Not only did it lack the seriousness of trapshooting, but it spread the shooting time out, taking longer to complete the semi-circle. A five-man squad would shoot all the single targets first, and then move back to the number one station to begin the doubles. More and more avid smoothbore enthusiasts joined the growing number of clubs and it wasn't long before competitions were the order of the day. Competitions, both on a club level, and between organizations, seemed to be starting up everywhere. It was obviously time to formalize the game and develop a firm set of rules that would be the same for all...It needed a governing organization.

Bill Foster (who, with Charles and Henry Davies, had innovated 'Around-the-Clock' and its advancement to 'Half-Clock') was by profession a renowned free- lance sportswriter who had recently been made assis-— tant editor of the popular National Sportsman, an outdoor recreation magazine that had a large North American circulation. It was through this. magazine, and his syndicated stories in other outdoor monthlies, that Bill Foster began to spread the word about the exciting new shooting game that offered sportsmen all the excitement of live bird shooting, combined with an abundance of fun and fellowship, without taking an actual toll of wildlife. Apart from the shells expended, the brunt of environmental damage was absorbed by the least harmed bird of all, the Clay Pigeon. Although it was the initiative of Henry Davies that created, 'Around-the-Clock,' and 'Half— Clock,’ it was Bill Foster, through his many articles in the early 1920's, that actually made the game a national pastime.

In 1926 Foster, through his magazine, offered $100.00 for the best suggestion of a name to give to this new shooting game that was spreading throughout the Nation. Many entries were sent in, but it wasa Dayton, Montana, housewife who received the $100.00 cheque, for her suggestion of a Scandinavian word meaning 'to shoot'--The single word was SKEET.

--136-—