RIFLE SHOOTING

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4349, 25 January 1938, Page 4

RIFLE SHOOTING

WAKATIPU OUP COMPETITION. Twelve teams of five men each assembled on Saturday week to compete for the Wakatipu Cup, which was presented to the Southland Rifle Association by Major jP. Mackenzie, of Walter Peak, in 1931, for the purpose of encouraging team shooting in Southland. The City Guards Club have held the Cup since it was presented, having won it on six occasions, which was a meritorious performance. The Invercargill team on this occasion, put up a fine steady performance and registered the highest total yet made for the Cup, a score of 484 points, the previous highest being 475. The Invercargill five shot more steady than brilliant and of the 105 shots fired by the team there was only one shot outside the inner ring. The conditions were far from being ideal. A fresh westerly wind of a variable nature blew the whole afternoon, and required careful watching, and as the targets had been newly papered with a darker shade of paper than usual it added to aiming trouble as it made the visibility and definition very poor. The scoring all round was below the average expected from most of the teams and of the sixty marksmen engaged only one reached the century. This was made by F. E. Broome, of the Invercargill B team, and was a fine performance under the prevailing conditions. W. Kirk, of the Tapanui team, also performed splendidly.. He made 34 at 300 yards, the possible at 500 yards and just missed the century by making 30 at 000 yards, totalling 99. E. Sim (Tapanui) and G. Nicol (City Guards) also made possibles at 500 yards. G. Wilson, S. L. Wall, A. Ford, of Invercargill, A. J. Archer, of Invercargill C, and G. More too, of City Guards B also shot well for 98 each. The newly-formed Mossburn Club made their debut in team shooting and acquitted themselves well. Their top score was 97, made by J. Healy, and they had a 92 and three 91’s, a very creditable effort for a first year’s team. The arrangements were good and under the guidance of Mr 0. M. Wilson, president, N. MacWilliams, secretary, and Mr J. F. Wilson, range officer, the competition went through without a hitch. The aggregate scores wore as follows:—lnvercargill A team 484, Gore A team 471, Tapanui team 467. Invercargill B team 447, City Guards A team 463, City Guards B team 462, Mossburn team 462, Invercargill D team 454, Regimental team 452, Gore B team 449, Invercargill C team 446, Mataura team 446.

A practice shoot was lielcl on the local range on Saturday last. The dav was dull, with a tricky wind, and a patchy light. The following arc the scores: 300 500 600 tl. W. Milley (in’,gill) 35 32 31—98 E. J. Loweu 32 31 28—91 I). K. Gray 30 34 26—90 H. J. Whitehead (Kiwi) 20 31 29-89 J, S. Toll 30 28 38—88 T. Eoberfcson 29 30 25—84 11. N. Grant 27 27 24—78 Dc)>. Pres. Simsou 21 26 30-77