Today has been without doubt the most exciting and consequential day of the tour so far. Strap in.
The first shoot of the day was the Des Burke at 1000 yards, which also served as the final shoot of The Mercer Grand Aggregate. Patrick and Jane both came off with 50.8v, tied for first place. An exciting tie shoot saw Jane victorious with 25.2v to Patrick’s 25.1v. This saw the conclusion of the Grand Agg leaving five members of Team GB within the top ten: Patrick C, Jon U, Jack A, Jane M, and Reg R (edging out Tom S with the same score into 11th place).
Meanwhile, after some corrections to match statistics, a tie arose for the last qualifying spot in the Lt. Governor’s Final (equivalent to our King’s Prize, for the Ontario Province). Christina and Reg, both sitting with a 146.12v, each shot perfect scores of 25 in the tie shoot, but Reg edged ahead by a single V bull.
After this, the team matches began. GB were split into two teams of eight. One of these teams, led by Dave R, emerged victorious after beating off the U.S. Palma Team by a single point, in addition to the U.S. Veterans and Canada teams.
Finally, the final. Eleven members of Team GB qualified for the final, with Jack A entering in 5th place having only dropped one point in the qualifying stages, putting him a single point behind the leader, Avtar Nanrey. A sudden, biblical, downpour of rain delayed the start of the match and put many competitors on tilt. This was followed up by tricky, changeable winds that saw multiple magpies across the range (including from Jack). Despite this, Jack managed to finish with a final score of 221.24v, tied in first place with Avtar. This led to an extremely exciting tie shoot, which saw Jack become the first member of team GB to drop a point in a tie shoot. Despite dropping his third to count, he dug deep and finished with a 24.2v. Avtar was surely on to win, being clean up to the last shot, but very unfortunately for him put the last shot just low of the bull to finish with a 24.1v.
To much cheering and applause from Team GB and all of our fellow competitors on the range, Jack was chaired off the range, victorious! Well done to Jack on an absolutely brilliant performance. We look forward very much to persuading Jack to let his hair down and celebrate a little tonight, however much against his nature that may be!
Written by Simon Hayton and James Shepherd, with contribution from Tom Shaw