FOLLOWING a great deal of organisation, phone calls and emails, the Inter Parish Shoot took place on October 5 at 2pm at Tatson, Bridgerule.

This yearly event lapsed due to COVID but the organisers were keen to resurrect the traditional competition. Four out of a possible seven teams attended which organisers said was “sad but understandable”.

As the teams started to arrive the final checks were made to ensure a safe contest was held before a draw was undertaken to see who would start.

An organiser confirmed: “Firstly, we checked the automatic trap and birds and then the targets, after a slight technical hitch all was working well.

“Once all the team members had arrived, we made the draw to see who would shoot first. We had four teams out of a possible seven, which was sad but understandable as it appeared all teams struggled with participants.

“North Petherwin, Boyton, North Tamerton and Pyworthy were the order for the draw. All teams practiced first then shot for the cup. It was a fairly close match with scores of 14, 14, 12 and 11 respectively. Very excitingly we had to have a shot off!”

In the end it came down to North Petherwin and Boyton, who chose their best shots — Charlie and Richard — to play for the cup. With scores of 4-2 North Petherwin won the day.

The clay pigeon shoot was started by North Tamerton Parish in the 1920s when they challenged their neighbouring parishes. It ceased during the war years but the trophy was later rediscovered and the shoot was restarted in the early 1980s.

The trophy was given by Mr Alexander, who lived at Ogbeare, most noted for putting the money forward to build the parish’s hall. The cup is therefore named in his honour; the Alexander Cup.

The competition sees a team of six residents from each parish given the chance to shoot clays with the aim of identifying which parish collectively can shoot the most — this used to be held in the parishes each year.

Each parish would practice in their area and then the seven parishes involved — Pyworthy, Whitstone, North Petherwin, Boyton, Tetcott, Clawton and North Tamerton —  would come together on shoot day to see who could win the coveted Alexander Cup. 

Due to new rules and regulations the shoot has to be at an insured shooting ground. The Alexander Cup revised its rules in 2004.

The spokesperson added: “All teams were grateful the shoot had been resurrected and thanked us for our hard work.

“Thanks to Phil Grose and his team at Tatson shooting ground and all the teams and their supporters for attending.

“Here hoping for seven teams next year!”