News

Quirky occurrences for some shooters but Williams shines 

            NINE hundred yards at the Bathurst rifle range is never easy and tends to throw up some quirky occurrences at times, none more so than at Saturday's final round of the Club Championship. With the championship winners already decided, the day was about claiming the bottle of whiskey called the Secretary's Trophy.

            The first strange performance occurred when Graeme Bright, in the middle of a good first stage, pulled the trigger to the sound of a 'pop' instead of a 'bang'. Three tries later he realised that during reloading he had forgotten to put gunpowder in a number of his rounds. Jan Sibera was another to fall foul of the 900yard phenomena when he encountered three 'miss-fires' in a row only to discover he had failed to load a bullet into the breach. 

            Despite these shenanigans, which added to the huge enjoyment of all around, both shooters finished their stages without further trouble. Bright in fact collected a 50.05 possible.  However, the day belonged to new Club Champion Steve Williams, who finished off the competition with a 100.11 double possible and the day's Cock of the Walk (COW). Williams (687.54 points) won the champiionship by three points from Bright, who admittted that his poor 300-yard stages were the difference between the two.

            Sibera took out the B grade championship when Dennis Lavelle was unable to get the required six points needed to take the contest to a shoot-off. Ron Gibson was the day's B grade COW winnner with another fine performance, shooting stages of 48.03 and 49.04. Missing three 300 yard stages of the champiqnship perhaps cost him the B grade title, as he finished just 91 points adrift with 100 points on the table for the taking.

            Tim Robinson again showed an affinity for full bore shooting with a pair of 47.5s while Gordon Shepherd rained on John Coghill's party, coming from behind for the second week in a row to win the bragging rights by a point.  Keith Redding had a couple of steady stages but inserted his trademark magpie in each stage. Roger Northcott was a surprise winner of F class with steady stages of 55 and 58 just holdding off Jeff Eppleston, who had a miserable 52 first stage but flashed home with a 60/60 possiible. Geoff Willis continued to run-in his new barrel and shot a creditable 111/120.

            The FA Wilde trophy begins this Saturday at 300 yards. 

SCORES:
S Williams 100.11 (0) 100
R Northcott 113 (15¼) 100
R Gibson 97.07 (5¾) 100
K Redding 88.03 (18½) 100
G Willis 111 (11½) 100
J Sibera 94.03 (6½) 100
T Robinsbn 94.10 (6¼) 100
G Bright 99.10 (¾) 99¾
D LavelIe 94.09 (5½) 99½
J Coghill 96.06 (3¼) 99¼
J Eppleston 112 (6¾) 99
G Shepherd 97.08 (1) 98