A very merry Christmas from Thimbleby Shooting Ground!
December is well underway, the estate has already had a dusting of snow and we’re gearing up for the festive season and the last few weeks of 2025. If you’re hoping to visit us for some clay shooting, shopping and tasty food from our clubhouse cafe, we’ve popped a graphic with our opening hours on the blog. It’s the perfect way to get some fresh air, enjoy the satisfaction of dusting some clays and eat, drink and be merry while someone else takes care of the washing up!
We’ll be raising a glass to another memorable year here at the shooting ground, so what better way to sign off than to take a look back at everything that made this year at Thimbleby Shooting Ground so good.
From competitions to social gatherings, 2025 has been a year where the ground has felt busier and better than ever before. Whether you joined us once or twice for a lesson or visited every week (if not two or three times!), we’re so grateful to every customer and member who helped make it such a success.
Our English Sporting competitions attracted a high calibre of shooting, and our Sportrap layouts proved popular with those looking for a fresh challenge. We’ve loved seeing new faces on the leaderboards and long-standing members pushing their skills to new heights. Keep an eye out for details of our 2026 competitions coming in the New Year.
Our Friday morning shooting sessions were some of the most friendly and fun fixtures in the calendar. Add in our weekend sessions, festive wreath-making and those relaxed social gatherings in the café, and it’s been wonderful to watch a really supportive community thrive.
Our Young Guns events for shooters aged ten to sixteen are always popular, and our recent upgrade to include clays, air rifles and another activity – for example pumpkin carving for Halloween – made them even better. It’s brilliant to see so many young shooters try clay shooting for the first time while others refine their skills for a hobby that will last a lifetime. We’ll be sharing details soon for our February half-term Young Guns sessions, so watch this space.
Tristan, our brilliant chef, elevated the café menu this year with everything from hearty winter warmers to perfect post-shoot breakfast staples. He also hosted a game cooking demonstration, an event that was a huge hit and will definitely be returning in 2026.
Alongside that came a packed diary of lessons with beginners finding their footing, returning shooters fine-tuning technique, and experienced guns preparing for days in the field. Thank you to our instructors for another year of dedication, calm advice and quietly transformative coaching.
Our Simulated Game Days were once again incredibly popular, testament to the quality of the drives, the epic organisational skills of our team and, of course, the fun and camaraderie they deliver for our guests. Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting announcement about our 2026 Simulated Game offering! Summer also saw the return of late-night shooting and our TSG Tuesday Burger Nights – great shooting, great food and great prices!
As we get ready for the arrival of 2026, we’re thrilled to share that there are exciting changes on the horizon. From Monday the 5th of January, Thimbleby Shooting Ground will be open seven days a week. Opening on Mondays will create more opportunities for lessons, practice sessions, corporate groups and just weekday outings when you fancy the challenge of clay shooting. The TSG café will be open all seven days too, and you can look forward to a warm welcome whenever you visit.
Thank you for being part of such another wonderful year at Thimbleby. From all of us on the ground, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year. We look forward to welcoming you back in 2026 for another year of shooting and time well spent in great company.