GBRT : South Africa 2012

Right, enough of days where we only have one or two shoots and time for the big one. Today we have no fewer than 51 rounds to count in five individual competitions - 2 and 10 at 300, 600, 800 and 900 metres, and 2 and 11 at 600m. Without going into the detail of everyone's shooting, this will therefore be a short entry, as there wasn't much time in the day for doing anything but shooting (and providing some input to the quote of the day.)

Unfortunately for everyone, the day dawned without a cloud in the sky (you'd never say that in Britain), and the prospect of shooting all day in the searing South African sunshine beckoned. As indeed it proved to be for at least the first three shoots of the day, resulting in people drinking copious quantities of water, only to find it leaking out of themselves almost as fast as they could drink it.

It was a well fought match but we would like to congratulate South Africa on winning the RSA International Match.

We believe the GB Under 19 Team won their match but await ratification of the scores.

Full results will follow as soon as possible but team are currently at the mid-Meeting Prizegiving which hopefully will be followed by something to eat!

Monday morning, and time for the start of the South African equivalent of the Grand Aggregate - there is a fairly gentle start to the competition, with only the Free State Cup (2 and 7 at 300, 500, and 600m) happening today.

The weather overnight could be described as biblical, with a very large thunderstorm keeping a number of the team awake for an hour or so in the early morning. All except DC, who can sleep through earth-shattering thunderstorms, but not the repetitive clicking on and off of the air-conditioning outside Alwyn's room (as he may have mentioned to Alwyn once or twice). Thankfully, all had cleared by the morning, and left a pleasantly cool morning in which the shooting was generally good, with a light breeze but not enough to trouble most people, although no one scored a possible at all ranges, with the best of the team looking at a high 104 score.

Scores from Monday and Tuesday are available below.

Monday

Tuesday

Sunday, and a day of rest for the team before the start of the serious business on Monday morning. Just as well too for those members of the team still recovering from the previous night’s frivolities, particularly Rick who was still wearing dark sunglasses indoors at 5pm.

Today also sees the day of the inaugural entries in the Irish to Afrikaans translation competition. The first entry happened whilst Alwyn was sat down to breakfast with DC and Gary. Alwyn had ordered toast, and was asked "white or brown" by the waitress, to which he responded "white". The waitress stood there for a while, and then asked the same question, to which Alwyn responded with the same answer. At this point it was clear that not all was well, as the waitress continued to stand in the same place. When asked whether there was a problem by Gary, the waitress responded "Why do you keep asking me to wait?"

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.