THE FINAL FIFTY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 54, 5 March 1914, Page 7

THE FINAL FIFTY

HOW THEY CAME TO THEIR \ OWN FIRING FOR THE BELT AT' TRENTHAM A STORY WITH SOME DIGRES, ' SIONS. (From Our Special Reporters.) By the time this gets into the hand* of the readers of The Post the chain - pionship rifle meeting at Trcnth&m wilt' be all over bar the speeches and the> shouting. The Ballingor Bolt will havebeen won-~and lost— once again, and a.few hours afterwards the crowd that chaired and cheered the champion will' have melted away. The marksmen,) themselves, who for seven long days,-, through fair weather and foul, hav»* I done their best to place as many bull lets in the centre of various targets a* possible, will follow the crowd, and to-* morrow the camp will be deserted. By ( i the week-end the canvas township,. I mushroom-like in hue, will, like a,. I cluster of mushrooms, have disappeared^ ; and the range will be empty and silent., I The cracking of bullets the livelong day,, like a thousand stock*drivers cracking] i their whips after a countless mob ol! cattle, will cease, not to be heard again,/ i in such volume and intensity for another; 1 year. One can hardly credit it aftcrl a strenuous week on the mounds. Th»i time passes so quickly that the meeting, seems to be no sooner started than then great day arrives for the firing for the' j Belt, and that, too, goes with the eltuv and eclat of a. spectacular event of mtw ment. ASPECTS Oft THE MEETING. '' Much could be written about Trent' ham were there time—much that has. never been written, or at least merely, sketched in rough outline. One coulddiscus? the_ different stylos of shooting,, and the different classes of men who* shoot j their appearance, the colour o£ their eyes, their way of lying down on 1 the mounds, and handling the rifle, lor there is as much idiosyncrasy in rifle shooting as there is in cricket, bowls, or; any other sport. One could discuss the- 1 question whether rifle shooting is a-, sport or a training for the defence of, the country. There are two schools o£' thought or opinion on the point, and tho. controversy about it does not soem fctn lose its acrimony with time. At pre-* sent it is rather a delicate matter, ahd( one would vathe"r refrain from anythingbut a mere reference. A great deal.'-' could be written about life in camp*— \ the fun and the practical jokes, and' the 'quaint "characters" who crop up iv every big gathering of men. Then: there are aspects in the system of run-j ning a riflo meeting, with its manifold' problems needing careful organisation, to solve. The work' of the markers* in the trenches, and the scorers on tliet mounds, and tho range-ojneers, who direct the general course of events, would* form an interesting subject also. There/ 1 aro many other ideas that occur, but in\ the endeavour to get the very latest/ news and results for the readers of The! Post, your representatives have to sacri'i fice much of the colour that wouldj come with more leisure. The detail of a rifle meeting is simply enormous. To get tho latest scores all complete, youi" representatives have to maintain a sysv tcm of records which covers the shoot-* ing of practically every rifleman in.' camp. When it is remembered thak there are over three hundred and fifty, men firing daily at au average of over three ranges tor - the . Belt alone, .tefw shot» at each, *it will be understood'! that the task is no light one. In theBGi'ies of matches for the Belt each competitor fires— without counting sightcrs' — 152 rounds, bo that the grand total* of shots fired is well over 120,000 forall the men. This is quite apart front" tho many other matches in tho service' and other series. FROM DAY TO DAY. The most interesting tiling after alt in tho championship meeting ie to watch.* 1 the progress of the leading men through)* the matches from day to day. This, one^ believes, has never been described iit» any single article \ how, for instance, Ihev men who wilt shoot off for the Belt gob into tlie final fifty. Their daily progress is indeed recorded in the day's event,, but there is something in being able tot take a bird's-eye survey^ of the growth of the aggregate as a whole. This is' what the present article proposes to-, do. The final fifty are chosen—self* chosen, one might almost say — a-s they}; are self-made, with the help of fortune* sometimes, but always with the- clearness^ of eye and the steadiness of hand and! the skill of tho brain that knows how/ to meet varying circumstances with adequate adjustments. The struggle for exist-! ence or, rather, for supremacy, in rifleishooting is much like the similar strug" gle in the life outside. The winds and' the light and the range a-nd the target are the difficulties-^-the problems— -to cope with and solve, and the practical' test is certainly shown in the final fifty/ men who have ( survived through a. week's battling with the weather and at'a> firing off— a select body by themselves-* for the prize o! prizes in rifle-shooting. THE CHOSEN BAND. Item, is the chosen baud of fifty, o£' whose progress Tho Post has given full) description daily :•— Pres. W. N. Masefield. Sounds B.C. S81 ! .- Rflm. H. Loveday, Oh'ura B.C. ... 570' Lieut. H. Simmonds, Railway Coups 569> Rflm. J. W. Milroy, Nelson R.C. ... 564" Pte. S. L. Bent, Div. Sig. 'Corps ... 563) Rflm. D. M. M'lntosli. Opaki R.C. 56l'< Mini. J. Given, Suburbs R.C. ... 559* Rflm. J. Cheesman. Tuamarina R.C. 55$ Pte. G. Devore, 3rd Kegt 555 Rflm. A. Soper, Tuamarina R.C. ... 553' Rflm. A. A. Oliver. Oliura B.C. ... 553> Dep. Pres. W. M'lvcr. To Awamutii R.C 553 i Rflm. G. Loveday, Ohura R.C. ... 553fr Pres. T. King, lnglewood R.C. ... 552 Rflm. A. Henderson, Sounds B.C. 551 V Rflm. O. Al.A 1 . Eyles. Damievirke R.C. 550\ Rflm. W. Chirnside. Kai-ori R.C. ... 550< Rflm. F. J. Causlev. Thames R.C. 547 Rflm. 11. R. Hunt. Suburbs R.C. ... 646 1 Pte. 11. R. King. 29th Regt. ... '546', Lieut. F. Harlnell. llth'Regt. ...'546* Rflm. A, Caldwell, Karori R.C. ... 546 Rflm. W. Brownlee, Auckland Crtey R.C 546 Rflm. W. Dewar, Oamarn R.C. ... 64&* Rflm. F. 11. James, Okawa R.C. ... 546' Rflm. W. J. Feast. Op£ki R.C. „. 545Rflm. F. Bolton, Opaki R.C. ... 545 Cpl. F. W. Clung, R.N.Z.A. ... 54» ViccPres. W. J. Mason, '"Dannevirke R.C 545 Sergt.-Maj. H. Frank. Staff ... 544« Rflm. L. White, Christchurchß.C. 544« Rflm. T. Carter. Nelson R.C. ' ... 544' Maj. J. Pottor, Reserve ... ' ... 543' Rflm. 15. Engstrom, Opnki R.C. „. 645' Sergt. T. W. Narboy, 11th Reg. ... 545* Rflm. Patrick, Auckland City R.C. 543 Pros. W. H. Moslem, Kaeo R.C. ... 542' Rflm. W. 11. Thomas, Hautere R.C. 541' Rflm. G. Craw. Liuton R.C. ... 541u Scrgt, W. G. Dcihl. 7th Regiment 540Rflm. S. Maveiwii, Kaitnwa R.C... 539) Soigt. Sharland, 12th Nelson J*og. 538-1 Uflni. Sandford, Cliristchurch R.C. 537. Cpl. L. Loveday. Oth Regiment ... 537-' Rflm. J T. Gillan, Dunedin n.C... 537 Rflm.-W. Ci. Lane. Akarana R.C... 637 Lieut. AY. Duncan, 13th Regiment... 537 Sergt.-Maj. H. Montgomery, Staff 536 Pto. T. E. Knowjes, .R«H wa X- Pfi»W $&'

tflm, J. Dalziel. Linton R.C. ... 536 }nm. H. V. Croxton, Karori R.C. 536 a.flm, Cuthbertson, Tnamarina R.C. 536 The last five fire off for the last three places in the fifty. BUILDING UP THE TOTAL. The total aggregate conveys little without its component parts. These are the different stories in the structure. Vital of all. let it bo noted that the "possible" for the aggregate is 760, and in getting 081 out of this Maeefield hac done exceedingly well, probably better than any previous winner of the grand aggregate. His scores were -33, 34, 31 in the Westland match— 9B out of 'a possible of- 105 ; 44, 46 in the Auckland match— 190 out of a possible 100 ; 44, 41 in the ■Wellington match— Bs out of 100; 42 out 'of" 56 possible in the Canterbury; AA and 4^—B6 out of a possible 100 in the Nelson; 40 in the Hawkes Bay out of 6Q; 47 and 46—93 out of 100 in the Ofca-go;. and 47 out of GO in the final of the series, the Taranaki match, this afternoon. He made no "possibles" at any range/ but he never fell below 31 out of 35. or 40 out of 50 pobmble at any range. It, i* this extraordinary consistency in all weathers that ha.s brought him to the front, winning him also both the Trentham and Bisley special aggregates. Maeefield's runner-up. H. Loveday.. of Ohura, has had a' more varied career. Loveday, a brother of tho ex-champion, \ L.' Loveday. began brilliantly, and was leading Masefield the short ranges counting for the Belt, by two points,, 1317 to 315. He started well with 46 in the long ranges, but collapsed at the next distance— the 900— with 27, finishing with 73 against Masencld's 86. For a time Loveday was dormant in the first dozen or so, shooting steadily and well, ■bttl/ not yet- at the top. His possible in the Otago of 50 pulled him up, and he finished well in the Taranaki with 43, and came up to second place. Simmonds, the third man, was never exactly a. dark horse, but it was not thought by some that he would stay through the long ranged. He shot only moderately in the Nelson. 84; Otago, .84; but in tho Hawkes Bay_ a 49 raised his stock, and even a. 38 in the _ final tfange could not put him out of position. The fourth man, Milroy. an ex-cham-pion, was always considered iMasoneid's most formidable antagonist, and he ran the Sounds man level with 441 all at the close of Tuesday's shooting. To-day, with range scores of 46, 43, and 34, he Ml far behind Masefield's 47. 46, and 47. . A." A, Oliver, foi a long time leader- — indeed until yesterday morning — in the aggregate, fell in the Otago. the longer range, with 26 out of 50, followed by a poor 31 in the Taranaki. THE OTHER MEN. One could continue the list to the last 'of the fifty, and in tabular form, with all the separate match scores arranged in order, .jt would tell its own story of the chief eveflfe of tho rifle meeting. The figures are, after all, the thing at the meeting— they are the story in the skeleton form which the reader will clothe with his imagination of fifty men firing hour after hour at fifty targets, gravoly discussing the chances before they go down to. shoot, manipulating the sight, peering • through , telescopes and fieldglasses at refraefory targets which fail to show an adequate return in the shape of bull's-eye*, or something like; chaliertging the maiker; getting "clean target" as an answer; making more adjustments, and so on, till the last of the ten counting shots is fired. Round the big men. tho leaders in the aggregate, the riflemen who are not shooting just at^ that moment gather, a keenly critical, yet enthusiastic crowd of witnesses. Oliver at first had his devotees, but when his star was temporarily eclipsed, it was Masefield and Milroy and Simmonds and Given in one section, and M'lntosh, Bent, and Oheesman in the other, with smaller groups of satellites round" the leaser orbs, . When the lastmatch of the meeting is fired there will be a wider public up to see it, with notabilities and personages and officials' and admiring ladies. There is a pomp and ceremony, an artificial atmosphere of formality, about the King's Pme Match which many marksmen dread. They get stage fright when the big audience is present, and they do not do themselves justice. But that is one of the penalties for shooting into the final fifty.