Aliana McMaster shines at Cridland Sporting Clays

Jamaica’s outstanding junior shooter Aliana McMaster created history recently at the Jamaica Skeet Club’s Portmore headquarters when she was crowned HOA (Highest Overall winner) of the Bernard Cridland Memorial Sporting Clays shoot. She topped the field by being on target with 94 out of a possible 100 birds.

It was not the best conditions for competing and posting high scores due to the weather before and during the shoot but that did not deter McMaster who buckled down to deliver one of her highest scores in any sporting clays competition. The conditions as described by president of the club Justin Samuda were very damp, preceded by early morning showers and intermittent rain throughout the day. Conditions like that usually lead to the targets being harder to spot which makes missing only six targets very special.

In addition to being the HOA, McMaster bagged the Ladies and the Juniors categories. She was ecstatic with her performance.

“The feeling is honestly just an overwhelming amount of happiness, and joy, and relief and excitement, and it’s just a mixture of all of them at once. It’s just reminds me of how many times I’ve gotten so close and I felt like I was just not really there yet, and it was just that I was always producing a good score and a good effort. It’s just seems that it just never would come together, it was just never enough and that really like takes a toll on you after you go and knock on the door so many times but now that it finally came around this time. I was just in disbelief, really, and it was just amazing. I’m so grateful.”

Mark Desnoes, another outstanding junior shooter who moved into the senior ranks in 2024 was the runner-up. He shot 90 to end on four shots behind McMaster.

History in the making

Samuda had high praise for McMaster’s performance and for Desnoes, for continuing to be an outstanding shooter at the club.

“It’s not every day you get to witness history in the making. As one of Aliana’s biggest fans it was a real pleasure to be there and watch it all unfold. As a result her HOA win at the 2025 Bernard Cridland Memorial will not only hold a special place in the annals of the Jamaica Skeet Club but will most definitely be one of the more memorable moments of my presidency. Congrats to our runner-up Mark Desnoes who I had the pleasure of squadding with on the day. Thanks again to the sponsors, the organisers, and the entire Jamaica Skeet Club team for making this opening event a most remarkable one.

The Bernard Cridland shoot which opened the 2025-2026 calendar saw some very good performances by other shooters in the various classes. The top three shooters in A Class were: Chad Ziadie 89, Alex Cunningham 88 and Gerry Chin who also shot 88. They were separated by way of long run which is based on their scores on pre-determined stations prior to the start of the shoot, which are used to separate the shooters who have tied scores.