With the field more scattered in points terms after yesterday’s wind, many were pleased to see the choppy water on the lake first thing this morning. A trickier day would bring opportunities to make up points and arriving on the range, the angling wind coming in from 11 o’clock promised to help mix it up a little.
Early shooters at 900 yards took a generally left wind that varied as the angle moved around, though the angle soon swung through a headwind to be right wind. This then curled back to roughly a head wind to settle back to 11 o’clock left wind. Not easy, but not impossible to keep on top of and put a good score in. Today’s ripples of gunfire are punctuated by the boom of heavier fire from the artillery range to our west.
Going into 1000yards, Ben Emms was still leading clean with a spattering of shooters close (Trudy Faye one off) – giving him a strong chance facing the now tricky left wind. The wind over the following details was not straightforward and not forgiving. Strength and angle shifted regularly and settled spells to shoot on were never too long. Several of our team GB heroes fell foul of the tricky wind but Jon U and Jon T held fast to finish 5 down overall. Nigel Ball shot a mighty 74.7 to finish 5 down also – this was the same range score as Emms to put him an astounding 1 down after eight ranges.
The top 10 was set, though there was a clustering of esteemed GB shots at 8 off (Luckman, Calvert, Jeens, Rylands)
Top ten going into the final:
Emms -1
Underwood -5
Tapster
Pozzebon -6
Ball
Whitaker
White
Bruwer
Steketee -7
Kovalchick
The wind remained tricky and fickle from the left for the final and quite a crowd had gathered behind them on the bleachers or climbing on barriers, buggies and chairs to get a view. Early in the shoot, it was clear some nervy shots were going down from some shooters, as one would expect in a final. Ball, Pozzebon and Emms had notably steady starts though increasingly more of the ten finalists dipped into the inner and magpie as the conditions flicked about. Ball was pounding the middle at some pace – with some careful waits – when Emms fired a shocking low magpie. This of course prompted a prolonged wait by him while he thought about things. A light loaded charge? A premature shot release? Ball carried on and continued to hit the middle. Emms returned to form and plugged in a vee but then promptly got caught for a screaming left handed outer. Shock! With the rest of the field a few points down now, Nigel was level on points with Emms, prompting a frantic calculation of vee count by the crowd. Nigel put in a line cutting five and then sadly a four the other side before the maths could be done and Emms was back clear. Nigel quickly finished with a striking 74.4 to finish 7 down overall with the shoot of his life. Emms had the points but also had to turn the remaining three rounds in his box into at least 14 points. A slow and steady series of shots followed. All the other finalists had finished and Emms was last to fire. Two Bulls fired… The last round was in the chamber. He had already spent more time on the point than the Australian cricket team had spent in bat… The last shot was a bull. Victory and a new World champion was crowned. Commendable shoots were made by the other finalists, mostly in the 70s region so Ball’s score was truly stellar. Ben Emms was chaired from the range in the traditional manner (using the chair brought down from Canada).
World Champion EMMS, BEN, AUS 669 – 77
2nd BALL, NIGEL J, GBR 668 – 75
3rd POZZEBON, MATTHEW, AUS 666 – 78
4th TAPSTER, JON, GBR 666 – 70
10th UNDERWOOD, JON C, GBR 663 – 72
15th LUCKMAN, DAVID C, GBR 592 – 77
16th CALVERT, DAVID P, GBR 592 – 71
17th JEENS, ED R, GBR 592 – 69
20th RYLANDS, TOM G, GBR 592 – 55
24th WILDE, ANDREW R, GBR 591 – 61 : Very well done to Andrew (non- GB Team).
