Nick Abrahall got stuck right in, at the 400 yard third stage of the Winter Cup monthly competition. He missed the bulls-eye just the once in his first visit to the firing point, but made no mistake about it the second time around, when he rocked them all in with eight right in the middle to come up with the only possible on the day for a magnificent 50-8, which when added to his solid 49-5 [from his first stage], gave him both the Elgas Top Off-Rifle Trophy in T/R, as well as the Daily Aggregate, while shooting from a zero handicap. John Stone who is in the process of upgrading his sighting system, seems to be already reaping the benefits and was able to handle the conditions pretty well to come within a point of Abrahall in the Daily Aggregate. Conditions were not easy with the fluky variable wind keeping scores well below normal for this range, but as the saying goes, “class in the end must tell”, and so the results in the F-Class field proved also to be. John Black, although not coming up with a possible in either stage, managed to keep it close all the way, to take the “double”, Off-Rifle Honours as well as the Daily Aggregate in this division while shooting from the lowest handicap also. Wayne Pearson, who seems to have “tightened up” his performance considerably of late, was the only other shooter to provide any close competition for John Black in F-Class, after a consistent performance in the trying conditions, although John Robertson was faring pretty well until a rogue wind-shift saw a shot finish up out in the “four-ring”. That’s the way the afternoon was inclined to go!!! With regard to the QRA Queens [State Championships] held last week at the Belmont Shooting Complex in Brisbane it can be reported that the Grafton Rifle Club shooters who attended, all performed well in what was the usual very hot field for this very popular week of shooting competitions. Ian Griffiths managed to finish in the “Badge List” in the Open Division, to show that he can still be a presence in State and National competition, when the chips are down. In the B Grade comp. Andrew Geary showed once again that he is ready for bigger things by finishing right among the top performers on his way into the Open Division for his next outing. The shoot next week will be from the 500 yard mound for the fourth and final leg of the Winter Cup, 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 members are always welcome. Anthony O’Keeffe