News

[b]The J Wilde Memorial and K Redding 8/900 yard trophies-900 yards -Bathurst Rifle Club 18th February 2012[/b] Saturday’s evening thunderstorm came too late to wash out the competition but the weather leading up to the deluge was diabolical. The breeze, although not strong, came from every corner of the compass at some time throughout the afternoon.

The changes were of such frequency that no shooter was able to settle into a rhythm and the magnitude of the changes made them very difficult to read. Added to that, intermittent cloud cover gave wildly fluctuating light conditions.

The best stages of the day were 48’s and the centre bulls eye count was well down on previous weeks. The first stage was perhaps the most difficult with Steve Williams leading the count with a 47.02.

Dennis Lavelle with the addition of a telescope is reveling in his newfound eyes, and has been promoted to A grade because of his consistently good scores. The telescope is useless if one can’t read the conditions and Lavelle’s 46.01 was a good result.

Gordon Shepherd, whose form of late has been steady, had a less than happy trip to the mound dropping 4 points mid stage, including a magpie three in his 45.02. Of the others Graeme Bright who is going through the horrors of late dropped 6 points, finishing with a magpie, Ron Gibson collected three magpies in his 41.02, Lawrence Sim, with his first shoot with a new barrel, could muster only 40.01, but they all surpassed John Coghill who retired mid-stage after a string of magpies and outer twos.

As the storm approached the conditions eased and the scores improved somewhat. Lavelle again came to the fore with a 48.06, the day’s best stage, Bright almost pulled it together, but dropped two points late in his stage of 48.05 and Williams scrambled to a 48.04.

Shepherd was off song with a 44.02 being left and right but few centres, Gibson showed rapid improvement, until an outer two relegated him to a 44.01, Sim fared little better in his second dig with a repeat 40.01, but Coghill, trying to return to the basics, did achieve some satisfaction with a 46.03.

The F-class pair of Jeff Eppleston and Grahame Willis were close all day Willis snatching a one point lead after the first stage with a 55.3 to Eppleston’s 54.1 which was punctuated by a couple of wide inner fours. The second stage was equally as close with Willis extending his lead by a further point to take out the Cock of the Walk by two points and 5 super Vee bulls.

Williams won the A grade COW, and Gibson, B grade. Grahame Willis won both the J Wilde Memorial and the K Redding 8/900-yard trophies.

The W Cutler Cup will commence on Saturday 3rd March after a week off for motor racing.

SCORES: D Lavelle (Opt) 94.07 (6) 100 G P Willis (F) 112.7 (7 ½) 99 ½ R Gibson 85.03 (13 ¼) 98 ¼ J Eppleston (F) 110.2 (5 ¼) 96 S Williams 95.06 (1/4) 95 ¼ G Shepherd 89.04 (5) 94 G Bright 92.06 (1) 93 L Sim 80.02 (11 ¾) 91 ¾ J Coghill 23.0 Rtd- 46.03

[b]The J Wilde Memorial and K Redding 8/900 yard trophies-800 yards -Bathurst Rifle Club 28th January 2012[/b] Saturdays' competition was shot under mostly bright skies and minimal wind and mirage. There were no surprises with Steve Williams running out a comfortable two-point winner over Gordon Shepherd after posting a 50.06 final stage.

Shepherd took it up to Williams and in fact led by a single centre bulls eye coming into the second stage but was unable to maintain the pressure as he slipped mid-stage and again on his final shot. Shepherds performance has stabilized over recent weeks and his centre count has been above average so a challenge to the leaders in the Club Championship is not beyond him

John Coghill made several changes to his gear, and his posture on the mound, after the disasters of previous weeks. The changes appeared to pay dividends but two horror shots brought him back to reality. The two shots, an outer 2 and a magpie 3 both in his least favourite 10 o’clock position cost him 5 points and any chance of staying with the leaders. Ron Gibson is also frustrated with his form and cannot obtain a tight enough group to keep him in the bulls eye ring.

In F-class Grahame Willis had a runaway win over brother Geoff and Club Champion Jeff Eppleston. Despite lagging on the first stage Grahame fired in a 59.3 final stage that was upgraded to a 60.3 possible on appeal. A wrong value was signaled on his first shot and his final bulls eye, which turned out to be an extra shot, was discarded.

Geoff Willis demolished his own challenge with an outer two early in his second stage and Eppleston was uncompetitive all day. A brush with small black biting ants didn’t help his concentration as he bounced up and down on the mound.

Steve Williams performed up to expectations at the recent NSWRA Queens Prize competition with a 25th badge in the Queens and a 17th in the Grand Aggregate but Graeme Bright (A grade) and Ron Gibson (C grade)were disappointed with their performances. Both shooters showed glimpses of their ability with second place medallions in the second 600 metre range, day 2 (Bright) and final 800-metre range day three (Gibson).

Epplestons' sojourn to Canberra for a bench rest shoot did not work out as planned and he returned home with nothing to show for his troubles.

The Bathurst Rifle Range is unavailable next weekend due to the Bathurst Gun Clubs “Top Gun” Prize meeting. The J Wilde Memorial and the K Redding, 8/900-yard trophies will conclude on Saturday 18th February.

SCORES: G P Willis (F) 113.3 (7) 100 J Coghill 94.07 (5 ¾) 99 ¾ G Shepherd 97.10 (2 ¼) 99 ¼ S Williams 99.10 (0) 99 R Gibson 90.05 (6) 96 J Eppleston (F) 104.3 7 ¾) 93 ¼ G S Willis (F) 109.4 (3) 93 ¼

[b]The J Wilde Memorial Trophy 700 yards -Bathurst Rifle Club 28th January 2012[/b] The NSW Queens Prize meeting and other major meetings left the local competition denuded of competitors, however the small group of contenders missed a golden opportunity to get a jump on the absentees.

The weather was fine and mild with just a hint of breeze and mirage at the start of the shoot but became a little more difficult as the afternoon wore on. The conditions however, did not justify the poor results obtained by all bar Geoff Willis, who put himself in a prime position to break Jeff Epplestons’ stranglehold on the F-class Club Championship.

Willis started with a shaky inner four and a last shot bull’s eye but by shooting two stages in quick succession, due to work commitments, he maintained his momentum and consolidated his shoot with a very good 59.5-second stage. His 116.7 proved a difficult target and was eventually well beyond the range of Grahame Willis who did not handle the increasingly fickle conditions. Grahame could do no better than a pair of 53.1’s leaving brother Geoff a massive ten points clear for the F-class Cock of the Walk win.

The result of the Target rifle division was equally as clear-cut after Gordon Shepherd opened up with an early 49.02. Dennis Lavelle, shooting optical class, didn’t know where the bull’s eye was for the first five shots and just muddled to a 42.1. John Coghill just didn’t know full stop, his group getting bigger by the shot culminating in a wild magpie finish.

The second stage was closer between Shepherd and Lavelle as the conditions became more difficult to read. Both shooters regularly dropped points, with Lavelle even repeating his first stage magpie, and the resulting 45.01 and 45.02 left them nothing to write home about. Shepherds’ good first stage was instrumental in his seven point COW win.

Coghills' demise continued on a downward trend, his second stage as wild as any seen on the range for many months, including new shooters. His poor shoot could be explained in the most part, when on leaving the mound, he discovered his rear sight had worked loose.

Still, not a good day for anyone bar Geoff Willis but at least the weather held out unlike conditions for those contesting the NSWRA Queens prize meeting in Sydney.

The J Wilde Memorial Trophy will continue next week in conjunction with the K Redding, 800/900yard trophy which commences at 800 yards.

SCORES: G S Willis (F) 116.7 (3 ½) 99 ½ G Shepherd 94.03 (5) 99 G P Willis (F) 106.2 (9 ¾) 96 ½ D Lavelle (Opt) 87.03 (5 ¾) 92 ¾ J Coghill 85.01 (6 ¾) 91 ¾

[b]The R L Gilmour Esq. Cup 600 yards -Bathurst Rifle Club 21st January 2012[/b] A strong electrical storm accompanied by heavy rain delayed the start of Saturdays shoot but after a two-hour delay the day brightened enough to allow the competition to proceed.

The passing of the storm produced a lull in the conditions giving shooters false hopes of another easy afternoon on the mat. However there was enough devil in the light breeze to dash those hopes and in some cases to ruin the chance of posting a high Championship score.

With a few spots of rain still falling, shooting got underway with Graeme Bright setting a competitive 49.05. Dennis Lavelle was the next best with his 48.03 the telescope giving him some advantages over the peep sights on a relatively calm day. Gordon Shepherd and Steve Williams were the next out of the blocks with 47.06 and 47.03 respectively, Shepherd shunning the bulls eye ring for centres and inners.

John Coghill was on target for a similar score until a wild magpie three blew that chance and Ron Gibson just couldn’t get into the groove stringing eight inner fours together after an inner start and inner finish.

F class started ignominiously for Grahame Willis who had a double inner finish in his 53.1 and Jeff Eppleston also blotted his copybook with an inner four finish. It took Geoff Willis to show what could be achieved with a four super-V finish in his 59.5.

Conditions in the second stage were even better than earlier on, with the breeze almost disappearing and the light becoming more even and a little brighter.

Overall, scores did improve but no one took full advantage and the elusive possible went unchallenged. Shepherd, Williams and Coghill all went within one point of the maximum with Shepherd again looking only at the centre bulls eye ring, collecting another seven, for a days total of thirteen centre bulls eyes. Lavelle repeated his first stage but Gibson again struck trouble and needs to forget the day existed

Bright having set the early standard could not repeat his first stage but managed to steal the Cock of the Walk from Shepherd and Williams by one point, his 48.02 seeing off the bags of centres accumulated by his competitors. Bright has put his name back into the Championship race with some recent good performances

Grahame Willis turned the tables on brother Geoff in F-class but his 59.4 was not good enough to take the COW from Geoff who consolidated his lead with a 58.4, his 117.9 total thrusting him back into the F-class Championship fight after Eppleston appeared to have written his name on this years trophy. After last weeks double possible Epplestons poor showing this week will leave some doubts in his mind with the NSWRA Queens Prize meeting imminent.

Grahame Willis won the R L Gilmour Esq. Cup with a handicap score of 298 ½ from Coghill and Shepherd both on 297. Attendance at next weeks local shoot over 700-yards is expected to be light with many members attending the Queens in Sydney.

SCORES: D Lavelle (Opt) 96.06 (5 ¾) 100 G S Willis (F) 117.5 (3 ¾) 100 J Coghill 94.04 (6) 100 G P Willis (F) 112.5 (7) 99 ¼ G Shepherd 96.13 (3) 99 G Bright 97.07 (1 ¼) 98 ¼ R Gibson 85.0 (12 ¼) 97 ¼ J Eppleston (F) 110.5 (5 ½) 96 ¼ S Williams 96.08 (0) 96

[b]The R L Gilmour Esq. Cup 500 yards -Bathurst Rifle Club 14th January 2012[/b] Thunderstorms which threatened to wash out the days’ competition, instead turned out to be the shooters best friend. With a mild easterly breeze and just a hint of a mirage, early shooters had favourable, but not completely benign conditions in which to build a solid foundation for the days challenge.

Two rain delays, the second a heavy thunderstorm, interrupted the shoot but after they had passed, shooting conditions were as good as any experienced for many, many months. The two Club Champions took full advantage and tied up the Cock of the Walk in their respective grades.

Steve Williams and Jeff Eppleston had magnificent shoots both achieving double possibles with very high centre counts. Williams tally of 17 centre bulls eyes contained no less than 10 super V bulls whilst Epplestons’ double was accompanied by 13 super V's.

Dennis Lavelle and Gordon Shepherd were both caught by the first few spots of rain, and whilst Lavelle found the conditions a little challenging Shepherd was able to battle through with just one dropped point. Graeme Bright and Grahame Willis likewise dropped just the one point in their scores of 49.04 and 59.2 but John Coghill dropped a couple for a 48.03

Geoff Willis and Ron Gibson were not quite so happy with their shoots, Willis faltering at the business end of his stage dropping three points for 57.1 and Gibson took some time to get into rhythm before finishing strongly for 45.01.

The second stage was all about ability and technique with absolutely no adverse weather conditions to distract the shooters. Lavelle and Geoff Willis overcame the disappointment of poor first stages to shoot 49.04 and 59.04 respectively and Gibson also improved despite a magpie three alighting on his scorecard. Bright put in a big one with 50.06 but neither Shepherd, Grahame Willis nor Coghill could seal the day with a possible each dropping one point with mid-stage lapses.

Liz Willis using her fathers F-class rifle continued her introduction to the sport with stages of 55.1 and 56.4 which but for a last shot inner four would have made her very competitive on the day.

The winner of the R L Gilmour Esq. Cup, which concludes next week at 600 yards, is in the balance with several competitors in contention with just the one range to shoot

SCORES: S Williams 100.17 (0) 100 J Eppleston (F) 120.13 (2 ½) 100 J Coghill 97.06 (5 ½) 100 G P Willis (F) 118.5 (3 ¼) 100 G S Willis (F) 116.5 (3 ¼) 99 ½ G Bright 99.10 (1/4) 99 ¼ G Shepherd 98.08 (1 ¼) 99 ¼ D Lavelle (Opt) 94.06 (3 ¾) 97 ¾ R Gibson 92.04 (5 ½) 97 ½ E Willis (F) 111.5