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Bathurst Rifle Club 23rd January 2010 The Gilmour Cup Final. 600 yards 

          The following two paragraphs best describe the days' events at the Bathurst rifle range on Saturday. 

          "The weather was particularly unfavourable for rifle shooting, a strong variable wind with frequent violent gusts and clouds of dust prevailed during the whole of the day". (From Bathurst Rifle Shooting, The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 20th January 1873)

          "Though the weather was fine, an unfavourable wind blew across the range and this will probably account for the poorness of the shooting". (Bathurst Rifle Shooting, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 2nd January 1883).

          Nothing changed in that decade and nothing much appears to have changed in the intervening 127 years. The wind blew (this time, however, without the dust) and the scores told the miserable tale.

          Not one contestant was able to crack 90/100 with the best scorers on the day being Gordon Shepherd 88.03, Adam Parkinson 88.02 and Dennis Lavelle with 88.02. Parkinson, reacquainting himself with rifle shooting, shot the best stage of the day a 46.01.

          As unbelievable as it appears, Shepherd with the lowly 88.03, won the days honours, and the A grade COW, just beating the B grade winner Parkinson, by a solitary centre bulls eye. Lavelle was the most consistent shooter but he could not avoid the magpie trap shooting the bird on his third last shot. He fell just the one centre bull's eye shy of the win. 

          The magpie count for the season continued its exponential growth with a further 42 magpies and 10 outers added to the already huge total. 

          The F class group did no better, and in fact suffered a fierce battering. Visitors, John Clapham (101) and Rob Logue (82) both had bad first stages but learnt from the experience to bounce back with acceptable second stages. The best stage of the day was Logue's 54/60 with Clapham 53/60 ahead of Jeff Eppleston on 52. However it was Epplestons' consistency, which won the day with 102/120.  

          Ron Gibson scrabbled better than anyone, and his 85.01 whilst nothing to crow about, was sufficient to win the 100 year old R L Gilmour Cup. There was a three-way tie for second with Eppleston, John Coghill and Shepherd all on 294 ¼ points.

          The J Wilde Memorial Trophy begins next week at 700 yards    

SCORES:

A Parkinson 88.02 (10 ¼) 98 ¼

J Sibera 84.02 (14) 98

R Gibson 85.01 (11 ¼) 96 ¼

D Lavelle 88.02 (8) 96

G Shepherd 88.03 (8) 96

J Eppleston 102 (12 ¾) 95 ¾

J Coghill 84.04 (11 ½) 95 ½

K Redding 78.02 (17) 95

T Robinson 78.03 (15 ¼) 93 ¼

Graham Willis 84 (15) 82 ½

Visitors:

J Clapham (Blackheath) 101/120

R Logue (Katoomba) 82/120

B Winkler (Sydney) 63.0.