Saturday 17th August 2019
All were up bright eyed and bushy tailed to be at the classroom by 8am, ready for the four pre-grand shoots of the day. The team could be seen assembled around our huge table, all munching on various cereals and different varieties of toast – the shopping crew had gone a bit wild! In the morning, we shot 500 and 600yrds, so it was good to get our zeros for short range and get used to shooting at Connaught, especially those who’d never shot before at the range.
Lunch was a busy, and slightly messy, affair of sandwich making; at least five people were sharing a chopping board at a time, the constant smell of burnt toast lingered and salad flew everywhere.
After lunch we ambled down to the 800m firing point, when the heavens opened. Most shooters took cover in cars and class rooms and watched as the poor Athelings and cadets huddled under trees to stay out of the wet. Although rumour went round than the shoot maybe delayed or even cancelled, that was definitely not the case, so the first detail of firers dutifully got down in the pouring rain to shoot. It didn’t rain for long, and the second detail was dry, although the first detail at 900m got another shower that afternoon!
In the evening we stayed at the ranges for the DCRA meet and greet, where we got to catch up with the Athelings and CLIM course. The prize lists of the day showed that Chris Mitchell had come second in the long-range aggregate, with Harriet Bramwell coming third, both had gone clean at long range, with Chris not dropping a point all day. Archie Whicher came 3rd at 900m with 75.9.
After a long day on the range (over 12 hours), we arrived back at the hotel and while some of the team migrated to the bar, many others crashed straight into bed. Meanwhile, the sound of pen on paper could be heard from the Captain’s room…