Using a two-dimensional hydrocode, the collapse of the mid-section of a cylindrical shell target is investigated. The suitability of the resulting compressed plasma for the `hole boring' and `ignition' stages of the fast igniter scheme for inertial confinement fusion is considered. We estimate that for the implosion model considered, the cylindrical targets investigated offer less gain for a given amount of input energy than conventional spherical targets. From our simplified model we find that it is better to bore radially rather than along the axis.