News | May Sporting Clays + DTL Weekend Coming up

Wairarapa Clay Target Club
4 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

May Sporting & DTL Weekend – Club Championships Return

23–25 May | Wairarapa Clay Target Club

After two hugely successful months of flexible sporting weekends, we’re bringing a little more traditional competition shooting back into the mix for May — while keeping the same relaxed, welcoming format that has been working so well.

This month’s weekend will feature:

English Sporting Club Championship
DTL Single Rise Club Championship
Super Sporting Cash Match

Alongside all the same flexibility that people have been enjoying over the past few months:practice, coaching, re-entries, introductions, family participation, and the ability to come and shoot when it suits you.

Expanded Three-Day Format

Because these weekends have been getting busier and busier — especially through the middle of Saturday and Sunday — we’re opening shooting from Friday afternoon this month to spread things out a bit more and create more opportunities for quieter shooting, introductions and extra rounds.

Shooting Times

Friday: 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am – 3:00pm

Friday afternoon is expected to be an excellent option for:

quieter shooting
practice
introductions
coaching
shooters wanting to post competition scores before the weekend rush

The Disciplines

English Sporting Club Championship

This month’s English Sporting layout will be run as:

40 - target rounds

(three sporting fields in use this month)

Your best two rounds across the weekend will count toward the Club Championship (80 targets).

If shooters are tied at the end of the weekend:

third rounds will be used as tie-breakers
then fourth rounds if required

This means additional rounds effectively become your “shoot-off” rounds. So if you think you could be in contention for the Club Championship, you'd best post one or two of these additional rounds.

Super Sporting Cash Match

Super Sporting remains part of the weekend as a:

60 - target cash match

No club championship attached — just our usual good challenging sporting layout for those wanting another crack at a wider variety of targets and the usual cash prizes

DTL Single Rise Club Championship

A return to one of the sport’s traditional disciplines.

Single Rise will be shot in the normal squad format:

25 - target rounds

Again: your best two rounds across the weekend will count toward the Club Championship (50 targets).

Tie-breaks will be resolved the same way:

third rounds
then fourth rounds if required

Shooters will score and referee each other in the usual club manner.

Looking Ahead – The Dale Shield

Part of the reason we’re bringing DTL Single Rise back into the mix this month is because the following weekend sees the annual shoot of the historic Dale Shield interclub competition in Hawke’s Bay.

The Dale Shield actually originated out of the Wairarapa club many years ago and remains one of the most sought after interclub trophies in the lower North Island.

We’d really like to see a few shooters from the club head up and have a crack at bringing it back home.

One of the great things about the Dale Shield format is that it’s shot on handicap-by-distance, which means newer and developing shooters are genuinely competitive. In many ways, novice and C-grade shooters are some of the most valuable people to have in a team.

So if you’ve been enjoying the sporting weekends and are curious about trying another discipline, this month is a perfect opportunity to have a go at DTL, get a few pointers from some experienced shooters, and see what it’s all about.

If there’s enough interest, we’ll look at organising a club trip with multiple teams up to Hawke’s Bay for the day.

Coaching, Introductions & New Shooters

One of the best parts of these weekends has been the number of new shooters and families getting involved.

That will continue in May, including introductions to:

Sporting Clays
DTL Single Rise
general shotgun handling and shooting technique

Intro Sessions Available:

✅ Friday afternoon

✅ Saturday 9:00am

✅ Saturday after 2:00pm

Because Saturday through the middle of the day becomes extremely busy, no introductions will be run during that peak period.

No introductory sessions will be available Sunday.

Coaching During Competition

Coaching and guidance will still be available throughout the weekend, including while shooters are completing scored rounds.

However, during busy periods this will need to be limited to shooters who are already comfortable and competent participating within normal squad shooting.

Practice Shooting

Practice remains available across the weekend on the sporting fields using the Claymate card system.

However:

practice takes second priority to competition shooting
there is unlikely to be much practice availability during peak periods Saturday and Sunday

If you’re wanting significant practice time, Friday afternoon or quieter periods Saturday are strongly recommended.

Important:

There is no practice shooting available on DTL Single Rise.

All DTL shooting must be completed as official scored 25-target rounds paid through the office.

Grades & Prize Money

All three disciplines will use the following grades, with prizes subject to the eligibility requirements below:

AA | A | B | C | Novice

For each discipline:

🥇 Grade Winner — $50

🥈 Runner-Up — $30

There will also be:

🔶 Falcon ammunition prizes

🎁 Random prize draws

As always, we’re working hard to give back to the shooters who support the club and make these weekends what they are.

A lot of the ammunition and development-focused prizes are intentionally aimed toward novice, unregistered and developing shooters.

Prize & Club Championship Eligibility

To be eligible for Club Championship titles, cash prizes, Falcon ammunition prizes and random prize draws, shooters must be a paid-up Wairarapa Clay Target Club member for 2026.

Membership options are:

Full Membership: $100
Junior Membership: $20
Associate Membership: $20

Associate Membership is available to shooters who are already full members of another NZCTA-registered club and are NZCTA-registered elsewhere.

Shooters can join or arrange membership through the club office during the weekend.

Club Equipment & Membership

Club equipment remains available throughout the weekend for those wanting to try the sport or get started.

If you require club equipment, please indicate this during online registration.

New shooters are very welcome to become members immediately if they wish. Membership provides:

cheaper practice targets
access to member ammunition pricing
full participation in club activities

Shooters attending their third shooting visit will need to become club members to continue participating.

Why These Weekends Are Working

What’s become obvious over the past few months is that people are responding really positively to:

flexibility
approachable coaching
safe, modern systems
varied targets
family involvement
and a club atmosphere where people are willing to help each other improve

These weekends continue to attract:

first-time shooters
families
experienced competitors
gamebird hunters
and people simply wanting to get out and enjoy a good weekend around the grounds

Our club is growing, and we're feeling really positive about future growth of the sport around the Wairarapa club.

Registration

Online registrations open shortly.

👉 Registration link coming soon

Live scoreboards and all event information will again be available through the club website across the weekend.

Looking Ahead

This May weekend continues the Wairarapa club’s evolving approach to modern clay target shooting — mixing flexibility, competition, coaching and accessibility into a format that simply works for how people want to participate today.

We’re looking forward to another big weekend.

Schedule 19-21st June for the next shoot weekend, where we'll have the same format, but with Skeet Club Championships in place of DTL Single Rise.