Conroy shoots his way to Irish Gold Cup
By Shane Brophy
Cloughjordan shooter Noel Conroy became the fourth Tipperary man to win the Irish Close/Gold Cup.
Conroy follows in the footsteps of Newtown’s J.F Barry in 1948. Richard Lewis of Birdhill in 1987 & 1992 and most recently fellow Cloughjordan shooter David Goulding in 2012 & 2015 in winning the oldest and most prestigious competition on the Irish shooting calendar
Clay target shooters from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland compete for this each year and have done since 1927, and this years events took place on Sunday 2nd August at the ICTSA National Shooting Grounds in Esker, where 184 competitors took to the clay pigeon trap layouts.
Noel Conroy shot the first maximum 100/300 score in the morning wave, the first of three waves through the course of the day. One other Tipperary man shot a maximum 100/300 in the morning wave also, Christopher Maher from Hollyford.
During the second and third waves, William Armstrong and Gerry Ellis from Northern Ireland came close scoring 100/299s respectfully followed by David Malone and Ronan Morris shooting 100/298s.
At the end of the wave events, Conroy and Maher were tied with two maximum scores and so entered a final shoot-off competition where Christopher Maher shot 24/70 and but Noel Conroy shot a maximum 25/75, to win the Golf Cup.
Noel has been a member of Cloughjordan Gun Club for many years and has been an Ireland team member represented Ireland DTL ‘Down the Line’ shooting team internationally since 2017.
Noel will look to take his good form into the remaining ICTSA calendar events in 2020 and looking forward to the DTL three-day World Championships to be held in June 2021, in Northumberland, England where the elite of the world’s DTL shooters will gather to shoot for the Dougal Memorial Trophy, followed by the English Open and finally the three day World Championships in what will be a week of events.