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Kate Digweed got the short end of a bet with George...
Kate explained the unfortunate situation,"I tried to catch a mink at the shoot in a trap and failed miserably. George said he could catch a mink within two weeks without baiting the trap - I said impossible ..... anyway, I then stupidly went on to say that IF he caught a mink within two weeks then I would swim "Green Barn Duck Pond" which is one of our large duck ponds which has had ducks on it for a long time and as you can imagine is full of ... well, put it this way ... NOT mineral water!!!!
It is one foot water, 20 foot slime !!!"
George caught a mink within 12 hours!!!
So guess what... Now Kate is having to swim the duck pond!!! The big
swim date is February 1st 2009 - whatever the weather!
As so many people want to come and watch Kate die of some god awful disease in the
water ... We thought we might as well make a few quid for charity - all for a good
cause...
Each Ticket will be sold for £5 at the gate of the swim.
Look forward to seeing all there...
George will be visiting the Queen in the next few weeks to chat about his career and receive the coveted MBE Medal. George has won numerous titles in his career including 15 World Titles; the Member of the British Empire Medal will certainly rank at the top of the list as this is an honor reserved for very few.
Check back for an update on this very special milestone in George's career.
This was the second year of staging the World All Round Championships in the history of clay shooting. An event created by an American in 2007, who wanted to find out who was the best "All Round" Shooting Champion.
George went to Dallas 10 days ago to defend his title, having won the event by 23 targets last year, he was hot favourite to do it again, but many of the competitors had been putting a lot of practice in over the past year, so they were fully prepared for the battle that lay ahead.
Thirty top shooters from around the World were going to be battling it out over 4 days for the title. 900 targets were to be shot, 13 different disciplines, some would be seen in the Olympics in Bejing this year, and some would not.
The 13 events were all going to be tough, some shooters were champions in their own disciplines, but the idea of the event was to find the overall champion of 900 targets. A real marathon event, and not for the faint hearted.
The competition was staged at the beautiful Dallas Gun Club over 3 days with one day held at Prairie Creek Gun Club.
The first day were the American trap events, 6 of the 30 shooters were "professional" trap shooters, and were certain to be at the top of the leader board after the first day. In fact, only one of the trap shooters really shone at this event, with George came in a very close second. A great result for George, as this was not really in his "comfort zone". Also, the American skeet was shot on the first day, which George came second in.
The Sporting was held at Prairie Creek in Kilgore, a 3 hour drive from Dallas. The course setters were well known for putting on tough targets, and this would suit George as he was on "home ground" with Sporting.
It was a 100 clay target event, the heat was well over 90 degrees and the crowds all turned up to watch George do what he does best - Sporting.
After 5 stands George had missed 10 targets, a total disaster, he said that he had never shot Sporting so badly, and could only put it down to the fact that his "timing" had gone in Sporting due to shooting the other dicsiplines, but this was what was making the competition so interesting as the leader board was changing rapidly after every event. George finished on an 87, with Dave Hughes from Wales shooting a 94. This pushed Dave up the leader board and George down to 3rd overall by the end of the day.
The next day was the skeet, Helice and Olympic Trap, the ISU Skeet was probably the hardest discipline over the 13 events of all. George had really struggled with this last year, but had been putting in quite a bit of work back home for this years event, and it certainly paid off. By the end of the day he was nipping at the heals of the leader, and tomorrow was Sporting and Flyers, and this was a day that George would be 100% in his comfort zone ..... or so he thought.
The last day was 5 stand and FITASC, another of George's strong events, but after the day he had had at Prarie Creek, his confidence was a little battered
A 88/100 at 5 stand bought him back up to 2nd place, and then an outstanding 67/75 on FITASC bought him even closer to the leader.
George was now only 3 targets behind the leader, Scott Robertson from America. They now had 25 targets to shoot for the Super Final. Could George make up 3 targets on Scott over only 25 targets to force him into a shoot off?
The crowds gathered in the searing heat to watch who was going to be crowned the World All Round Champion.
The targets were tough in the final, a bonus for George as he had the capability of making up 3 targets if he kept his cool and dug deep for Great Britain.
Scott dropped four on the first two stations, George only dropped one. This made them level. Now the pressure was on. The crowds hushed, and the two men gritted their teeth for the final three stations.
Scott dropped another three, George didn't ..... game over! The crowds went mad, it was wonderful to see the American spectators cheering and clapping for a British shooter.
George won the event by 3 targets, he had to work hard for it, and was pushed right to the last event, but he was crowned the 2008 World All Round Champion again.
George would like to thank Perazzi, Gamebore, Hi Def Spex and Ambassador Services for thier continued support.
2008 - 2 World Cup Events - 2 Victories
The shoot was in Italy in the mountains about 90km from Rome, at the impressive shooting ground of Veniero Spada in the small town of Parrano.
Shooting 4 layouts, and 100 targets each day over 2 days. The terrain was put to the best use possible with targets not only below your feet but high above you as well.
After the first day, Stafano Lombardi and Gabrielle Soldani were leading the shoot with 92/100, with the majority of the field closely bunched between 86/100 and 90/100.
Shooting early on the second day, and uncharacteristic 20 on his first layout saw George Digweed drop further back, but finishing scores of 22/25, 23/25 and 24/25 pulled him back to a final total of 178/200.
The majority of the field seemed to struggle on the second day with the targets at a slightly more difficult level, and uniquely to FITASC on layout C, a simultaneous pair of helice targets were thrown.
A late surge from Giacomo Mori saw him finish on 178/200 to tie with George.
The resulting shoot off in front of a large gallery at the club house on the trench layouts, saw George victorious with a 22/25 with Giacomo Mori shooting a 20/25.
This was the second leg of the World Cup, the first being in South Africa. George has now won both World Cup events he has entered in 2008.
The few days leading up to travelling to Cape Town for the First Leg of the World Cup was a little stressful in the Digweed household! George's Perazzi Shot Gun was stuck in France in a container in "Operation Stack". George had sent his Shotgun to Perazzi in Italy to be serviced, and unfortunately the French had decided to strike at the Ferries, so all the containers were stacking up nicely across the channel, with one container containing a vital piece of equipment for the competition in South Africa!
Thankfully, the gun arrived one hour before we were due to leave for Heathrow, and a big big thank you must go to Phil Unwin at Ruag for this.
Anyway, the gun was now in George's possession, so he was happy and we set off to Cape Town for the first big shoot of the Season for 2008.
Having had a few days break in Cape Town when we arrived, we travelled to Paarl (40 minutes from Cape Town) near where the shoot was being held at Valley Gun Club.
The competition was a 4 day shoot, 50 clays each day and there was also another event running along side the Pan African Fitasc which was the Pan African Compaq.
As George had not shot any clays since September 07, he thought he had better enter both, to get some targets "under his belt" and to blow away the cobwebs, this decision to shoot both events proved to be very worthwhile.
If anyone has been to the Cape Town area, you will know how unrelenting the wind is, and it certainly made the shooting tough over the 4 days. We had heard that the UK had bad winds on the Monday, and we thought that we were getting the tail of it, but apprently not, Cape Town area is always windy, but very beautiful, and sunny.
There were 190 entries from 11 different countries in each discipline, a fantastic turn out for the first big event of the year, with 21 British shooters attending.
George's mind was very much focused on winning the Pan African Fitasc as this was a World Cup event and the points would be counted towards the World Cup score. The Compaq was an added bonus if he shot well in it, but the scores did not count for anything, only the title.
The first day made the shooters realise that this event was set with World Class targets. The Valley Gun Club had put on tremendous targets, ranging from 30 yards to 70 yard clays, that would test the best shooters in the World. The target setters used the terrain fantastically, with targets below your feet, off towers and driven from scrub bushes well away in the distance, it was going to be a tough 200 target competition.
George shot brilliantly, shooting two 25 out of 25's on two very tough layouts, in fact, these were the only "straights" of the whole competition. After day two he was leading the pack by 5 targets, with quite a few on the same score nipping at his heals.
Day 3 saw storm force winds. On the tower layout, the wind was so strong that the clays were being blown out of the trap machine on top of the tower. It was going to be a tough day for everyone, with the wind causing havoc with all of the layouts.
George rose to the challenge and shot a 24/25 on the first layout, this stunned the crowd and the shooters, who thought that it would be impossible to shoot above a 20 on this day with 70 mph winds. This score gave George a huge advantage, as the scores started coming in of 13's, 15's and 17's from the top shooters. He then "went up a gear" and demolished the next round of clays in the wind, shooting an immense 22/25. So, going into the last day, George was 14 clays in the lead, with 50 clays to shoot on Day 4.
He continued his top shooting, and finished the day 13 targets in front on 183, the silver medal went to a South African on 170, and Eric Manshoven took bronze on 163.
George was then informed that he had tied for first place with John Bidwell from the UK for the Pan African Compaq championship, and he would have to shoot off against John for the gold medal.
The crowds gathered to watch the two Brits go head to head. George shot 22/25 and John shot 18/25 - another gold for George.
George was then asked to do a demonstration for the crowds after the event, he shot a teal target, going back 10 yards with every teal target he hit, he eventually got to 120 yards and hit the teal target, he tried at 125 yards but the pellets were just boucing off the clay at this range. A huge cheer went up when he hit the 120 yard teal target, making people believe that the " impossible is possible " in the right hands!
The Valley Gun Club had put on a fantastic event, the targets were World Class, the catering was fantastic, and everyone at the ground went out of their way to make the event memorable. Wayne Young and Ian Grimmbacher set the targets, George said that the targets they had set for the compettion were as good as any targets he had shot in the World, and to thank them for all their hard work.
George would also like to thank Perazzi, Phil Unwin at Ruag, Gamebore, Hi Def Spex and Ambassador Services for the sponsorship.
