MINIATURE RIFLE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18452, 1 May 1928, Page 12

MINIATURE RIFLE

NEWS AND NOTES

By

“ TRIGGER.”

FIXTURES. June 4—Mid-Canterbury championships at Ashburton. June 4—Wellington championships at Wellington. July 7—Canterbury championships at. Christchurch. Prospect® for 1928. Now that all the clubs have been actively engaged in shooting for some weeks past, and w’ith the competitions commencing this week, the prospects for the coming season point to its being just as good as last season, which was probably the best since the Christchurch Miniature Rifle Association was formed. With perhaps one exception, the shooting strength of the affiliated clubs show’s a good increase in membership. Three clubs who have added many new members to their list are Sydenham, Returned Soldiers and Cashmere, the last-named having now just over fifty active members. The ladies’ clubs have again entered in th*president’s grade, and should give a good account of themselves. The senior grade have seven teams this season, a.s against six last sea soil, the newcomer being a B team from the Cashmere club. The junior section has again nine teams, and the presidents grade eight. A new club, the Marist, Old Boys, has affiliated this year and entered *a team in the president’s grade. With the entrance of the Marist club, the association has now some fifteen affiliated clubs shooting in this year’s winter tournament. A Pleasing Advance. All this must be very pleasing to the executive, also to the president, Mr W. S. Wharton, who takes a very active interest in the sport, and to Mr A. Tongue, both of whom, together with the members of the executive, have worked hard for the advancement of miniature rifle shooting in Christchurch.

The New Target. The new target as used by the miniature rifle clubs of Great Britain has been adopted, and will be fired on for the first time in matches locally this week. The target has been in use some two seasons in the North Island, and has proved most successful. It will be adopted by the New Zealand Miniature Rifle Association for the 1928 championships.

Riflemen will find it a much harder proposition to score possibles on than the old target owing to the smallness of the bull’s-eyes. To the writer this is an advancement, as during the past year or two possibles were getting altogether too common, and was making the shooting rather easy and also at the same time taking away a certain amount of interest in match shooting. Punctual Starting. This year matches must be commenced not later than 8 p.m. and finish by 10.15 p.m. The new executive is out to see that the rules adopted last season in regard to the blowing out of rifles and the weighing of trigger pulls are fully carried out. Draw of Games. The draw for this week’s matches commencing this evening ar® as follows: . SENIOR GRADE. Sydenham v. Working Men’s Club, Railway v. Sumner. < 'ashmere B v. Brighton. Cashmere A a bye. JUNIOR GRADE. Christchurch Working Men’s Club v. Sydenham. Raihyav v. R.S.A. Burwood v. W. 11. Harris. Ltd. Cashmere v. Ileathcote. Kaiapoi Woollen a bye. PRESIDENT’S GRADE. R.S.A. v. Railway. Cashmere v. Brighton Ladies’. Ward’s Ladies’ v. Burwood. Lyttelton v. Marists. WELLINGTON JOTTINGS. A meeting of the executive was held last week, and a lot of routine business was done, most important being the preliminary arranging of the programme for the championship meeting on June 4. A programme was adopted similar to that of last year, with an additional fixture termed the “ Optional Aggregate,” which should create a lot of interest and also produce a big entry. A general discussion took place in connection with the status of B and C grade shots, and it was decided to classify a B grade shot at 66 and under, and a C grade at 63 and under.

There is a. possibility of one or two teams entering from Christchurch for the championship meeting. It will be an easy matter for members to arrive on Sunday morning and return on Monday evening, the day of the holiday, June 4. Such competitors may ,be assured of a good time whilst in Wellington.

Wellington v. Hutt Valley. The following match, which should be interesting reading to local riflemen, was fired between the Hutt Valley and Wellington Miniature Rifle Clubs last Saturday evening. Each team consisted of fourteen men and seven ladies. The teams were captained respectively by P. B. Goldfinch (Hutt Valley), and C. M’Donald (Wellington). These two men handled their teams well and promptly, and each side was so well coached that the final result was a draw, 1383 points each. It. is a most remarkable coincidence that last year’s match under the same conditions also was a draw on the Hutt range. Early in the shooting the Hutt Valley team had a decided lead, and towards the last the opposing team gradually reduced the lead with the result stated. The following are the scores in the match:— WELLINGTON—Carstens 69. Mrs Tunks 68, Cories 68, Mottram 68, M Donald 67. Westw’ood 67. Congreve 67, Poutawcra 67, Jamieson 67, Williams 67, Mrs Fowler 67, Ahlers 66, Mrs Greathead 66, Caldwell 65. M’Carthv 65, Miss Ellison 65, Scott 65, Miss Armstrong 64, Preston 6*l, Miss M’Kenzie 61, Miss Minogue 60; total 1353. HUTT VALLEY Goldfinch 70, F. Ching 70, Morris 09, Kershaw 69, Nicholl 69, Wales 69. Kruse 68. Hare 68, Kershaw, jun. 68, Mrs Porter 68, Mrs Kershaw 67, Ross 66, Lambert 66, Mrs Cunliffe 66, Rule 65, Mrs Emmett 65. Mrs Fuller 63, Mrs Skipage 63, Mrs Nicholas 59, Batty 63, \Yal?h 50; 1383. CLUB NOTES. The Cashmere Club fired its fifth shoot for the liotty championship last evening. There was a large attendance of members and some good shooting took place. D. Barr was the winner of the hotty button for the week with 69-68. Other good scores were: S. Clark 68, A. O. Martin 68, D. M’Donald 68. G. Naylor 68, R. Neill 68. and R. Taylor 68. In the shoot off for the M’Lcan Trophy between A. Craw and 11. Large, the latter won, the scores being 67 and 69 with handicaps. The second sweepstake resulted: R. Elcock 1, C. Carrell 2, A. Craw 3. Last Tuesday’s practice of the Brighton Ladies showed them settling down a little more to the new targets. Mrs Ball gained a point for the senior pendant with 67-69, and Mrs Burmeister the point for the junior pendant with 62-63, and also the point for the Tisdall Brooch. Other good scores were: —Miss Park 68, Airs Busch 1 66, Mrs Moses 64, Mrs Harding 66, Mrs Sprosen 63, Mrs Ragg 60, Mrs Nicholls 60, Miss E. Diehl 60. All the local miniature rifle enthusiasts know how the sport has progressed in Christchurch', where we have some twenty-four teams competing, but in this season’s shooting in Wellington some forty teams have entered, which is a record for that city. This means that. 400 men are match shooting each week. As the Marist Club had entered the competitions after the draw came out they will now shoot the team credited with the bye in the president’s grade. Several old shots have joined up and

the team should develop into a good side. Sydenham should again go near winning the senior championship, as they are the only club shooting up to last year’s strength. Most other clubs have lost quite a lot of well-known shots. The interchange of railway men between Dunedin and Christchurch has affected the Railway senior team this season. P. Hill and W. Cooke are two that will be sadly missed by the local club. Cashmere arc considerably weakened by the loss of 11. Judkins and (7. Alexander, who are unable to fire this season.