DEFENCE NOTES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144855, 6 December 1915, Page 6

DEFENCE NOTES.

(By “Scout.”) I hare received a copy of the programme for the Group Meeting to bo bold on January 3 next at the Rowa Rowa range. There are five matches —.No. 1, Grouping, five shots at 100 yards, second-class figure target; No. 2, Application, five shots at -00 yards, similar target; No. 3, Snap Shooting, 300 yards, five shots at a figure of “3“ (head and shoulders) target, six seconds exposure, hits on any part of the figure count three points; No. 4, 500 yards, first-class figure target, Seven rounds, optional sighter. Ihfire are eight prizes in each of these matches for Territorials, Rifle Clubs and Cadets, that is, 34 in all, Territorials only com-' peting with Territorials, and so on. No. 6 is the Championship Match (apparently not an aggregate), at 000 yards, first-class figure taiget, seven rounds, with optional slgliter. Ammunition will bo issued free on the range; challenge shots aro permitted on the usual conditions; prizes will be paid out as soon as possible after the conclusion of each match. Kailway passes, where necessary, will be issued to competitors on receipt of entry fees; officers will bo permitted to compete in Territorial matches. The entrance fees aro very small. Territorials and Rifle Clubmen 8s and Cadets Is for the whole meeting. Entries close witli the secretary (Hfin. H. Stocker), or any member of the committee, not laior than December 28. 1915. The* High School Cadets fired their first match on Saturday against tho New Plymouth Defence Rifle Club, and were defeated by tho narrow margin of nine points. Tho targets wore those used for tho Schools of tho Empire Match, so that Rifleman Blanchett’s score of 65 was a very fair one when the reduced size of the value rings is considered. The boys did not do quite as well as “your own” hoped, which is easily accounted for. as most of them took part in their boxing tournament the night before. Boxing stunts are not conducive to good marksmanship when indulged in so shortly before a rifle match. Marksmen who hold that practice at the bull’s eye is the best foundation for any kind of rifle shooting will find some raison for their opinion on perusal of the following clipping:—The finest marksman in tho world lias been killed in Franco. One gives this high distinction to Lieutenant.il. Ommundsen, whoso record has no parallel in rifle shooting. Originally a typist and dork in a solicitor’s office, Lieutenant Ommundsen was attached to tho Honourable Artillery Company, and at the tirno of his death ho was sheltering in a dugout when a stray Gorman shell found him out. “Ommy,” ns ho was familiarly known, won lime after time competitions which good and ambitious shots havo striven lor years to gain. For instance, tho Service Rifle Cliampionshop, which comprises the best scores m deliberate, rapid, and snap shooting, extending over tea days, he carried off as many as five times—in 1995, 1908, 1910, 1912 and 1913. No other man has won it more than once. He performed almost similarly unique feats in conection with other aggregate events, winning tho Territorial Aggregate in 1905, 1912 and 1913, and the Grand Aggregate in 1900, liXto and 1910, in addition to being runner-up in 1811 and 1912. Almost every year ho was looked upon os a probable winner in the Queen's and King’s prize competition at Bislcy, and though bo was successful on only one occasion, he was in tho final thirteen times from 1898 to 1914, His triumph camo at the ago of twenty-two, in 1901, when ho secured the King’s Prize, after a tie with Lanco-Sorgcnnt Burr, of tho London Rifle Brigade. Ho claimed still another distinction shared by no other marksman in tho history of tho National Rifle Association, which was founded fifty years ago, of having won the King’s gold, silver and bronze medals. .Married only a week before Germany declared war on Russia, Ommundsen at tho time was a corporal in tho H.A.C. A native of Edinburgh, ho. had then been living in London two years, having left office work to take part in a riflemnking business. He invented tho negative angle sight, which enables a man to hit a target at unknown ranges.