Off Duty
The first weekend of August saw Dial-a-Cab's 21-year old sensational
shooting Call Taker, Donna Merry, battle against 300 other Skeet shooters in
the British Open Championships at Nottingham.
Beating every other lady competitor out of sight, Donna would
have easily won the Lady's Open prize, but rejected the opportunity to go
after the big one instead - the overall British Open Championship which
meant going up against the men. The rules say that no shooter can win more
that one prize, so Donna had to choose and decided to go for outright
gold...
The previous week saw Donna - who shoots in a Dial-a-Cab shirt
under her Skeet jacket - get in some useful practice when she won the
Lak-Ler Buildings Ltd Skeet Championships at Doveridge in Derbyshire against
170 other shooters. She opened with a perfect 100 at Derby, to move straight
into the Finals where she came up against 11 other finalists - all men. The
competition ran into 'sudden death' but Donna kept her nerve to become the
overall "High Gun" Champion and walk away with the first prize.
Back at Nottingham and the British Open, once again Donna had
opened up in the first round
Gallant Donna
Pipped at the Post
Ready to Fire
So the British Open Championship Final was between Donna and twelve male shooters. Donna's only advantage was that she was scheduled to be 13th out of thirteen to shoot. Following the first two rounds of 25, Donna was out there again with a perfect 50 - as were now just six of the twelve men.
These seven had to fire at double clay pigeons - one high and one low - and shoot then both down with the one double shot. This event left just two shooters left in the competition, Mark Robotham and Dial-a-Cab's Donna Merry. They were now shooting with 'sudden death' rules - miss and your opponent is Champion.
Speaking to Call Sign afterwards, Donna said that perhaps she was feeling a bit over-cautious and took the shot too stiffly. "But Mark shot well and I can have no complaints," she said, "and of course, there is always next time...!"
Front cover shot: Brian Rice presents Donna with her British Open Silver Medal and Cup after she became runner-up in the Championships.
