Exciting shoot-off between Simpson and McMaster to dominate Driftwood Gun Club Sporting Clays Shoot

A massive group of one hundred and fifty-seven shooters completed the seventeen-station Murphy Hill course in St. Ann recently in the Driftwood Gun Club Shoot which resulted in a shoot-off between three time winner Craig Simpson and four-time winner Aliana McMaster, with Simpson taking top honours.

Both shooters bagged a whopping 95 out of 100 targets to dominate the packed field which included the best gunners on the island such as nine-time national shotgun champion and president of the Jamaica Skeet Club Ian Banks, six-time national shotgun champion and defending champion Shaun Barnes, four-time and reigning national shotgun champion Christian Sasso and Chad Ziadie the 2022 national shotgun champion as well as five-time national female shotgun champion Wendy McMaster.

Aliana McMaster already created history by being the first female to make it to A Class in late 2023. Her score of 95 is the highest by any female locally. When her score was posted most persons thought it very possible that she won which would make her the first female to win any sporting clay event in Jamaica, but Simpson roared back with his high scoring 95 to set up a tense duel between them.

McMaster won the toss and invited Simpson to shoot first. He picked off six of the eight targets while she bagged four.

“Winning is always an amazing feeling, it’s what keeps us going. I tell everybody that I don’t think I leave my house if I was not coming here to win. I am hungry for the win. Always hungry for the win. I am always excited about the competitive field and as the years go by with the juniors emerging, the field only becomes more competitive and its an internal challenge to stay relevant. I have been able to do that over the years and I plan to continue to be there for as long as I can but they are coming” said Simpson.

According to him “today we had a fair amount of wind and that made the target varying. The line was not consistent and you had to pay attention and it was a game of focus today. I really locked in today and seeing the target well and I was able to hold it together through to the end.”

McMaster on the other hand was very happy with her performance. “Its honestly an amazing feeling. After you have a reputation or expectation from the people coming to the shoot it can get to you and really mess up your head. I feel it can play a big part in how that day goes but I just had to approach it like any other shoot and just do my best and frankly winning four times in a row is honestly such a great feeling and I am absolutely grateful for it.”

Club president, Christina East was happy to have Proven on board for the fourth consecutive year as major sponsor. The club is celebrating twenty years of existence. East credited the over 30 stage sponsors led by major sponsor Proven Wealth along with National Rums, Monymusk, Fidelity Motors and Greast Construction as one of the successes of the event.

“This gun club is really a group of friends who shoot birds. We are a bird shooting club but from that we decided that we wanted to go into sporting clays because our club membership was a little bit bigger at the time (2015) so we decided that we wanted have our own shoot. We wanted to be on the shooting calendar so with that said we just decided that we would have our shoot and in having our shoot, what we earn as a profit from the shoot we would give back to some of the communities in Treasure Beach were we do shoot birds. So we gave back to Breds which is a community effort in Treasure Beach. We gave to the Sandy Bay Basic which is also a community effort in Treasure Beach. Our bird boys that have grown with us from they were kids to adults now, they have been recipients of water tanks because in some communities they don’t have actual running water. There are a lot things that we have done over the time and we continue. We also help with the Jakes Christmas treat that they have every year to make sure that the kids are happy in the area.”

The top three in the various classes were A Class Christian Sasso 92 by way of shoot-off with William Zager 92 and Alex Cunningham 91; B Class Gordon Bucknor 86, Robin Rickhi 84 and Zachary Harris 81; C Class Brandon Laing 90, Adam Harris 85 and Wendy McMaster 85; D Class Lori-Ann Harris 85 and Noah Vaughn 84; E Class Seymour Essor 69, David Campbell 67 and Anthony Ayoub 67; Ladies Aliana McMaster 95, Lori-Ann Harris 85 and Wendy McMaster 85; Hunters or Beginners Philip Burgess 77, Cameron Lee 69 and Che Rowe 68; Juniors Aliana McMaster 95, David Wong 87 and Lori-Ann Harris 85; and Sub Juniors Craig Powell Jr. 55 and Levi Clarke 48.