20th August 2019
Today, as usual, most of the cars were rolling out of the Best Western car park at 6:45am ready for relay 1 to start at 8am. The only difference this morning to previous mornings was that there seemed be more people clutching cups of coffee and tea, hoping caffeine would add to the adrenaline that we’ve all been living off for the past few days.
Today was the Letson, essentially the Canadian version of Queens 1, so 2 and 7’s at 300, 500 and 600yrds. Everyone shot fairly well, with a special mention to James Postle who went clean for the whole Letson. Lunchtime came and went, however the whole team managed to get a sour talking to as someone (or someones) had eaten all of the Captains sourdough and no one owned up…
The final competition of the day was the Alexander of Tunis, named after Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st earl Alexander of Tunis KG GCB OM GCMG CSI DSO MC CD PC Senior British Army Officer, former Governor General of Canada. Many got blown around by the devastating wind at 900m, with a few even visiting the magpie on at least one occassion. However, a few of the team did triumph, with Ellie Hoolahan coming 9th and Jon Underwood 3rd.
In the evening, half the team went to the ‘Corn Boil’ at the Ottawa Rifle Club which certainly exceeded expectations. The first highlight was definitely the food as we were all given a whole corn on the cob to polish off, however one of the Welsh team members, who shall remain nameless (Lottie…) asked how exactly the corn was cooked?! There was then a raffle of the infamous number 150/150 anniversary rifle slip, curtesy of the captain, in aid of the U25 Canadian Team funds. A lady from the Jamaican Rifle Team was super happy to have the lucky ticket to win it and did a very impressive dance in celebration much to the amusement of everyone there.
We then headed back to the hotel and reunited with the second half of the team in the bar.