Another glorious day in paradise, the team awoke on the day of team selection – nerves were high – but the team successfully got up, packed the necessary gear and headed off to the range. No one forgot anything… well, someone may have underestimated how many rounds we would need for today and not brought enough, but this diarist is not in the habit of naming names… are they Jane.
The morning, blue skies and sunshine again, but a cold northerly wind meant the team for once didn’t turn up immediately seeking shade. In fact a first opportunity was provided to test our soft shell jackets. They passed with aplomb.
We began the day shooting 800 and 900 metres in team format, 10 shots to count at each range in another practice in preparation for the Australia match on Monday. The team was clearly focused, with a number of 100/100 achieved – the captain’s trademark grin was beginning to show. Special mention must go to Bill Richards’ target for scoring 500 ex 500. This is an unusually high score for a target team at long range.
After a quick lunch, the South African Grand Aggregate began. This is the main individual overall competition of the next week.
Team members had 3 shoots, 10 shots to count at 300M, 11 at 600M and 10 and 900M. A fishtail wind (a wind that is either at you or away from you whilst shooting, flicking between left and right and vey hard to read!) was the name of the game, so quite tricky when shooting individually.
Dave Luckman and Nigel Ball lead the way, both with a 155.18 out of 155.32 – a very good start to their “Grand”!
In the evening, the Australia match team was announced to mixed emotions from us all. You can see the team elsewhere on our website on on our Facebook page.
The team then went out to celebrate Tony, sorry, Toby Raincock’s birthday!
’til tomorrow!
#GBRTSA17
