Christchurch Marksmen For Empire Games?

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30880, 13 October 1965, Page 17

Christchurch Marksmen For Empire Games?

(CANTERBURY should fully support the suggestion that a team of two small-bore rifle shots be sent to the Commonwealth and Empire Games at Jamaica next year as it is quite possible that both marksmen could come from Canterbury.

Mr J. Ross, deputy president of the New Zealand Small-Bore Riffe Association, announced that it was proposed to send a team, while at the recent North Island championships in Palmerston North. However, this still has to receive the official blessing of the association.

I. R. Ballinger, who won the North Island meeting, must have improved his already strong chances of being selected, while R. E. Taylor and M. Crump are also top candidates. The National Rifle Association of New Zealand has intimated that it is considering sending a team of two .303 marksmen to the games also. But it has

already commited itself to sending a team to the British championships at Bisley, England, in 1967 and it is unlikely to be able to afford to do both.

The logical outcome would be to send a team of marksmen who could compete in both events. However, it would be a pity to send any but the very best to such a meeting and more benefit would accrue tn New Zealand by competing at Jamaica.

Taylor, Ballinger and C. Thom would all have a good chance of selection if the team members were to shoot in both the .303 and smallbore events while Thom and V. Curtis would do well in the .303.

Canterbury’s big five, Thom, Taylor, Crump, Curtis and Ballinger have all shot for New Zealand and, with an almost equally high calibre of shooting elsewhere in the country, teams should be sent to the games.