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Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 8th November 2014 the Diggers and George James Cups 500yards 

           Last weeks' wind was a thing of the past as Saturday dawned fine, sunny and calm. The conditions were a little deceptive however as the light north westerly breeze was accompanied by a mirage which variously worked in conjunction with, and against the breeze. At one stage the top two directional flags were pointing in opposing directions whilst the mirage flip-flopped either side of the target. 

           Geoff Willis gave a pointer to what could be achieved as he opened the shoot with a 59.4 dropping just the one point on his first counting shot. Grahame Willis was unable to match that score but hung in with a 57.2 

           However the target rifle competitors were unable to follow their example as the fluky conditions held sway, and dropped shots and low centre counts were the norm for the first stage. Graeme Bright tenuously held his stage together until a late double inner produced a 48 with just the one centre bullseye. Centre bulls eyes were few and far between. John Coghill scraped together a 47.0 and Dennis Lavelle a 44.02, his dropped shots coming in pairs. Gordon Shepherd shot a 45.01 courtesy of a magpie-inner burst, followed by double inner fours whilst Ron Gibson, using a new barrel, started and finished sensationally with centre bulls-eyes, but faltered with a string of 5 inner fours in between. 

           The second stage was somewhat better than the first with both Bright and Grahame Willis finding the centre on numerous occasions. The overall scores also improved with Bright, Coghill and Lavelle all shooting 48's, Bright with 6 centre bulls-eyes. Shepherds' group was again unusually wide as he dropped three points whilst collecting just two centre bulls-eyes. Gibson may need to give his new barrel a heavy scrub after a terrible 43.01 but the first stage centre bulls eyes show that it will shoot. 

           The Willis brothers had a stirring tussle with Grahame topping the stage with a 59.5 but Geoff consolidated his first stage lead with a second stage 59.1 to win the F class Cock of the Walk. Bright took out the A grade target rifle and Coghill the B grade, his rifle problems hopefully behind him. 

           The first round of the two cups will conclude next week at 600 yards as a large contingent from the club travel to Canberra for the ACT Queens Prize meeting. 

Scores:
G P Willis FSA 116.7 (3) 99 ¼
J Coghill TRB 95.03 (4 ¼) 99 ¼
G S Willis FSA 118.5 (3/4) 99
G Bright TRA 96.07 (1 ¾) 97 ¾
D Lavelle TRB 92.04 (4 ½) 96 ½
R Gibson TRB 88.05 (8) 96
G Shepherd TRA 92.03 (1) 93