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Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 23rd July 2016 J Sibera Trophy, 600yards

            Shooters approached Saturdays’ 600 yard J Sibera Trophy shoot with some trepidation based on Friday night’s evil weather. The strong winds continued for most of Saturday afternoon and resulted in below average scores as the wind gusts caused the directional flags to dance wildly on the flag poles.

           Nobody had mastery over the conditions until the final two shooters of the day experienced a slight lull in the wind. Some even shot in rain squalls as drenching drizzle swept across the range on several occasions. The sun ducked in and out of the clouds making changes in light conditions a further challenge.

           The first stage high score was a 47 by both Nick Cock and Graeme Bright with Steve Williams close by at 46 with centre bull’s eyes at a premium. Gordon Shepherd and John Coghill both struggled with magpie threes making an appearance or two but surprisingly Shepherd topped the centre bull’s eye count with three centres.

           The F-class group did even worse than the target shooters with the top score being a 53.2 by Grahame Willis before, late arrival, Geoff Willis shot a 56.4. Jeff Eppleston was swamped by the wind, shooting just one super centre and one centre bull’s eye in his 50.1.

           Little improvement was shown in the second stage despite the first stage practice. Bright did post a 50% centre count but generally the conditions continued to dominate all shooters. Coghill saw out the final rain squall with a hard fought 45.02 before the wind moderated and Williams 49.04 and Geoff Willis 59.3 took advantage of the lighter conditions to post scores which assured them of Cock of the Walk honours in A grade and F-class.

           Colin Howell must have thought this shooting game is for fools as his first experience in such conditions was less than exhilarating, particularly when a rain squall swept across the front of his telescope during the second stage. He stuck with it better than his coach and finished with 90.1 for the day.

           Grahame Willis by reason of his excellent 300 yard and 500 yard scores took out the J Sibera Trophy. The final trophy for 2016 starts next week with the 700 yard first range of the W & J Brown Shield.

Scores:

S Williams TRA 95.06 (5 ¼) 100

J Coghill TRB 87.03 (12) 99

G S Willis FSA 115.7 (2 ½) 98

G Bright TRA 94.06 (3 ¼) 97 ¼

G P Willis FSA 107.3 (6 ¼) 94 ½

N Cock TRA 93.05 (1) 94

G Shepherd TRA 87.06 (7) 94

J Eppleston FSA 104.2 (3) 89 ¼

C Howell FSB 90.1