RIFLE SHOOTING

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 19

RIFLE SHOOTING

NEWS FROM THE MOUNDS.

(By

“Aperture.”)

An interesting happening in connection with tho various prize-firing meetings at Easter was tho fact that at three places, Hawke’s Bay, New Plymouth, and Blenheim, it was necessary to shoot off to decide tho winner of the championship. Chief interest in the Easter meetings so far as Wellington clubs were concerned was in the Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki championships. .Representatives of .the city and suburban clubs wore prominent at both gatherings, providing the runner-up at each place, f At Hawke's Bay the. estimated entry of 75 was not realised, about 60 competitors entering in the main list and 25 tyros, as against an estimated 40. Consequently the prize-list suffered a reduction, but the proportion of chances remained about the same. The weather on the first day was fine. The wind, when it came from the right, was fairly steady, except later in the afternoon at 600 yards, when the lulls caught the marksmen, but occasionally the breeze shifted to 12 o’clock, and fish-tailed, making conditions anything but good. It was under such condition that Croxton (Karori) put on 49. On the second day the weather was fine until a thunderstorm arrived just as tho first men were down in the teams’ match. After it cleared away conditions were the best of the meeting. . In the 500 yards match before the last squad had finished the leading places in the match were hold by A. S. Ballinger, W. H. Ballinger, and E. Ballinger, all of Retene Club. S. Mayhew (Linton) shooting last, stepped into second place and upset what would have been a unique performance.

F. W. Ching (Karori) put a bull on tho wrong target, and his club mate, H. V. Croxton, commenced a dboot with the wrong elevation. In each case the error turned out to be costly. Ching ultimately lost the championship by a point, and Croxton tied for first place, losing in the shoot-off. The spirit that keeps any > sport moving.—-Two fathers with their sons competed nt the Hawke’s Bay meeting. A. S. Ballinger and his soil E. A. Ballinger, and J. M. Bertram with his son I. W. Bertram. All four competed with success. When E. Ballinger (Petone) shot off the tie for the Hawke’s Bay championship and finished second it marked his seventh time as runner-up at a prize-firing meeting. This eclipses even the record of W. H. West. It is seldom that shooting conditions arc so bad as to cause competitors to lose the target at 300 yards. Yet it was under such conditions that the teams match for the Collins Shield was commenced on Easter Monday, at Roy’s Hill. Just as the mateh started a heavy thunder-shower passed over the range, and the first men down had a very unenviable time. It was obvious that the match could not proceed, and when the first men had fired their seven shots the mateh was suspended until the storm abated. An ex-New Zealand champion, in F. HJames, firing in the rain, scored 17 out of the possible 35. Consistencv in teams shooting.—The scores of five' men comprising the Greytown team at Hastings were: 94, 94, 93. 92, 92. . \ x > The two best scores in the teams shoot at Hawke’s Bay were obtained by A. N. Neilson,and G. Eyles, both of the Napier team. Each made 99.

At the prize-giving ceremony in Hastings, mention was made of the fact that the Hawke’s Bay Rifle Association’s tenure of its range is insecure. It will bo a great pity if a. meeting like that at Ttov’s Hill is not supported to the fullest extent, and thus safely tided over its present difficulties- . , Reports from Roy’s Hill go to show that the competition for tho Collins Shield aroused a keenness, almost unprecedented in this important event, It is stated that behind the 600 yards mound between tho score boards for targets Nos. 5 and 9, a well-worn track has been found by the respective supporters of Greytewn and Karon, tho two clubs that in the finish filled the leading positions. Karori, the winners, were coached by E. Ballinger (Petono), which shows the spirit that exists among riflemen. . The sixteenth annual meeting of the Taranaki Rifle Association opened at the’ Rowa Rewa range, Waiwakaiho, on Easter Saturday, when four matches wore completed. J. Jepsen (Tahora) won the Kaponga Match with 48 points; G. H. Cross (Hawera) the Inglewood Match, with 49 points; and E. Ingram (Hawera) the Patea Match with 47 points. Thorp was a record number of teams competing for the teams’ match, New Plymouth winning from Wellington Suburbs by the narrow margin of two points. At the *hort range they led by two points, but increased their advantage at 500 yards. Suburbs, -however, scored some remarkable shots at 600 yards, p.nd their last man, wanting three bulls to win, scored a 5 and two 4’s, with his last shots. On’ the whole the day was conducive to good shooting. The light was consistently good throughout, but a tricky wind, veering from the right front to left front, was a decided handicap. EThompson (Patea) won the short range aggregate with 140 points, beating J. Smart (Wellington Suburbs) by a point. A. Harris and W. G. Fellingham finished eighth and twelfth. The individual totals of the Suburbs men in the teams’ match were: —Harris 95, Fellingham 93, Turner 91, Dodd 90, Smart 90. The meeting was concluded on Easter Monday, in rough weather. T. Corkill (New Plymouth), a comparatively young shot, won tho championship from J. Smart (Suburbs). The ]pcal papers give each man a score of 268, but no mention is made of a shoot-off. I am informed by Smart, however, that there was a shoot-off, and that he lost. The wind was very strong and gusty necessitating very large windage allowances at 1000yds. In the individual matches Robertson (Hawera), 49, won at 800 yards, Harris (Suburbs), 48, at 900 yards, and Watkins (Waverley), 44, at 1000 yards. Robertson took the long-range aggregate with 135 points, J. L. Turner (Suburbs) being third with 131 points. J. Smart, 129, was fifth, and Harris, 126, seventh. Harris was also in fifth position in the championship aggregate. At the Blenheim meeting, G. Peterson (Blenheim) won the championship after a great tussle throughout the meeting with F. Sharland (Nelson). As at Hawke’s Bay and New Plymouth, a shoot-off was necessary, Peterson winning comfortably. A. Henderson (Sounds) won the short range aggregate by two points. Blenheim won “the teams’ mateh from Kaikoura A. Hie annual home and home mateh between teams representing the various districts in New Zealand will be fired to-day.