The drive to the range today featured a lone giraffe. It was a very exciting sight for all, and one team member was lucky enough to see it twice (owing to having forgotten their plot book in the hotel and having to make a mad dash back to retrieve it before the start of shooting).

Day 2 of the SABU Grand Aggregate saw the GBU25s compete in the first stage of the State President with 2 and 7s at 300, 500 and 600 metres. 300 started with some steady winds, resulting in strong scores all round. This continued at 500 metres, although by 600 the flags had started threatening to fishtail. Trickier winds were seen at this distance but the team held it together well, with Tom Shaw going clean with a 105.10. This was closely followed by Toby L, Jemima, Alice and Henry on scores of 104.

A stop for lunch at 900 metres was enjoyed despite the heat and some of us were very thankful to have had the foresight to store some bottles of water in the cool box for a nice cold drink in the afternoon!

900 was quite a different story than the morning. The Dave Smith Cup: a 2 and 10 course of fire, was described by one competitor as ‘harrowing’. Those of us in the second detail started to become rather scared about what might meet them when they got down to shoot, for whispers of 7 minute fishtailing brackets and 6 minute wind changes between shots did not give them much confidence…

Despite this, respectable scores were seen. An incredible result for Tom Shaw who not only went clean at short range, but also at 900 metres despite the conditions, finishing on 50.03, the only possible from all the British teams.

The relatively early drive back to the hotel was celebrated with a dip in the pool before going for showers and getting ready for the evening’s activity: travelling to a restaurant for the sole purpose of devouring a 1kg steak.