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Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 25th June 2016 C R Kelly Cup, 800yards

            It was cold, it was fine, the sun shone intermittently and the west south-west breeze was light to moderate. However what breeze there was had a little bite in the tail as quick drop offs and sudden pickups confused all, even the directional flags which at times were in direct contradiction to one another.

           Dennis Lavelle started with a 47.03 to set the ball rolling but Gordon Shepherd was unable to settle and paid the penalty with consecutive magpie threes in his 45.01. John Coghill was very uncomfortable on the mound and scratched around like an old chook shooting magpie, inner sighters before another magpie as his first counting shot. From then on however he zeroed in on the centre for a 48.05. Nick Cock made everyone look like novices as he started his shoot with seven straight centre bulls’ eyes but the aforementioned drop off of the breeze caught him unawares and he slipped to a bulls eye-inner four- bulls eye finish for 49.07.

           Grahame Willis was a little nonplussed with the early breeze and scrabbled to a 54.1 none too pleased with his bullet load. Geoff Willis was to arrive late after work and missed the early conditions.

           In the second stage Shepherd wobbled to a 46.01 putting the sealer on his bad day with a magpie three, inner four, finish. Coghill had an inexplicable meltdown barely able to keep it in the black aiming mark and finishing with just 40.0, his only excuse being a change of projectiles. Cock again set the centre alight with seven centre bulls’ eyes but he missed a drop off and repeated his first stage 49.07. The second stage belonged to Lavelle who achieved the only possible of the day, a 50.04. Lavelle started with a centre and accumulated a run of solid bulls eyes before sealing it with three centres in his last four shots, more than enough to win the B grade Cock of the Walk. 

           Geoff Willis shot two consecutive stages with widely varying results. His first stage 58.3 was tight and accurate but his second stage with different ammunition was like Coghill, all over the place, scoring just 51.1. Grahame Willis, enthused with his brothers first stage, set about showing him how it is done and using a different ammunition load tightened right up with a 59.4 Ammunition selection certainly seemed to play a big part in the days’ results.

           The C R Kelly Cup concludes next week at 900 yards

Scores:

D Lavelle TRB 97.07 (3 ¾) 100

N Cock TRA 98.14 (1/4) 98 ¼

G P Willis FSA 113.5 (1 ¾) 95 ¾

G S Willis FSA 109.4 (5 ¼) 95 ¼

J Coghill TRB 88.05 (6 ½) 94 ½

G Shepherd TRA 91.02 (2 ¼) 93 ¼