DCRA – day 4 (Monday)
Another bright sunny day dawned on Ottawa leading to Fu Yung deciding to run to the range (11km). He was not accompanied. The rest of the team had split breakfasts, due to Martin Townsend’s love of an early detail (luckily he has a few more to come).
Today saw two double-range competitions. The first was the Norman Beckett, shot over 300m and 800m, with ten shots to count at each. Crispy’s 100.16 was 2 
V-bulls clear of his nearest competitor across the range, aided to no small degree by a highly impressive 50.9 at 800m in a wind which was moving rapidly through zero from 1.5 right to 3.5 right (up to 3 minutes movement between shots – bear in mind the Canadian V-bull is smaller than at Bisley, being only one minute from side to side). Four more GBRT members scored the maximum 100 (Underwood, Calvert, Liversage and Haley, in descending order of V-bulls).
The Colonel J Brick competition was shot over 500 and 600 yards (also 10 shots to count at each distance), with
David Calvert’s (the other DC) score of 100.16 a single V-bull short of the tie for first place (between Brandon Green and Fazal Mohideen). As with the other shoots today, the wind was coming over our shoulder moving very quickly from side to side. When the mirage was visible, it was readable although getting caught in the aim was a perennial issue. Your diarist treated each shot on his last shoot as a sighter, returning to zero each time (which worked for him). 7 other GBRT scores of 100 in this competition – details of all scores are in the usual places.
The Dick Hampton Aggregate, for the aggregate of all shoots today was a tight affair, with four GBRT members not dropping a point including Jon Underwood and Chris Haley. The DCs were 2nd (Crispin) and 3rd (Calvert) by 2 and 3 V-bulls respectively behind Benjamin Cleland, who also leads the Grand Aggregate as at the end of today, with 300.44, ahead of DC (the Crispin variety) on the same score but with 40 V-bulls. There are four “clean” at this point, with 15 on “one off” (3 from GBRT – Underwood, Russell and the other diarist) and 11 on “two off” (4 from GBRT – the other DC, the Doctor, this diarist and “Dadj”). However, with 530 points still to be contested, there is plenty of shooting still to come.
Tomorrow brings the Letson, the first part of the Governor General’s prize (akin to a Queens 1, albeit with a mix of metres and yards) and the Alexander of Tunis, a 900m shoot. In between these is the Coaches Match (teams of three, with two firers and a coach). GBRT has 5 teams entered. The long forecast rain currently looks like it might hit overnight tomorrow, although maybe I shouldn’t have written that to tempt fate…
Lollipops yet to be awarded by David Young’s 50.10 at 500 yards this morning has to be a strong contender. 
The fly swatting competition is hotting up, with Chris and Fu currently in joint first place.
