Sports

Phil Donoghue and Dennis Hilton slug it out at 800 yards

Good shooting conditions were a distant memory as shooters took to the 800 yard mound for the fourth and final round of the Treasurer’s Monthly Trophy. With the strong switching westerly wind playing havoc with bullet trajectories, tight groups were few and far between and quite a few decided not to try their arm this time around. Phil Donoghue scored the only “possible” [50/50] on the day in his second stage which was good enough to give him the Daily Aggregate in the T/R division, ahead of Dennis Hilton who had two “almosters” [49/50’s] which gave him the Grafton ShoppingWorld Butchery’s Top Off-Rifle trophy for the day. In F-Class, there were no “possibles” [60/60’s] scored. John Black came the closest with a fine 59/60 in his second stage [with a fine brace of six X’s], but it was still not enough to peg back the more consistent scores being posted by John Bloomer who went on to take both the Grafton ShoppingWorld Butchery’s Top Off-Rifle trophy and the Daily Aggregate in that division. Mark Millard squandered his chances by very generously donating some of his best shots to the shooters on the targets next door. With the last of the scores having been posted in the Treasurer’s trophy competition, those that were in the running were quick to the board to see just how it would all pan out. And as usual the final results were very close. In the T/R Div, Phil Donoghue came home with a fine score at the final range to just edge out Chris McKenzie by one point with Nick Abrahall finishing three points further back in third place. In the F-Class Div the finish was even tighter, with John Black just counting out David Grundy on their finishing results at the 800 yard match, with John Bloomer running a close third. As Ned would say, “such is life”. Next week the competition will be from the 900 yard mound for the fourth stage of the Peter Picton Memorial trophy and of course the usual Daily Aggregate and Off-Rifle trophies, commencing at 1pm. The range is located at 434 Trenayr Road, opposite the Koppers log mill and adjacent to the Experiment Farm. Visitors and new shooters are always welcome. Anthony O’Keeffe