Day 3

After an evening sampling the culinary delights of Barrie, either at a steak and lobster place or an Irish pub that very charmingly served burgers and had a live band, an early night was had by most in preparation for the match the next morning. Everyone assembled early and packed the vans with all our luggage (minus a couple of blazers – luckily we’ll be passing through Barrie again later in the tour!) in addition to the shooting kit, allowing us to leave promptly for the drive to the range. With the forced time zone acclimatization continuing during this demanding first weekend, most were gratifyingly full of beans. After yesterday’s slight confusion “navigating” round camp, the drive to the range was a quarter of an hour shorter today, even after slowing to take photographs of a number of road signs with team members’ names on them, including “Shaw’s DIY Pig Roast”, “Drysdale’s 11 tree farm” and “Angus…” + just about everything (just like at Barry Buddon where he had featured on the “Angus welcomes the Games” banner)! Our mission will be to find one for every team member by the end of the tour…

The course of fire for the day was a team match for 12 shooters firing 2 sighters and 15 to count at 900 and 1,000 yards against a strong Ontario team containing the likes of Des and Pat Vamplew (both fresh from the Commonwealth Games), Peter Westlake, Gary Bowman, Roger Romses, Fazal Mohideen and guest stars Alain Marion and Serge Bissonnette. The reserves were also able to have a shoot, which meant that all team members had the opportunity to shoot under match conditions. An added advantage was the opportunity for everyone to acclimatize to the warmer conditions that Canada was throwing at us. 900 yards proved to be fairly benign conditions, allowing the shooters to perform at their best. Despite a breakdown in communication with the butts, which meant an enforced cease fire during the latter part of the shoot (and an unexpected photo opportunity) the team managed to go clean and we averaged 75.10 on the small Canadian V bull. A great statement of intent by the shooters, the performance put us five points ahead of Ontario going into 1,000 yards.

1,000 yards was rather trickier, with a heavy mirage making life more difficult for the shooters and a variable front fishtail wind (with indicators frequently conflicting with fall of shot) making the coaches earn their keep. When the final shot was downrange, we had dropped 21 points in total, which put us ahead of Ontario who had dropped 37 overall. Top scores of the morning were a 150.18 by Emma Nuttall and 150.20s by William Broad and Jon Underwood, with Ontario’s best being Pat Vamplew on 150.17. The match was a great start to the tour’s team shooting, made possible by the kindness of the ORA in accommodating us – many thanks to Fazal Mohideen for his work in co-ordinating everything. Ontario also very kindly provided us with a barbecue lunch behind the range which was followed by a brief prize giving ceremony for the individual matches from the previous day, in which GB took eight of the top ten places, with Will Broad and Angus McLeod 2nd and 3rd.

Saying farewell to Emma Nuttall (who is visiting family in Canada, and will rejoin the team at Algonquin) we were fortunate enough to use local traffic knowledge as Gary guided us in convoy around the more notorious routes to join the highway to the border. As our satnavs forewarned us (“Follow the road for 240 miles”) we settled in for a long, uneventful, and tedious drive to the border. For some, this was pleasantly interrupted by a doughnut and coffee stop in Kitchener, but others decided to push through.

We arrived at the pre-ordained rendezvous point some 30 miles before the border at the Tilbury OnRoute service station within about 45 minutes of each other. After making the most of the final opportunity to purchase Tim Hortons merchandise until our return to Canada next week, all 5 vehicles proceeded in convoy to the Ambassador Bridge to cross over towards Detroit.

The border was manned by CBP guards who were clearly friendly and good natured people, even though they had to act serious while processing us. Thankfully, and in contrast to the two hours spent waiting for the same process at Niagara two years earlier, we were in and out in forty minutes, meaning that we could get to Port Clinton not long after 10pm.

We were greeted at our condos in Port Clinton by vice-captain Jane Messer and Nigel Ball, who had gone out to Camp Perry instead of Borden in order to scope out the accommodation and the range for us. Jane’s welcome package of breakfast meant the only things we had to worry about were unpacking and dinner. The latter of which, for many, was a late night McDonalds from over the road, as it was the only place still open.

With squadding cards also having been sorted out by Messrs Messer and Ball, we’re looking forward to a more relaxed day tomorrow, when we’ll go to the ranges for some practice and zeroing.