Day 8 - Commodore Perry

We probably shouldn’t even go into the morning routine, as I’m sure our regular readers can probably guess it by now. For those that haven’t been following this blog on a daily basis, it involved an early rise and we left the accommodation by 7.00am (all the vans left sharply, this time!). When we arrived it even turned out that no one had left anything behind, much to the disappointment of the Adj.

As usual, we had the colors ceremony and roll call by 8.00am, followed by a series of team matches over the course of the day. Again these followed a shoot off at each range, with Jane Messer narrowly missing out on a bronze at 600 yards. For the Commodore Perry Match, we fielded three teams: a GBRT VIII (against Canada and the USA), a IV (against Australia and the USA) and a joint team with the British Commonwealth Goodwill Team.

300 yards went smoothly for the VIII and in fairly benign conditions we dropped only one point, leaving us in a strong position for the rest of the match. At 600 yards, with wind perpendicular to the range and slightly stronger than it has been for the last few days, again the VIII only dropped a single point, putting us ahead of our closest rival by 10 points. The IV also fared well at short range, dropping two points at 300 yards and four at 600, putting them in second place for the morning.

Most of the team ate lunch at the on site catering facilities, some of which proved popular and meant a long wait in a queue, although this was a good opportunity to catch up with non-British shooters. Other members of the team were a bit more efficient and pulled out their pre-prepared sandwiches from their bags.

1,000 yards, however, proved a little more difficult for most of the team. Though some members of the team put in some strong scores (Armstong, Ball and Underwood all put in 74s) a tricky sight picture and a bit of mirage meant that elevations weren’t quite as tight as they could have been, causing us to drop a few points. When the last shot was marked, the VIII had dropped 18 points overall, Jon Underwood taking the highest individual place with a 224, pipping Armstrong on Vs. In second place, USA who had a series of unfortunate events at long range, followed by Canada in 3rd. A great result as it is the first time that the USA has been beaten by a Great Britain team on home soil since 1992! The IV fared not so well at 1,000 yards and dropped a few more points with Australia winning with nine off compared to our 22. Top score in the IV was Tom Drysdale with 223.

The team returned home, some taking the opportunity to visit the McDonald’s on the opposite side of the road to load up on some post-shoot junk food and coffee (and wifi!). Brandy’s was the venue of choice for most of the team for dinner (excellent steaks), whilst others went out with the BCRC and U25 teams, with many meeting up at the Lock, Dock and Barrel afterwards to socialise with with the US shooters.