RIFLE SHOOTING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 27 March 1922, Page 7

RIFLE SHOOTING.

nATTERA CLUB'S CHAMPIONSHIP.

WON BY RITCHIE,

The final for the Hawera Rifle Club championship was fired on. Saturday. The conditions were not ideal owing to the fear wind, which proved very troublesome to the majority of marksmen, especiaffy at, the 600 yards, at which the championship final was fired. Rfmn." Roots and Ritchie went down together in the final, Roots having a three-poiilt lead. Before shooting it would seem that Roots could not be beaten, but for some unaccountable reason he was unable to make more than 40. RitcMe put on 43, and thus finished up a tie. This necessitated a shoot-off—three shots. Roots opened with a four and Ritchie with a fire. Ritchie, now shooting like a champion, registered two more bulls, and Roots did likewise, thus leaving Ritchie the champion of the club for 1922.

Ttfmn. Scannell, who was nine points' behind the leaders before the final, could [ tie tn"6 previous two with 49, but his j third shot went to a three. He finished up with 46, and got up to within three points oT the winning score. Had he been fortunate enough to get a good shoot earlier in the championship series the finish would have been decidedly interesting. A 28 at 200 yards in the second round spoilt his r3iance. Ttfmn. Ritchie is to be congratulated j on his second successive win. Very few young shots develop so quickly and so brilliantly. It is a great honour for him to have defeated the Dominion champion for the championship of his club. Rfmn. Roots was expected to make a better showing in the final. It is to be hoped he was not relying on his three-point lead to -nan and did not take things seriously enough. The weather alone was not sufficient to bring his score down to 40. His shoot i contained no less than three threes.

The position after the final is as follows:—"Riflemen J. G. Ritchie 319, D. Hoots 319, T>. Scannell 316, G. Cross 305, Pres. A. H. Jones 303, Riflemen

W. McCormack 288, P. Petersen 278, A. G. Robertson 272.

The first stage of fhe Bennett and Button Cup, 10 shots at 500 yards and 600 yards, was also decided. The leader turned up in a new shot, Rfmn. Arnett. Rfmn. W, McCormack, who scored 43 at 500 yards and 41 at 600 yards, is second. Rfmn. Scannell mad© top score off the rifle, 46 at each range. The following is the result of the first stage of the Bennett and Sutton Cup: —

.< 500 .600 Hep. Tl. F. Arnett 39 38 19f 96| W. McCormack 43 ,41 9£ 93£ D. Scannell ....... 46 46 1,. 93 P. Petersen 43 . 42 • 7|. ■ 92| A. H. Jones ...... 45 39 1\ 9U J. G. Ritchie ... 47 43 scr. 90 S. Catran 37 32 20* 89J G. Cross 45 40 4* 89i A. Blair 39 38 12 89 T. Geary 46 32 10J 88^ D. Roots 47 40 1 88 A. G. Robertson 45 26 12 83 I A. E. Gorton ... 41 32 9£ 82f C. Murch 22 28 30$ 80J )