Ambush at Cavern Cove 2015

July 26, 2021

After receiving much pushback against the move to a Thursday-Friday-Saturday format the year before, the 2015 Ambush at Cavern Cove moved back to the traditional Friday-Saturday-Sunday format with the shooters completing 6 stages on Saturday and four on Sunday before the big awards ceremony. I'll have to look back to see how much this improved attendance between 2014 and 2015, because I cannot remember.

Also, proving that all can return to right in the universe, the costume contest again took up multiple pages in the Shooter's Book,. The shooter's book also continued to dedicate four pages to a condensed SASS rule book. I like going back through some of these and seeing how some of the rules have evolved over time. And, with all the white space dedicated to costume contests, there was no room for a side match listing that year.

The theme of the match, as covered by the shooter's book, was dedicated to Western Comedies. There are so many great western comedies on both television and the big screen that I am sure that it was hard to come up with just 10 scenes for the match.

There were also sever new faces holding the reins of the North Alabama Regulators. President- Lawman Mark, Vice President-Barkeep Casey, Territorial Governor- Marshal TKD, Stage Marshal- Deadlee Shooter, Range Marshal- Lickskillet Charlie, Awards Marshal- Scotch Before Noon, Treasurer-Water Snake, Secretary-Drake Robey, Property Marshal- Badger McNeely all lead the way with Uncle Frank and Shooting D. Bullets helping out with things at Ambush.

While there was a new Marshal in charge of the stage design for 2015, Deadlee shooter continued several of the traditions started by his predecessors, including the third consecutive year of 'No Miss Ned', a favorite of everyone at North Alabama. One of my favorite stages was stage 9, if for no other reason, I love the Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson film that it was based on.

Ambush continued to host the Alabama State Championship that year. Sidekick claimed the top Alabama Cowboy title, his tenth overall. Winning the top Alabama Cowgirl honors that year was Alchemist Belle, her first. Sidekick won the match overall title with Dew R Dye winning overall cowgirl.

While I continue to work on the stages for the 2021 Ambush at Cavern Cove, I appreciate looking back at some of these historic matches. I appreciate the time and efforts involved by everyone who volunteers their time, whether it is something big that everyone sees, like writing stages or setting steel, or things that most of us take for granted, like putting out water or trimming weeds.

If you have not had a chance yet, I hope that you sign up for this year's Ambush soon. If you have, stay tuned to my blog as this will be where we release the stages for the 2021 match, where I hope to see you on The Firing Line.