admit it,
he has become a wonderful all-round shot.”
PETER SINCLAIR-KNIPE
A “selective shot and always immaculately
turned out”, this former Household Cavalry
officer is tidy with a rifle as well as a shotgun.
Nominated for displaying “extraordinary
accuracy with his beloved Purdey”. Recently,
in Croatia, “He shot every bird he was shown.”
MARTIN ST QUiNToN
“I take great pleasure in watching him bring
down high birds so beautifully, sometimes at
the expense of my own shooting,” says one
correspondent about this Hampshire gun.
Combining clean kills with picking the most
challenging and sporting birds and remaining
“an unselfish shot”, will always impress.
LORD STAFFORD and the
hon PIP FITZHERBERT
Lord Stafford’s languid style borders on the
balletic and always brings down his quarry, be
it pheasant or grouse. But those in the know
suggest that his younger brother, the Hon Pip
Fitzherbert, less blessed with prestige invitations, may now be the better shot.
LOUISE STIMSON
The Field’s cover girl for the January 2012 issue
picks-up, hunts seriously in the Shires – and is
a brilliant shot to boot. Recently had 172
pigeon to her own gun in an afternoon.
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Peter Sinclair-Knipe
REUBEN STRAKER
We know Straker is a great shot because
grousekeepers are pleased to see him,
“knowing he’ll help with the end tally”.
His knowledge is “unsurpassed by any
other shot on the moor”, says one, and “He is
seldom fazed by what comes to him.”
MARK SWIERS
This all-round sportsman is an instructor at
the West London Shooting
School. Ardent wildfowler and
pigeon junkie with “incredible
eyesight”. Deadly on game yet “as
modest as they come about his talents”.
ROB SWIFT
This Warwickshire farmer is an “awesome”
shot. His “understated, classic style” is so natural that when he shot driven grouse for the
first time on his 40th birthday he accounted
for half the bag and is now relied upon on
“mopping up” days at the end of the season.
ANTHONY THOMPSON
Possibly the sharpest shot on any keepers’ day,
Tony was top gun in 2012 at the National
Gamekeepers’ Organisation Golden Pheasant
clay-shoot. It must have been hot work: the
rules insist that competitors “must be wearing
tweeds” – or forfeit their score card.
WILLIAM VAN CUTSEM
“Without doubt he is one of the best I’ve ever
seen,” comments one seasoned shot. “We
were on a day of mixed English, French and
early wild pheasants. For some reason he
always seemed to be in a slightly tricky position on each drive, but he selected his birds on
their merits and excelled at any type of shot.
All his birds seemed to die rather than flutter
to the ground and I don’t think I saw him
miss… Humbling.” Louise Stimson
Peter Wilson
MIKE YARDLEY
The Field’s resident gun guru isn’t just an
expert on how shotguns work – he also
knows how to make them work for him. A
recent trip to Hungary, shooting the new
Browning 725 Citori, made the birds wish
he’d forgotten his passport.
JEREMY YOUNG
Rosie Whitaker
JOHN WARD
Wardy, of Ray Ward (the London gunshop
and now gunmaker), has been at the top of the
shooting game for decades. Now spends much
of his season with Dr Jim Hay, owner of the
JMH Group. George Digweed says Wardy
puts in “legendary performances after legendary nights. And he always finds it amusing to
drop birds at my feet (now that I can see them).”
SIMON WARD
Don’t try and meet Mr Ward for a month after
the Twelfth – his dance card is full. This professional shooting coach struggles to juggle
grouse invitations from moor-owners desperate to have their birds harvested by crack
shots. Are we jealous? Not much.
BARRY WEST
Using a 20-bore with 28g No 6 “extremely efficiently”, West elicits “ripples of applause” at
home on the Minal shoot, where he is an
“excellent host”. Pigeons are foolish to venture
through his pheasant drives: “One was measured dead in excess of 60yd from the gun.”
ROSIE WHITAKER
Now she’s growing cider apples in Somerset
it’s an even longer journey to the grouse moors
– but they are her natural home. Like many
top shots, she considers the late-season birds
the cream of shooting and makes shooting
them look as easy as apple-pie.
ANDY WHITMORE
His soft Westcountry burr disguises, almost,
the fact that Whitmore is one of the sharpest
businessmen in the gun trade. Yet he’s always
up for a party and the higher the pheasants,
the better. And he kills them consistently.
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Young is considered a “great shot” by our
knowledgable (and sceptical) informant.
What’s more, he shoots with smallbores
(guns, not people). So do others, of course,
but Young actually connects with his.
PETER Wilson
Not many people wipe the eye of Ian Coley,
but this young Olympic hopeful has. Never
afraid to test himself, he is “renowned for
attempting the impossible long-range shot in
the shooting field”. But look out: neither is he
“fazed by poaching his neighbour’s”.
CLAIRE ZAMBUNI
Last seen hauling a deer carcass – which
she’d shot, gralloched and skinned – into a
smart London butcher and asking to have
it jointed. The Covert Girls’ head girl shot
pretty much everywhere last year, leaving a trail of eye-wipes (and not the
mascara-removing type).
norman woodcock
The new owner of the Bulland high-bird
shoot on Exmoor, Woodcock is rated by our
informant as “probably the most consistent
game-shot I have been fortunate enough to
shoot with. His speciality is high pheasants,
for which he shows an exceptional talent.”
PETER WOOLMER
His shooting “can only be admired rather than
duplicated” and his speed is notable with “four
killing shots to most guns’ two”. Impressive
with high pheasants, partridges and
grouse show Woolmer at his best.
Claire Zambuni
Simon Ward