After the extreme heat of the preceding 2 days, one might have hoped that the heatwave might be starting to ease off in Bloemfontein. Alas, in an African version of Groundhog Day (with fewer pianos), day 10 again promised unbroken skies, 36-degree temperatures and complex winds.
First order of business is the 1st stage of the State President competition. This is the South African Bisley Union’s equivalent of the H.M. King’s Prize back home in the UK, with 7 scoring shots each at 300, 500 and 600m. The upside of this match is that shoots are shorter, and so (hopefully) much of the match would be completed before the fiercest part of the day.
Conditions were similar to yesterday and scores matched. 20 of the team returned full scores of 35 at 300m; Chloe Evans, Jeremy Langley and Jon Kent the best of these with 6 vees. At 500m the wind threatened to be trickier (and for those with bad luck, was) but in reality it was manageable, with 19 further scores of 35; Glyn Barnett and Nick Healy with 6 vees each this time. The 600m shooting started at 11am, and this meant that the sun was high and from behind and the wind therefore followed suit, threatening to come from the left and the right, often in quick succession.
This time there were only 9 scores of 35; Messers Dodds, Mitchell and Shouler each with 5 centres. These 3 scores were then added together to create a maximum possible total of 105. 7 of the team recorded this very impressive score. Theo Dodds and Nick Healy top of the GB pile with 14 vees each (out of 21). They will both particpate in a 4-way tie shoot on Wednesday.
After a hot lunch spent hiding in the shade the Dave Smith Cup took place. This match required 10 scoring shots at 900m. 1st detail started at 1:15pm, with the thermometers reading the predicted 36 degrees and the wind fishtailing (coming from both sides) with the changes coming quickly – often whilst the firer was in the aim.
It is difficult to describe the difficulty of accurate shooting in these conditions. We rely on wind information from the flags on the range, mirage down the scope and to a lesser degree the position of other shooters shots across the range. Processing this information at speed is made harder in the extreme heat (and sweat!) especially when the various information sources contradict each other! High scores were much harder to find and there were plenty of examples of shooters looking up after firing to find that the wind had completely changed during the 10 or so seconds they had been looking down their sights.
There were no scores of 50 in the GB team. David Luckman and Matthew Ensor took the bragging rights with very impressive scores of 49.5. It was left to Tom Shaw, the vice-captain of the Under 25 team to show us how it should be done, scoring a fine 50.3. Tom’s 50 can be added to his clean score of 105.11 in the morning to give him a score of 155.13, with no points dropped. David Luckman’s 154.18 was the best of the GB team. Tom’s excellent day saw him placed 2nd overall on the day and in 4th place in the Dave Smith Cup.
These matches all contribute to the Grand Aggregate, and after 2 days and 8 shoots Jon Kent leads with 356.30 (ex 360). Matthew Ensor is in 2nd place on 355.44 and GB Veteran Nick Brasier occupies 6th place as the highest of those on 354. Nick also lies second in the Veterans World Individual Championship, just one point behind Australia’s Jim Bailey. Luca O’Flynn leads the Under 25 World Individual Championship with 350.25, closely followed by Tom Shaw (349.32), Jemima Hince (349.26) and Alice Good (349.24) in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively. We are not sure of World U21 overall placings but Christina Cuming leads the GB pack with 344.24.
The shorter course of fire today meant a relatively early finish and trip back to the hotel for stretches and a team planning meeting before the more mundane tour tasks such as washing, food planning, kit maintenance, shopping and maybe even a dust settling beer.
