GBRT : South Africa 2012

Saturday (it took me a long time to work that out, given that every day merges into one out here), and time for some team shooting in the Hamilton (2 and 7 at 300, 500 and 600m) and Rhodes (2 and 10 at 800 and 900m) competitions. The team split into three targets of six shooters, and whilst not actually entered into the competition (as it's meant to be a competition for club teams) we shot alongside everyone else.

The day had dawned cooler than previously with a good amount of cloud, to the the relief of some people, at least until it started raining anyway. Thankfully the rain was light and brief, and didn't get anyone too wet.

The purpose of the day was largely to give the team coaches a chance to practice wind reading and the general setup in team formation, so frustratingly, the wind chose this day to be easier and lighter than previously, at least up until 900m in the afternoon. Some good scores were put in, but there's still some room for improvement from everyone to give us the best chance of beating the South African team in the Protea Match in a week’s time. Thankfully we have a whole week of fairly intensive shooting coming up to sort out any remaining niggles.

The evening saw the team head out for a team birthday meal at the Block and Cellar (or the Block and Tackle as Neil calls it) where a very large quantity of steak and red wine was consumed. Four members of the teams have birthdays in five days so a large celebration was called for. Certain of the team were then led astray by Gary and Alwyn, and proceeded to go out and sample the nightlife that Bloemfontein had to offer, which consisted of a club called Barbas, a Gary administered drink fund (which was well applied to all concerned) and a somewhat late (3:30am to be precise) trip home.

Quote of the day goes to DC for "The breeze isn't coming from the same direction as the wind". Slightly confusing from the chief coach...