George Who ? If you are not familiar with the world of shooting you may not have heard of George Digweed. If you are a clay shooter you cannot fail to be very familiar with the name but I can guarantee that very few people really know the man that is George Digweed. To some the name conjures up a mythical beast 9' tall blessed with magical powers, shooting clays at one mile with a gun that shoots around corners.
All of this is true (nearly).
It would be easy to regurgitate the thousands of clay shooting wins at club level and the Fifteen World Titles in order to reinforce the legend, but the impressive facts are detailed elsewhere on this site and his new DVD "Digging for Gold." There is so much more to George Digweed that it would be a sin not to concentrate on the 'other side'
Contrary to the myth, George Digweed was not the result of an experiment by scientists to produce a clay shooting machine, but was born in Hastings Sussex on 21st April 1964, his first words being "Pull". The shooting seed was sown early on by his grandfather George Hickman who shot in a game shooting syndicate at Rolvenden, Kent.
Young George accompanied George senior from an early age initially beating and then at the age of eleven GD was allowed to carry an unloaded gun for a year, after which time his arms grew tired and he put it down. Those who have been beaten in competition week in week out by GD have his grandfather to thank for introducing him to clay shoots at the age of twelve. Working in the family butchers alongside his father and grandfather, the weekly wage was funding regular clay shooting exploits and soon Sundays consisted of a trek around the South East taking in five or six shoots, picking up prize money on the way and thus enabling the one man exhibition to buy the essentials of fuel and cartridges. The shoot regulars were already getting used to coming second, the warning cry of "Look out, Digweed's here" meant that GD had already won the mental game.
The record books speak for themselves, the man has been phenomenally successful and is still notching up win after win. Such is his reputation that before reading his book I believed that George had never been beaten, I assumed that he was simply unbeatable, there were years however when others were able to pull something extra out of the bag, but GD was rarely more than a point away from the win. The man strives for perfection, the concentration is unbelievable and as a competitor he is the genuine article, you would be unwise to bet against GD at anything, throw a challenge down and the 'race face' comes down, the Hastings Disco Boy puts on a show
and you'll find it difficult to counter the 101% effort, GD wins by sheer determination and total unerring self belief.
Many friends and fellow competitors say that he is the most complete shot, not the most natural, but the most complete. This committed attitude sees GD succeed in his life away from clay competition. Hands up who knows about GD the cricketer…. As I thought!! GD's name went into Wisden, the Cricket bible, for an extraordinary cricketing achievement when his bowling figures in a Sussex league cup match were 5 overs, 5 maidens, 8 wickets, 0 runs! Shooting is a business and anyone THIS good is going to be involved in the business of shooting. As a clay and game shooting coach GD is in demand the world over, if you want this man to teach you, like the "A-Team", help is only a phone call away. Being a regular contributor to the shooting press goes with the territory, there is so much that can be learned from this gentleman that there is always an audience, always a reader hanging on his every word. George sees himself as a game shot that shoots clays from time to time and the core business is the Sporting Agency that he runs with wife Kate. George shoots clays for six months of the year - from mid August his attention turns exclusively to game. It should not be forgotten that he holds the record for the number of woodpigeon shot in a single day (661 in 1996) and also the unofficial record for dove in Argentina. Over the last six years he has transformed Owley into one of the finest shoots in the south of England.
No story about George Digweed is complete without Kate, literally his other half, as the man is not complete without her. Describing her husband as a bit of a romantic softie we'll just have to suspend disbelief for a moment and promise not to spread the rumour too far. If it were not for Kate our man would have a mullet, drive an XR3i and be drinking vodka on Hastings pier. Tall, intelligent and a fox, Mrs Digweed is George's manager, taking care of everything behind the scenes and putting George in the position where he just has to get to the ground ready to shoot. When George is away hosting at Owley or with his roving syndicate, Kate looks after other visiting teams and I suspect that some may wangle it so that they visit on a day that hubby is away, such is the reputation of Kate as an excellent hostess, the over-riding feeling is that you are part of a private family shoot and this is the magical quality that is key.
Kate too shares George's love of the country scene but you won't see her pigeon shooting unless a flock of pigs are coming in to land alongside. The one and only time that George took Kate pigeon shooting he made a hide on top of an eight foot bank by the river Rother, which was full of rather black sludge, put out the decoys and issued his instructions. As a beginner George said that Kate was allowed to shoot the pigeons on the ground, but the necessity of standing bolt upright to distinguish live birds from the decoys meant that she kept scaring them away. Eventually spotting a short sighted, deaf pigeon with a limp penning a suicide note, Kate lined him up and pulled the trigger. Now, Kate had never shot a twelve bore and wasn't really expecting the recoil, the next thing we knew she had gone over backwards into the black slime below with George gazing down speechless for a moment at the two feet and gun barrels sticking out of the water. Her rescue was delayed by the belly laughs of the gallant knight Sir George, his comforting words somehow not having quite the right effect when interspersed with chuckles.
If George Digweed was born in the USA he would be a National Icon, everybody would know his story, his truly remarkable achievements putting him beyond the reach of mere mortals, the next thing you know he'd be a Presidential candidate. The truth is that George is an Englishman, flesh and bone, a real character and I prefer George as he is. I have heard the story, I have seen beyond the medals and I have been surprised throughout. I now respect the man more and can see myself in his shoes. With hard work and dedication we can all learn from his example, we can all be GD in our own way. Rather than being resigned to coming third or fourth if you do ok and have a little luck, you should start believing in yourself, work harder than the next man, concentrate on hitting every target, don't take the easy ones for granted and have the self belief to win, be first. Think like a winner and you will be a winner. I'm more impressed by George away from clay shooting rather than as the fifteen times world champion, I don't do hero worship very well, I'm not overawed about who people are, I am not interested in reeling off who I know and hanging onto their coat tails. When asked "Who was that chap you were talking to" ~ it would mean more to be able to say "That's George Digweed" 'nuff said.
-James Hickman