A History of Cheltenham District Clay Club in Gloucestershire

PULL Magazine 1991

Cheltenham and district clay club today is a very different club to when it started out in 1964. Originally known as Cheltenham Gun Club it began life as a brainchild of the local gun shop owner Jack Gardner, following frequent visits to the USA where he saw skeet being shot. On his return he found a ground near Cheltenham in an Old Orchard just off a disused airfield. That same ground, The Park, Stoke Orchard, is still used by the club today.

Graham Hale who was the chairman back in 1991 describes the club in its 60s as being run rather as an old boys club. The founders, 6 local businessmen wanted to keep it exclusive -really only for use by their friends and relatives. Membership reached a peak of 14, at which point a group within the club decided that they wanted a more open membership aimed at the ordinary shooter. As a result they split to form Cheltenham and District Gun Club.

The new club quickly became popular mopping up a pool of interest in the area created by the involvement of Ian Coley, then on his way to becoming a top international trap shooter and eventually the GB trap team manager. For three years the two clubs CGC and C&DC ran side by side at the ground until the old club became so exclusive that it had no members at all.

Although the new club prospered, it too had its ups and downs. However, with a clear vision of where he wanted to take the club and at times the aplomb of a gifted rodeo star, Graham Hale kept the club on course. In 1982 Tewkesbury Borough Council who own the site announced that the ground was destined for a higher purpose: an extension of the municipal tip.

Graham took up the gauntlet and offered to buy a 25 year lease on the site at an increased rent. Even so there were prejudices to be overcome. “Half of them didn’t even know what clay shooting was, and the rest thought it was some kind of elitist foppery, so there was only one thing for it I got the lot of them down to the ground and gave them a shot. Once they had a look around I told them the aims of the club is to provide shooting for everyone who wanted it as cheaply as possible, to introduce new people to the sport in a way that emphasises safety, they seemed to realise that we weren’t Sunday Cowboys and agreed to granted us the lease.”

The club today is run with those principles very much in mind John Lee, the previous club secretary, stresses the importance the club places on providing shooting that anyone can afford: “we don’t even give cash prizes at the club because we want to keep entry fees down so that ordinary shooters could come and have a good shoot without breaking the bank. We wanted to attract new faces to the sport and to do that it has to be affordable. Also we feel that it does not foster club camaraderie which is very strong because you have winners and losers in real terms, with the losers, the majority subsidising the few winners who tend to be the same time after time”.

Graham Hale agrees: “We want people to come here and relax at the weekend not become stressed in some cash competition. We have an excellent club atmosphere at Cheltenham, no cliques, no senior members, no novice stands, everyone is treated the same and consequently everyone gets on with one another”.

We attract people from all walks of life from Lords, and there are several, to factory workers. In particular we want to attract new blood to the sport. We do this in a number of ways. I go round the schools chatting with six formers about the sport, and we have two superb CPSA registered coaches, Ron Braithwaite and Bob Taylor, who are on hand at the practise stand every Sunday to introduce newcomers to the sport very cheaply.

New members get special concessionary fees as probationary members; as such they are accompanied at all times on their first six visits to ensure that they are reasonable shots: on their final two visits they’re taken round by safety officers.

“I firmly believe that to attract people to a club you must offer continually improving facilities which is another reason I don’t believe in giving cash prizes, I prefer to see the money raised ploughed back into the club for the benefit of everyone rather than the select few winners. We do offer top quality trophies though, and do have lots of club competitions to keep a good club spirit. This policy allowed us to invest in the future of the club: We now have a 20 foot embankment to block noise, and hard access to all stands is being installed. Floodlighting was installed around 1992 as well”.

At the moment the club has over 250 members who turned out in strength for regular Tuesday evening DTL, Thursday afternoon and Sunday sporting fixtures. There are queues at the gates by 10:00.

The club boasts a very active committee of 13 and team of dedicated helpers. Steve Parker looked after the automatic traps, and designed an electronic control circuit so impressive that the makers Duematic considered producing it themselves. One of the great things about the grounds is the constant variation of targets that can be delivered since the traps are carried on pallets moved to new positions each week.

“Someone once told me the grounds look like an Oasis in the desert”, Graham remarks, “In the summer all the blossom comes out in the trees; it looks stunning. I think with such a good ground and all the improvements we are making the club will continue to go from strength to strength, When you’re running a club you’ve got to keep moving the goal posts otherwise you’ll get left behind, and right now we’ve got our eyes set on each other side of the pitch”.