Crews tackle blaze and find drugs farm

A TEENAGE girl is taking the world of clay pigeon shooting by storm.

Stephanie Meachen, 16, of Denby Dale, has enjoyed a meteoric rise since first picking up her gun in September last year.

Now Stephanie is set to star in the British Open Sporting Clay Shooting Championship at West Midlands Shooting Ground near Wolverhampton from Wednesday to Sunday.

The Shelley College student says that although she first began taking an interest in shooting when she went hunting with her father Graeme aged just six, it’s only since September that she began training in earnest.

Her arrival in the ladies team is a result of her superb qualifying posts which began in April and left her competitors floundering.

The competition saw her shooting at Beverley, Goole, Hartlepool, Blackpool and Northumberland.

Stephanie said: “It’s your best three shots that count. I got 81/100 at Goole, 85/100 at Beverley and 77/100 at Hartlepool.

“I’m over the moon at my selection, it’s more than I could have hoped for really.

“I owe a lot to my coaches Linda and David Grayson from Tankersley for their encouragement and my dad Graeme who has been shooting most of his life.”

“The cannabis farm was accessed through a trap door and survived intact but the majority of the barn and both caravans were destroyed.

“Crews from Slaithwaite, Halifax, Huddersfield, Rastrick and Dewsbury attended and three hose reel and four breathing apparatus were used to fight the fire. Slaithwaite got there first.

“Fire investigators are looking into how it started. We are not sure who owns the barn.”

Mr Macfarlane said as many as 30 cannabis plants were recovered.