RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5803, 22 February 1897, Page 4

RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

• «. . ANNUAL MEETING.

[Per Press Association. 1 AUCKLAND, Feb. 21. On resuming after two o'clock, the wind had freshened, and was very unreliable. The Companies Team Match was the first order of the afternoon, and considerable interest 'was taken in it, as it was generally considered that the tussle lay between the Woodville Eifle Club (which won at Oamnru last year with the phenomenal average of S7 per man, out of a possible 105, thus putting up a world's record) and the Petono Eifle Club ; but ' as the result shows, this pair of crack teams were completely out of it, finishing ninth and tenth out of eleven teams, the last to finish being the Te Aroha Eifles, which, for the first time, sent a team to the meeting. The 500 yds range was shot first, and here the A Battery had the advantage of three points from the Christchurch Eeserve Corps, all the otherteams, exceptthat of Te Aroha, being a point or two away. The teams then retired to 600 yds, and here the Christchurch reserves were the highest scorers, and left the range with a three point lead of their second team, which in turn led the redoubtable A Battery team by Wo points. The Wairoa Mounted Horse were level with the latter, the scores being :—Eeserve3 No. 1 302, Eeserves' No. 2 299, A Battery and Wairoa 297. At this stage the Woodville score was 288, and that of Petone 285. The small targets were thenpiitup, and the competing teams advanced to the 200 yds range. The A Battery No. 2 team got the best score on here, winding up with 158, Eeserves No. 1 and A Battery No. 1 each got on 151, but Eeserves No. 2 only scored 138, and fell away to eighth position. Aided by scores of 153 each the Wellington City Eifles and Thames Navals shot up into third and fourth places respectively. The Wairoas with 144 were, however, on terms with the latter, but in firing off one shot per man at 500 yds Thames scored 14 points against "Wairoa's 9, each team having a miss. |', im ) The following is the result : — HON RESERVE CORPS NO. 1, CHRISTCHURCH. 200 yds 500 yds 600 yds Tl M'Farlane ... 30 32 30 —92 Banks 28 33 30 — 91 Eobinson ... 30 30 26 —86 Parsons 32 34 29 — 95 Harris 31 27 . 31 —89 151 156 146 —453 A BATTERY, AUCKLAND, NO. 1 TEAM. Buchanan ... 30 34 30 — 94 Gardner ... 28 31 30 —89 Doughty ... 30 32 26 —88 Nutt 33 32 29 — 94 Taylor 30 30 23 — 83 151 159 138 —448 WELLINGTON CITY RIFLES TEAM. . Bunckenberg ... 27 29 31—87 Marshall ... 34 29 32 —95 Halpin 28 32 18 — 78 Turner 32 27 28 — 87 Hawthorne ... 32 34 29 —95 153 151 138- —442 The other teams competing were : — Thames Navals 153, ,149, 139—441 ; Wairoa Mounted Horse 144., 151, 146—441 ; Wellington Guards 155, 148, 134—437; A Battery Auckland (No. 2 team) 158, 147, 132 — 437 ; Honorary Eeserve Corps, Christchurch (No. 2 team) 138, 147, 152—437; Petone Eifle Club 147, 148, 137—432; Woodville Eifle Club 141, 155, 133—429; Te Aroha Eifles 138, 136, 98—372. The prizes are ,£ls, ..£l2, .£8 and £o. .. '"Again there "was considerable interest taken in the Ladies' Match, which was fired at 200 yds, ten shots.. Fifteen ladies took part, three putting on the fairly good score of 39, but Miss Gittos haying the least number of outers in it gained first prize of =£5, Miss Kretschmar and Mrs White (wife of an ex-champion) talring .£3 and £2 respectively. Miss Whitney, who won the first prize in Wednesday's contest, fired well, and finished two points behind the winners. The following are the scoreß : — Match fob Ladies, 200 yd s; ten shots. Miss K. Gittos, .£5 39 Miss Kretschmar, £3 39 Mrs White, £2 39 Other competitors were: — Mrs Bloomfield and Miss Whitney 37, Miss Bates 36, Miss Dormer 35, Mrs Cox and Miss Morrin 34, Madame Neilsen 32, Mrs Buchanan and Miss Griffiths 26, Miss Gittos 13, Miss White 4, Mrs W. B. W hite 3. The hour set down for deciding the final stage of the championship had now passed, and the camp was in a bustle in order to get those entitled to fire in the stage on the firing points as early as possible, so that competitors could avail themselves of the light, which then was very good. The attendance of the public was a record one for any of the Association's meetings, upwards of a thousand being present, including a large number of ladies. Shortly after 4 p.m. the 'men were squadded, and under the command of Captain Lomax were marched to the seven hundred yards range, where they were to decide who should hold the envied position of rifle champion of New Zealand for 1897. Twenty-five targets were used, two men at each. At the range very little time was lost in beginning proceedings. A. Ballinger was on the extreme left, Williams and King were in the middle, while Head was on the right. So great was the crush around the mound from which A. Ballinger was firing that a constable was told off to keep the people from crowding in. Ballinger opened with an outer for his first sighter, which he rejected, but got an inner with his second, which he accepted. Williams had an outer and a miss for sighters, King a bull and a miss, Loveday an outer and a miss, Holland two outers, Hawthorne an inner and a miss, Head two misses. Business was now begun, and with five shots Hawthorne scored 21, Ballinger 20, Holland 19, Loveday 18, Williams (who missed his second shot) and Head 15 each, King (who had missed his third shot) 13. The aggregates were : — Ballinger 550, Williams 537, Hawthorne 529, King and Head 525 each, Loveday and Holland 524 each. At the seventh shot Ballinger had practically won the belt, as his aggregate was 557, against Williams's 542, and even had the former missed each remaining shot the latter would have had to score three bulls to tie, while the others had no chance for first place, but were fighting hard for the other places. Head, though hanging on to the target, was getting poor hits and fell rapidly astern, while King was third with 535, Hawthorne and Loveday each 534, and Holland 533. With his eighth shot Ballinger brought up the inner disc against Wiliiams's outer, and this rendered the championship secure. Williams made eight in the last three shots, and held his position of second. The fight for third place was now creating the utmost interest, as Loveday and Hawthorne had each an aggregate of 534, with three shots to go. The former scored an inner and a bull's-eye with his next two, but Hawthorn c rang on two bulls. Loveday wound up with a magpie's point, which left Hawthorne an inndr to tie or a bull to gain the coveted . position. He was some time taking aim, and when the leaden messenger was sent on its way the click from the target was awaited with breathless interest; but it did not come, the shot having gone low. Holland, who wound up with a couple of inners, tied Hawthorne for fourth place, and beat him in firing off. King had the bad luck to miss his last shot, otherwise he would have been fourth. As it was he tied for sixth place with Banks, and was successful in firing off, though at the end of the first five shots they were again a tie, but at the next shot King scored an inner and Banks, an outer. The following is the result of the championship, the aggregates in Belt matches being added to the score in the final stage, 700 yds, ten shots :-r- .„.„..-,., Volunteer A. Ballinger, Wellington Guards, Champion Eifle Belt, gold medal and silver star, =£35 ... ... 529 36— 5G5 C. P. O. Williams. Wellington Navals, silver star, G22 28—550 Mr G. Loveday, Woodville Eifle Club, silver star, £15 506 42—548 'Tr Holland, Petone Eifle silver star, .£lO ... 505 39—544

Volunteer Hawthorne, Wellington City Eifles, silver star, .£lO COS 36—544 Bauchnaster King, Oamaru, M ' 512 31—543 Corporal Banks, Honorary Keserve Corps, Christclwrch,.£4 506 37—543 Mr Head, Whangarei Eifle Club, M ... 510 32—542 Corporal Simpson, Kaiapoi Eifles, M 49S 41—539 Sergeant Kruse, Wanganui Eifles, £i 502 34—536 The aggregates of the other forty are : — J. Eobinson (Upper Hutt) 535, Baratow (Carterton) 534, Weir (Thames) 533, Love (Wellington) 533, Steadman (Whangarei) 500, Crow (Little Eiver) 530, Turner (Wellington) 527, M'Hattie (Wairarapa) 523, TV. Ballinger (Wellington) 522, Smith (Oamaru) 521, Henderson (Thames) 521, Eobiuson (Christchurch) 520, Howe (Wellington) 519, Lester (Christchurch) 515, M'Farlane (Christchurch) 515, O'Neill (Wanganui) 513, Wakelin (Christchurch) 513, Grtindy (Thames) 512, W. Loveday (Woodville) 510, Winslade- (Wanganui) 509, Phillips (New Plymouth) 509, Okey (New Plymouth) 509, Parsons (Christchurch) 508, Buchanan (Auckland) 508, Sominerville (Wanganui) 507, J. Spinley (Pousonby) 500, M'Carthy (Auckland) 506, Eobilliard (Kaiapoi) 506, Marshall (Wellington) 505, Gardner (Auckland) 505, Wilson (Woodville) 504, Harding. (Blenheim) 503, Hale (Wellington) 502, Churfcon (Wanganui) 500, Strachan (Wanganui) 500, M'Lean (Wairoa) 499, Ingpen (Woodville) 497, Wilkie (Upper Hutt) 495, Grace (Petone) 489, Eoss (Napier) retired. Lester, of the Honorary Eeserve Corps, Christchurch, having made the highest score at the 700 yds range, holds the rifle Challenge Cup for one year. His score was 43. G. Eobinson (Upper Hutt), Barstow (Carterton), Head (Whangarei), and G. Loveday, who had gone through the Belt matches without a miss, then fired off at 500 yds, five shots, for Messrs Stewart, Dawson and Co.'s trophy, which Eobinson won with 22, Head 21, Barstow 12, G. Loveday 16. The light was bad at tins time, as it was getting dusk. This was the last event, and just after the meeting closed, at six o'clock, rain set in, and continued for the remainder of the night. In the evening the prizes were presented by Mrs Goring. All the leading men in the aggregate were accorded a hearty reception, especially the champion, Ballinger, and Williams. The meeting has been a most successful one, and wonderful shooting has been made. The excellence of the arrangements was due to the energy displayed by Major Sommerville and Captain Collins, otherwise the meeting could" not have been got through in a week. Private A. Ballinger, the leading man, is thirty-six years of age and is colonialborn. He is the younger brother of Mr W. H. Ballinger (Petone Eifle Club), who won the championship in 1879 and 1895. He first joined the Te Aro Eifle Cadets, Wellington, in the seventies, and subsequently served in the Wellington City Eifles, being now a member of the Wellington Guards. He is a non-smoker and a teetotaller, as is also his brother. ' Chief Petty-Officer W. Williams, of the Wellington Naval Artillery Volunteers, who is next to A. Ballinger for the Belt, is thirty-eight years of age and is a native of England. He has been an efficient volunteer for thirteen years, the whole time in the Wellington Navals, in which"corps he gained his chief petty-officer certificate two years ago. He won the Champion Belt in 1890 at the Dunedin Exhibition meeting. He is a temperate man and almost a non-smoker. The following are the principal winners at the meeting (including trophies) : — A. Ballinger .£6l 10s, Williams £4:3, G. Loveday .£33, Holland ,£3O, Hawthorne .£22, King J321, Head .£l9, Love .£lB, Banks .£ls, Simpson .£l4, M'Farlane £14, Smith (Oamaru) .£l2, Hale .£lO, W. Ballinger .£lO.