I’m sure by now you’re all a bit sick of reading about our perfect cloudless skies, day after day of 30 degree heat and almost no wind to speak of; well today things changed. By 8am the rain was so hard that an emergency meeting was called at the DCRA, and before too long all shooting had been cancelled for the morning. In good time too, as a massive weather front rolled in bringing thunder, lightning and some tall tales of bigger storms from a few different team members. This meant that the Gibson was to be a tale of just one range, the shoot yesterday at 800m was now the result – and the winner was definitely going to be from Great Britain. John Deane and David Calvert tied on a 50.8, meaning they were to have a tie shoot for the silverware if Thor ever decided to stop dropping his hammer over Ottawa.

By lunchtime, a decision had been made by the DCRA weathermen (weatherpeople?) to resume shooting after lunch, meaning that the Outlander match was to go ahead as planned. It may be a first, however, that GB have ever had no proper opposition in a team match – other than some provincial teams – so this was a last opportunity for some shooters to press a case for a shooting spot in the Canada match. The conditions were very gloomy, extremely humid and wet yet there were several 75s at both 600yds and 800m, including 150′s for Henryk and Mick. Some very encouraging performances before we take on Canada at short range tomorrow.

Thursday was punctuated with tie shoots too. After the 600yds of the Outlander match GB had 3 of the 4 competitors shooting to win the President’s match – Jeremy Tuck, Steph Ward and Dom de Vere, shooting against Canadian Pat Vamplew – all carrying a 150.19. Dom was the victor, shooting an outstanding tie to win the Coulter Cup. The next tie was an all-GB affair, featuring John Deane and David Calvert at 800m, shooting (with any luck) before the rain came back. Once the range officer had given us his French translation of the match rules, they were underway for an enthralling 10 minutes which saw John come out on top with a 25.4 – featuring some of the most central V bulls of the entire meeting (and a bull 5).

It was only about ten minutes after the last shot down the range before the heavens opened again, Thor having woken up from his siesta on the wrong side of his cloud, and the vehicles aquaplaned their way back to the team hotel. As it turns out, DC was not only a mean bomber pilot, but would be a useful addition to any sailing crew.

The majority of the Great Britain team went out to different places around Ottawa for dinner, while the management holed up in their bunker to select the team for tomorrow’s Canada match. The team will shoot a 2 and 10 at 300, 500 and 600 yards and is as follows:

Today’s diary wouldn’t be complete without mentioning another excellent quote overheard in the team hut. DC was explaining, to whoever would listen, why he found the WiFi to be a little slow at the main office. A few of us ventured forth our opinions on the matter only to be told that actually he thinks that someone is “sucking all the energy out of the internet”. Best stick to aircraft, Wing Commander…