The Long Range World Championships for the Palma Trophy are held every four years.
The Great Britain Palma Team preparing for the matches in New Zealand in January 2019
Captain’s Foreword
Meet the Team
Team Diary
Monday began with an early start to our three-stage journey back to the UK - so early that the rest of the team nearly lapped the revelling group who had tested the delights of Wellington last night. Fortified by coffee and bacon sandwiches kindly wheeled into the hotel car park by the legend that is James Lewis on his range trolley, we arrived at Wellington airport and unloaded by 0830. Several episodes of “sheep mode” followed while our transit was eased through by the good work of baggage master Matt Millar & his team, James Watson as FAC guru and
GB were down, but not yet out. The Palma Match is held over 2 days, and after day 1 Great Britain were behind by 34 points in 3rd place to Australia in 1st and USA 2nd. The second day gave GB the chance to try and claw this back for the win. Early forecasts had predicted strong winds for today, but we were greeted with flags stuck to the poles in an unusually calm morning. GB were determined to get off to a better start, which we did, shooting quickly to finish a few seconds after the USA in 25
Match day! A slightly later departure for the range as the Palma match referees had chosen a 9.15 start to allow for even light conditions across the targets (the left hand bank had started in shade at 08.30 all week). After a warm up led by Zoe, we awaited the draw for targets - starting out far left of the range at 800 yards, central at 900 and near the right for the final shoot of the day. USA top scored at 800 with 1194 ex 1200, 2 points ahead of Australia. GB had a disappointing start with 1181. Being
Today the team had a relaxing morning as it was the Palma Match practice day. As a team we had decided to only do a short 1000x practice in the early afternoon so the morning was spent having a nice breakfast, getting ready for the practice and the match, and doing some early packing for the journey home! The day itself was warm with calmer winds than we are expecting in the match, but gave us all a chance to go through a run through of a team shoot and also double check sight settings. The evening was spent splitting
Bright skies returned for the final day of individual world long range championship shooting. We had the 900 & 1000 yard ranges of stage 3 to complete in the morning followed by a Championship final also shot at 1000 yards for the top 10 overall. The first shooters at 900 yards could have just about completed their shoots before the wind started blowing. Slower shooters on the first relay enjoyed a changeable 2-3 minutes of left wind for their last few shots. Thereafter wind conditions became steadily more challenging. By the time all had finished many failed to break 60
6 February is Waitangi Day, the national day of New Zealand, named for the place in 1840 where a treaty was first signed between the Crown and over 500 chiefs of Maori tribes over the subsequent months, which effectively founded the nation. All shooters were invited to a ceremony held on the range prior to the start of shooting, where the importance of the day was explained and the New Zealand national anthem beautifully led for us in both Maori and English. Conditions today were dull and overcast until mid-afternoon, when it brightened a little. It was quite cool all
The first full day of the world individual long range championships certainly generated some good stories. The individual competitions are shot in 3 stages, each comprising 15 counting shots at 800, 900 & 1000 yards. All are shot on the same size targets so scoring becomes progressively harder (and the wind affects bullet flight more at the longer distances). This morning we finished stage 1, having shot the first 800 yard shoot yesterday afternoon. Those hoping that an early position on their string would see a calm start to the day were disappointed. The 900 yard shoot was challenging, the
Monday began with the opening ceremony for the individual Long Range World Championships, to be shot over the next 4 days: 800 yards once today; 900, 1000 then 800 on both Tuesday & Wednesday; then the last 900 and 1000 yard qualifying ranges on Thursday morning followed by the final for the top 10 on Thursday afternoon at 1000 yards.We visitors were welcomed in several ways this morning. The New Zealand shooters were lined up shoulder-to-shoulder around the 930 yards line, facing back to all the visiting teams who were on the 1000 yard firing point. Several representatives from the broader