Amberley pair in skeet shoot-off .

Press, 25 March 1980, Page 30

Amberley pair in skeet shoot-off .

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Two men from the Amberley Gun Club who started shooting at the same time 30 years ago are among seven marksmen who may have found sleep difficult last evening. Ivan Boyce and Colin Streeter, both life members of the Amberley club, will be joined on the stations at Yaldhurst at 8.30 this morning by John Elliott (Hawke’s Bay), Merv Pratt (Waipa), Ken Lowery (Melbourne), Bruce Lassen (Waihora), and Murray Cook (Ashburton) in a shoot-off to find the 1980 New Zealand skeet champion. With an entry of almost 300 for the event, the final squad did not complete its second series of 25 birds until almost dusk, but only seven of the 29 who broke the possible 25 targets in their first round were able to repeat that performance again. Boyce, the South Island vice-president of the national association, had every reason to be happy. He has competed regularly at national championships, but 49 from the possible 50 was his previous best effort in the skeet.

His club-mate, Streeter, has had previous success at the New Zealand championships, but that goes back to 1959. That was his year; he won the single rise, double rise, and the A. N. Turner Memorial. He, too, has never broken the 50 birds in the skeet previously, although he was runner-up with 48 in 1958. Several notable names have fallen by the wayside so the final today is wide open, but it would not be surprising should Lassen, third in the event in 1975, win his first skeet championship.

Lassen, a double Commonwealth Games representative in the trap event, was overlooked by the selectors for the Olympic Games this year. The fast-firing Canterbury shooter broke his targets with precision and, while he might be better known as a trap specialist, the skeet championship is well within his range. For much of the afternoon it seemed that only three shooters were going to finish with the maximum score on a day favourable for scoring. Elliott, Streeter, and Boyce, all early finishers

were able to watch many of the fancied names drop away. The 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games champion, John Woolley, missed two birds in the morning, although he scored the possible at his second turn. lan Hale, of Australia, who was runner-up to Woolley in the recent Sbuth Pacific championships, opened with 25, but missed one bird on the second series.

Another leading Australian, Barney Rooke, started with the maximum, but one miss on the lower tower at station seven in the second round ended his hopes. Of the three place-getters in the I.S.U. ball trap event at the week-end, the winner, John Maxwell (Australia) did not compete, and his countryman, Ray Turner, was never a. 'possibility. However, the third placegetter, Max Walker (Auckland), shot 25 at his first attempt and missed just one target on his return visit. After the skeet shoot-off today and the annual match between teams of five from Australia and New Zealand, the national double rise and clay sparrow championships will be held.