Miner Cliett

With an eye as accurate as a plumb line and a hand as steady as a rock, 14-year-old Miner Cliett is acquiring an almost incredible record in skeet meets around the country. Last month in the Royal Palm Open Skeet championships at Palm Beach he took the over-all title, the 12-gauge and the small-and sub-small-bore titles, shooting against all age groups. Son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cliett of Childersburg, Ala., Miner has probably shot more shells than most hunters fire in a lifetime. He started shooting at 4, when his father, who runs a hardware store, gave him an air rifle. At 11 he shot his first skeet—and three months later won the national 20-gauge junior championship. In 1956 he took the title for the second time and the junior national titles in sub-small-bore and sub-12-gauge. Last July he set an American record by winning every major title in the Mid-South Open Skeet Shoot, junior class. Miner, an eighth grader at Childersburg with a B-plus average, also likes to fish and play piano, saxophone and clarinet. But all efforts in the near future will be directed at clay birds. Next month he competes in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In May he'll be at the Blue Grass Open in Louisville, and his schedule also calls for meets in Houston and Dallas, Jackson, Miss, and Jacksonville, Fla.

PHOTO

LEWIS ARNOLD