Results | MAY 2026 Sporting Clays + DTL incl. Club Championships

Wairarapa Clay Target Club
May 20
5 min read

Updated: Jun 1

May Sporting + DTL Weekend – Results & Wrap-Up

The May Sporting + DTL Weekend is done and dusted, and it was another really positive weekend for the club.

This month we brought Friday afternoon shooting back into the format, and that proved well worth doing. Before shooting started, we also had a Friday morning working bee around the grounds, so a big thanks to the club members who came along and helped get a start on tidying things up. There is always plenty to do around the place, and that sort of help makes a real difference.

Opening from Friday lunchtime gave people another useful window to get out, have a practice, post some scores, or get a bit of coaching before the busier parts of the weekend. Saturday ran well, and Sunday was busier than we’ve seen, with well over 50 people through the grounds across the weekend and plenty of rounds shot across all three disciplines.

The big addition this month was DTL Single Rise, and it was really good to see the support it received. DTL has been pretty quiet around the wider region for a long time, so to see strong numbers with 26 shooters posting rounds, good competition, and a heap of rounds shot over the weekend was a real positive.

The English Sporting Club Championship also worked well in the new format, with shooters coming back for extra rounds and trying to improve their best two scores. The targets were fair and there to be shot, but you still had to work properly to put a good score together. Super Sporting again gave shooters a good bit of variety and challenge, and rounded out the weekend well.

What was probably most encouraging was seeing the culture around the club again.

There were new shooters, regular club shooters, gamebird shooters, experienced competitors, DTL shooters, Sporting shooters, families, and people we haven’t seen around the club for a while. Everyone mixed in, helped each other, had a laugh, and got stuck in.

A few people turned up unsure about these newer flexible formats and whether they really have a place in traditional clay target shooting. By the end of the weekend, it was pretty clear that the format is doing exactly what we hoped it would do.

It gets people on the grounds.

It lets people shoot when they can.

It gives people a chance to try different disciplines.

It encourages re-entries, practice, coaching, and improvement.

And it creates a club weekend that people actually want to be part of.

There is a lot of talk around the country about how tough things are at the moment, and there is no doubt the wider financial and social climate makes things harder for clubs and sporting organisations. But what we are seeing at Wairarapa is that people are still out there. They still want to shoot. They still want to get out on the weekend, enjoy some like-minded company, make a few new mates, learn something, have a laugh, and be part of a club that is moving forward.

Since we started rewriting the way we run these weekends from the middle of last year, things have kept building. It is about presenting clay target shooting in a way that actually works for people today.

This weekend showed that really clearly.

DTL, which has been struggling for support across much of the region, had one of its best showings at Wairarapa in years. Sporting continues to draw strong numbers. Newer shooters are still coming in. Existing members are getting more engaged. And the club is continuing to grow.

That does not happen by accident. It happens when a club is prepared to look at things with fresh eyes, do the work, build better systems, welcome people properly, and create weekends that are enjoyable enough for people to keep coming back.

A huge thanks to everyone who came along, helped out, scored, refereed, coached, encouraged others, cleaned up, and supported the weekend.

The results are listed below, along with prize winners and giveaways.

English Sporting 40 | CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP (80)

AA – John Hillier (73)

R/U – James Mackie (71)

A – Reno Verde (74)

R/U – Rod Bryant (68)

B – Joe Bannister (68)

R/U – Duncan Sutherland (60)

C – Don Adams (47)

R/U – Cameron Price (35)

Novice – Liam Macdonald / Kalani Dee (12)

Super Sporting 60

AA – James Mackie / John Hillier (53)

A – Rod Bryant (53)

R/U – Reno Verde (47)

B – Royden Terry (44)

R/U – Duncan Sutherland / David Donald (41)

C – Nick Marvell (38)

R/U – Todd Bishop (35)

Novice – Liam Macdonald (33)

DTL Single Rise 25 | CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP (50)

AA – James Mackie (50 + 25)

R/U – Mark Johnson (50 + 24)

A – Mark Mcghie (48)

R/U – Rod Bryant (43)

B – Blue Freeman / Yvonne Ker / Garth Gadsby (45)

C – Charlie Meyer (47)

R/U – Tim Crum (45)

Novice – Liam Macdonald (45)

R/U – Vincent Iwikau (34)

💰 Prizes & Giveaways

As always, the Wairarapa Clay Target Club aims to give back as much as possible to those who support and participate in our shoots.

Across the weekend we’ve allocated cash prizes to 1st and 2nd place in each grade across all three disciplines, with:

English Sporting prizes based on the final Club Championship results, using each shooter’s best two 40-target rounds.
DTL Single Rise prizes based on the final Club Championship results, using each shooter’s best two 25-target rounds.
Super Sporting prizes based on each shooter’s best 60-target round of the weekend.

Prize amounts are $50 for grade winners and $30 for runners-up.

We’ve also allocated Falcon Ammunition prizes and a selection of random prize draws from shooters who posted at least one official score.

All prizes are available for collection from the club office, with collection to be finalised by the conclusion of the next Sporting Weekend 19-21 June. Any unclaimed prizes at that time will be returned to the club prize pool.

As with previous events, prize eligibility is limited to paid-up Wairarapa Clay Target Club members for 2026 (Full, Junior or Associate members)

Ammunition prizes will only be issued upon presentation of a valid NZ firearms licence.