Weekly Review 17/02/2018
Weekly Review 17/02/2018
Bathurst Rifle Club Inc. 17th February 2018, J Wilde Memorial Trophy, Championship & QVM, 700yards
The promised northeasterly breeze produced one of the more difficult days of shooting as the mirage boiled, flicked from side to side, and was generally unreadable. Nick Cock pulled out the first marble and proceeded to give everyone a lesson in how to read mirage. Cocks’ 50.06 was a masterpiece and the only possible of the day as the shimmering targets became a blur and shooters almost had to guess which ghost was the real target.
Steve Williams fresh from his triumph in New Zealand got his only inner four amongst a string of centre bull’s eyes as the mirage intensified. Ron Gibson had an excellent first stage of 47.03 followed by Graeme Bright 46.03 and Gordon Shepherd who finished on four inner fours, for 45.03. John Coghill encountered ammunition problems and had to settle for a 39.01 which included an outer two.
In F-class there were no heroics as inner fours, the F class equivalent of the target rifle magpie, were evident on all cards, with a real dearth of super centre's. The only exception was Jeff Eppleston who managed to shoot 5 supers despite dropping points on four of his last five shots, including an inner four. Grahame Willis and Colin Howell scrambled to 53.1 apiece as Phil Mahon and Nick Webster battled to see the target through the shimmering heat haze.
The second stage was more of the first with scores tending to remain stationary or drop off as the mirage showed no signs of abating. Even Cock had a wobble with two inner fours, the last on his final shot. Cock’s 48.05 was sufficient to claim the Cock of the Walk title as Williams with 47.02 fell two points shy and Bright scrambled to third place.
Shepherd and Gibson had shockers, Gibson’s twitch producing a 12 o’clock miss and Shepherd dipping into the magpie pool. Coghill tried valiantly to climb off the bottom but Gibson clung onto the B grade honours by one point.
Eppleston confined his shots to the bull’s eye ring or better, dropping just two points to secure top spot as Willis stumbled over his last four shots. Howell and Mahon could not make much improvement but Webster, again battling with sticking cases in the club rifle, went downhill.
Next week the 24th February is the second stage of the J Wilde Memorial Trophy and the first stage of the K Redding 8/900 yard trophy.
Scores:
J Eppleston FSA 113.8 (5) 98 ¼
G Shepherd TRA 84.03 (7 ½) 91 ½
by John Coghill
Posted in Weekly Roundup on Feb 18, 2018