SIMULATED GAME DAYS: THE BEST PRACTICE FOR THE REAL THING?

Most certainly

By Ben Samuelson

As one season closes and I put my cleaned and well-oiled gun away, I am always determined that I shall spend plenty of time practising with clays, perhaps even have a lesson or two before the next season. I shall start in August as I finish in January, with what passes at my lowly level as having my eye-in.

But my propensity for self-delusion is huge:drink a glass of water for every glass of wine that passes my lips, and file my columns ‘on time’, even though this is being written after the agreed deadline, the reality is I haven’t had a shooting lesson (amazing, I know) since boyhood. I spend the first half of the season slowly working out the shooting equivalent of where middle and leg is.