Hawke's Bay shooters on point at national competition

Lindisfarne College students Sam Lowry (left) and Bryn Thompson shone at the national secondary school shooting competition. Photo / Warren Buckland

A group of Hawke's Bay high school students have shot themselves to the top of New Zealand at the National of the Secondary School Clay Target competition.

A group of 18 Lindisfarne College students and a handful of competitors from other schools in Hawke's Bay competed at the three day event at the Waikato Clay Target Club in Hamilton in late September.

The group won a host of individual awards with Sam Lowry best of the bunch with top scores in the NZ DTL and NZ Skeet that saw him take out the NZ Aggregate Cup.

But the group also thrived in the teams events, taking out the Fish and Game Regional Teams Challenge, in which the five top shooters of each region were selected over the previous two days shooting.

This year Sam Mathers (Napier Boys' High), Cameron Spargo (Karamu), Harry Smith, Bryn Thompson and Ben Thomasson (all Lindisfarne), representing Hawke's Bay, came out the winners.

Lindisfarne also entered a team in the Kilwell Postal Shoot, along with 21 other schools throughout the country, scoring an impressive 221 out of 225 which saw the Lindisfarne A team take out the cup for the second time in 34 years, having last won it 16-years ago.

Overall the region brought home 10 awards with Lindisfarne having a hand in nine of them.

Under the guidance of coach Michael McCormick for the past four years, with Ralph Harper as team manager and Robyn McCormick logistics manager, Lindisfarne is considered one of the top shooting schools in the country.