Low scoring marks first day of Queen’s Prize

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 21

Low scoring marks first day of Queen’s Prize

PA Wellington Low scoring was the feature of the first day of the National Rifle Association’s Queen’s Prize meeting at Trentham yesterday. Trentham’s notorious reputation was proven again as a swirling and inconsistent south-easterly wind taxed the competitors to the full. The morning shoot was for the Masefield Aggregate Stage one and the winner of the C. I. Cup was Okawa’s Buster Sutherland with an aggregate of 98 shared with I. Chalken. Sutherland’s central score of 12 was superior to Chalken’s. Reg Rowlands shot a first shoot possible of 50, a rare feat in the conditions, but faltered with a second effort of 44.

The two matches for the Ballinger Belt were contested in the afternoon shoot. The

Otago match and the Canterbury match, both shot over 300 yards, produced only the one possible of 50. That went to E. Lockyer, from Petone, shooting in the second grade.

The early leader in the i Ballinger Belt competition is ■ Reg Rowlands, from the Lindhurst club in New South i Wales. He finished with 98 1 and is one point ahead of i three competitors, including a local shooter, R. Arthur, of ,i Upper Hutt. Not featured in the early i calculations is last year’s i runner up and the 1985 winner, Chester Burt, who ] scored a two on one shot in - 1 the Canterbury match and ! did not make the top 50. He i steadied in the second shoot < with a first equal 49 but 1 recording only central. 1 Second over all is Buster ! Sutherland of Okawa. Suther-

land is known as "Bridegroom Buster” in shooting circles but he handled the conditions with aplomb yesterday and 1987 could be his year.

The shooters never read

too much into the first day’s shoot and after today’s four Ballinger match shoots over 506, 600, 800 and 900 yards the position will be a lot clearer. Results: Masefield Aggregate Stage One.— ” A Grade: T. Sutherland (Okawa) 98.12, 1; I. Chalken (Napier City) 98.10 2; B. Thom (Karori) 97.11, 3; R. Fincham (Hawera) 97.07, 4; S. Congdon (Upper Hutt) 96.08, .5; R. Cammock (Waipukurau) 95.10, 6; R. Collings (Karori) 95.10, 7; K. Meade (Petone) 95.09, 8; H. Fuglistaller (Hawera) 95.08, 9; V. Curtis (Nelson) 95.08, 10.