RIFLE SHOOTING

Southland Times, Issue 21657, 19 March 1932, Page 15

RIFLE SHOOTING

(By

"Spotter.”)

After being closed to rifle clubs for three weeks the Otatara range is again available and the local clubs have resumed their competitions. The ranges at Otatara to-day are 500 and 600 yards. The conditions were favourable towards good shooting last Saturday and some good scores were registered. The Invercargill Club fired the monthly competition for the Wills shield, A. R. Wills’s team winning by seven points from W. Milley’s team. The shooting at 300 yards was fair, no big scores being registered. A. Lyall was top with a good 46, finishing with four bulls after opening with a 3. There were five 45’s, three 44’s and the other scores ranged to 36. At 500 yards the shooting was of a high standard. A. Lyall, W. Milley and C. IL Wilson put on 48’s and C. 11. Cunningham 47, and two 46’s and three 45’s were recorded. The best aggregates were: A. Lyall 46, 48—94, C. H. Wilson 45, 48—93 and W. Milley 45, 48—93. The City Guards Club fired a round of the season’s trophy competition and with one exception the scores were below the club's usual standard. At 300 yards A. Ford put on 48 and J. Ure was next with 44. 11. J. Timpany was top at 500 yards with 47 with a ‘'mag” for his eighth shot, finishing with two bulls. I. Weir was next with 15 and two 44’s were recorded. The best aggregate went to Ford with 48, 44— 92, J. Ure being next with 44,' 44—88. A. Lyall showed a glimpse of his old form last Saturday his 46, 48—94 being a good effort. He has been off colour lately, but his shoot on Saturday will probably be the beginning of a string of big scores. When Lyall is in form you can look for some “big” shooting. Arthur Ford is still on the job and again headed the City Guards list on Saturday. Ford has easily the best performance for consistent shooting in Southland this season. Advantage was taken of the visit of H.M.S. Laburnum at Bluff to fire a friendly match with the Invercargill Club’s team, the result being a comfortable win for the club team. The naval men do not get many opportunities to practice on the open range and they did not appear to be at home on the mounds. The annual meeting of the Southland Rifle Association was held last Tuesday evening, there being a good attendance of delegates from Southland rille clubs. The result of the year's working revealed a credit balance of £l2 15/- which is very satisfactory and reflects credit on the management of the executive and secretary, C. 11. Cunningham. Next year’s championship meeting was fixed to be held at Otatara on January 1 and 2 and a subcommittee was appointed to make the neces sary arrangements. Major P. Mackenzie was re-elected president and Deputy-Presid-ent C. If. Cunningham was re-elected secretary and treasurer. The executive council consists of the office-bearers and two delegates from each affiliated club or volunteer unit. At the annual meeting of the Southland Rifle Association new rules for the annual competition for the Mackenzie Challenge Shield match were adopted. In future* competitions only ammunition provided by the association will be allowed to be used. A rule making provision for deciding a tie has been added. A tie will be decided “by the teams tieing firing five extra shots, with one optional sighter at the longest range.” The other conditions of the match remain the same, viz., teams of five men from clubs within the Southland Military District, clubs to enter any number of teams. The match to be fired at 300, 500 and 600 yards, seven shots, with two optional sighfers at each range. The alteration of the rule regarding ammunition will give general satisfaction. In undertaking to provide the ammunition the association places all teams on an equal footing. “Spotter” has advocated the alteration in this column ever since the competition was inaugurated in 1929 and it Is satisfactory to know the delegates unanimously favoured the change. The new rule regarding a tie is, in the writer’s opinion, the fairest way to decide a 'tie in a teams match. It will be remembered that at the last competition at Gore on Boxing Day a tie resulted and was decided by one man from each team firing five extra shots at the longest range. This is not a satisfactory way to decide a tie. Too much responsibility is placed on one man. It is a teams match and the teams as a whole should shoot off. The new rule will give satisfaction to all concerned. The question of deciding a tie on the count out was not even discussed by the delegates. The Trentham 1932 meeting is over and a new Dominion champion marksman has been unearthed. The weather was beautifully fine for the meeting, although the usual Trentham “fishtail” and "corkscrew” winds were in evidence. The shooting was of a very high standard, providing that the New Zealand marksmen of the first class are equal to any in the world. When the final forty took the mound to fire the final stage of the King’s Prize at 900 yards, R. 11. Nicholl, of the Petone Club, with a score 381 out of the possible 400 had a clear lead of six points from H. V. Croxton, of the. Karori Club, whose score was 375, J. C. Feast, Greytown, was lying third with 374. The shooting in the final was exceptionally “hot”, it being a question if such high scoring was ever experienced in the final 900 yards of the King’s Prize. Nicholl opened with a bull and an inner for his sighters and kept both. His next four shots were bulls, the seventh shot was an inner, then another bull, the ninth shot was an inner just below the bull and the last shot was a bull fair in the centre, his score reading 5,4, 5,5, 5, 5,4, 5,4, 5 —47. A few targets down the line Croxton (King’s Prize winner of 1920) was putting up a great performance and showed that Nicholl could not afford to take any chances. Croxton opened with eight bullseyes, his ninth shot was a 4 just outside the bull and the last shot was another bull—49 out of the possible 50, his board reading 5,5, 5,5, 5,5, 5,5, 4, 5, — 49. Feast was also going great guns, his first six shots being bulls, tho seventh an inner, then a bull, another inner and a bull to finish with 48 out of 50. H. Cromie, of Ashburton, put up a great performance, placing his ten shots within the bullseye and registering the only possible in the shoot off. Nicholl finished with 428, winning by four points from Croxton who had 424. Feast was third with 420 and Cromie fourth with 420. H. King, (Ojjaki) was fifth also with 420, being counted out by Cromie, King getting 49 in the shoot off. H. Koppert (Oamaru), was sixth with 418, finishing with 48. Other high scores in'

the shoot off were W. N. Masefield (New Zealand champion 1914, 1929) 49, 11. W. Feiist 48, P. B. Goklfinsh 48, J. H. Boon 48, W. West 48, G. Te Whiti 48, H. L. Mason 47, J. R. Yeandle 47. Rifleman Nicholl learnt to use a rifle when a student at Wellington College, and he attributes his subsequent successes in both miniature and long-range shooting to the sound coaching given him by his first tutor, Major Matheson. Unlike many other champion shots, he is at home in any kind of weather, and the psychological effect of a crash at a range never worries him. He has been a member of the Petone Rifle Club since the Great War. It was in 1920 that he attended his first national meeting at Trentham, and every year since then he has been a competitor at the annual rifle shooting championships. Nearly every time he has obtained a place in the King’s Fifty, and on two or three occasions shot into the first ten. In 1924 Rifleman Nicholl competed at the great British meeting at Bisley, and against many of the most famous marksmen in the Empire, reached the second stage in the classic contest for the King’s Prize, missing the final stage by two points. While at Home on that occasion, he also competed in the British miniature rifle championships. At that meeting he was in ‘the final forty and finished in thirteenth position, losing second place through an unfortunate error in putting a "bull’s eye” on the wrong target. Rifleman Nicholl won the New Zealand miniature championship in 1920 and at present he is the runner-up for that title. Ho has won tho Wellington minature championship six times, and the Wairarapa miniature championship three times. One year he held four records at the one time. These were the New Zealand, Wellington, and Wairarapa miniature, championships and the championship of the Petone club for out door shooting. The Trentham record of JOI out of 105 for ranges of 300, 500 and 600 yards also stands to his credit. During the war the 1932 King's Prizeman served with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. He is 33 years of age and is employed in the traffic manager’s deprrtment of the Wellington Harbour Board. The New’ Zealand champion teams match, seven shots at 300, 500 and 600 yards, teams of four men, produced some fine shooting, the winners being Petone Rifle Club with the score of 393 out of the possible 420, their average being 98} per man. The scores of the first three teams were: Petone (W. Mclver 102, W. H. Ballinger 98, R. 11. Nicholl 97, J. W. Warburton 96), 393; Blenheim (W. West 99, D. E. Wilton 98, 11. Mclntosh 97, W. N. Masefield 96), 390; Featherston (L. G. Benton 100, C. J. Nix 98, R. Donald 97, F. S. Hood 93), 388. The Otago Rifle Association’s annual championship meeting will be held on Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Monday at the Pelichet Bay range, Dunedin. The Otago fixture is a popular one and always draws good entries from all over the South Island. This year's programme is much the same as previous years, the sum of £258 being provided in prize money. The championship series will conclude on Saturday also the aggregate teams’ match and the interprovincial teams match between Otago, Southland and Canterbury. On Monday the Ladies’ Challenge Shield match will be fired ami will finish in time to allow visiting competitors to catch the evening trains. Southland clubs, as usual, should be well represented and will no doubt participate freely in the prize money.