The team awoke to a beautifully sunny day and the smell of suntan lotion wafted through the air… this is certainly the freshest that we have smelled all week. The morning started off with the Tilton at 300m and 600yds. GB were trying to finalise their zeroes, because this was the last warm up match before the Grand Aggregate started in the afternoon. At 600yds Mr Penrose decided that V-bulls were overrated and secured a gentleman’s 50.0. Unfortunately for Stephen, this meant his V count was too low to eclipse John Deane, who tied for first with 100.14, giving him a tie shoot to occupy his mind overnight.

The entire GB team have been squadded on the same details, so this often leaves us with some extended breaks between ranges. Today’s was a 2.5hr gap over lunchtime, where some of the (older) team members had enough time to catch forty winks. Nigel was found snoring in the corner of the team hut with a Truttmann-brand pillow, and the Captain was spotted unconscious on a table outside. Turbo was left disoriented after his little nap, and ended up sitting at 300m amongst Henryk’s kit, wondering why his rifle looked a little different than he remembered.

Sunday afternoon brought the start of the Grand Aggregate in the form of the Macdougall, at 300m and 500yds. Once again John Deane showed us how it is done, with two 50s giving him a total of 100.11, closely followed by Jon Underwood with 100.8. This was an excellent start to the Grand for them, leaving the rest of us playing catch-up.

After all the shooting had finished, it was everyone’s favourite time of day: dinner time! For some of the team, this meant a barbecue at the hotel, followed by a few games of pool at a nearby pub. For others it meant carb-loading at East Side Mario’s before grabbing a doggy bag and heading for their mattress chariots. Must be rested for day 2 of the Grand tomorrow…