Cameron’s hard-luck trap shooting story

Press, 28 March 1980, Page 26

Cameron’s hard-luck trap shooting story

By

BoB SCHUMACHER

Fishermen are wellknown for their hard-luck stories and shotgun shooters can tell a few themselves.

Sometimes the yarns leave room for credibility, but tha.t was not the case with Murray Cameron, of Hutt Valley, who had the -sympathy of everyone at ' the Yaldhurst range yesterday, venue for the New Zealand trap shooting championships; " j Two national titles were decided yesterday: the single rise championship, which was halted the previous evening with: six shooters still in contention after breaking 205 successive targets, and the difficult single barrel championship. Cameron, « 40-year-old policeman, was one of the

six shooters still seeking the single rise title when the shoot-off resumed. It became a marathon; no national title h?.d gone beyond 300 targets, but there were still three who had not missed a target when that figure was reached.

And so it continued, target after target being broken by the final three marksmen. Tony Bradshaw (Australia) was the first to drop out, missing his 487th target, but Cameron arid the blondeheaded 22-year-old New South Wales shooter, Kevin Thomson, kept going.

After more than 11 hours of competition, it ended when Cameron missed his 505th target. If was a great endurance feat by both shooters, and Cameron be-

came only the second New Zealander to win the longrange badge for having an unbeaten sequence of 500.

Thotnson and Cameron felt , quite different in

attitude after the prolonged contest. . Cameron, almost twice the age of Thomson, felt tired physically, but. the young Australian was more tired mentally. Although it was the longest shoot-off Thomson had been involved in he > said he had broken more consecutive targets. He also, admitted that he had not gone to bed until after midnight after having a few.. It 'certainly did not show.

After that long: extension of the single rise event, it would not have been surprising .should either Thomson or Cameron lapse in concentration in

the single barrel competition.

Thomson did .miss two targets in the first., 25, but Cameron was one of 24 marksmen from a field of 383 to break the full score of 25 targets in his . first trip to the traps. An increasing wind and fading light posed some problems in the afternoon and there were only two shooters who recorded the maximum — Cameron was one of them. It meant that Cameron,

who considers himself more of a skeet specialist, had broken 554 targets for only one miss when he prepared . for another shoot-off with the Central Queensland shooter, Jim Elliot.

What an anti-climax. Elliot broke bus first target; Cameron missed the first bird. A shrug of the shoulders and a smile signalled the end of one of the shortest shoot-offs on record. Elliot was equally as surprised: “That sort of thing usually happens to me.” Five shooters — George Shaw (Waitemata), Alf Jaines (Australia), John Thoaason (Rotorua), Tony Salafia (Australia) and Bob Duncan (Australia) — were involved in a shootoff for third after having scored 49.

That shoot-off, perhaps because of the dull light, also came to a sudden conclusion. There were, regular rhisses and Thomson claimed third when he was the only one to break his seventh target.

Although the six-man team shoot between Australia and New Zealand in the single rise ended in a tie, Australia, as defending champion, retained the trophy. Results:— Single-rise championship.— Kevin Thomson (Australia) 1, Murray Cameron (Hutt Valley) 2, Tony Bradshaw (Australia) 3. Glenn Cup (six-man teams).— Australia 118 (R. Dean 20, T. Bradshaw 20, T. Catling 20, R. Northcott 19. D. Bellitz 20, J. Murphy 19, tied with New Zealand 1)8 (M. Cameron 19, J. Hedley 20, J. R. Thomson 20, A. Kemp 20. B. Cummings 19, R. Brash 20). Single barrel.—Jim Elliot (Australia) 1. Murrav Cameron (Hutt Valley) 2, John Thomson (Rotorua) 3.