21 August 2019
After a while, an 0600 “rise and shine” gets comparatively easy, without even an alarm being set.
Archie wishes it to be mentioned that he got wet (again) in the morning, by that time various hues had already leeched onto his shooting shirt so he could best be described as a “rather damp little rainbow.” At least his England shirt will now be “unique”.
The shooting consisted of the Gibson (part two) 2/10 at 300x – part one, the 800x shoot was shot on Monday afternoon. Strange having a two distance competition over two days, but in accordance with the DCRA’s policy of shooting as many details at the same distance on the same day. Saves time on target changes in the butts and range rigging = saves money.
Once the Gibson had finished, we shot the President’s. A Queens II shoot – whilst acting as the second stage of the Governor General’s, it is also a stand alone competition. Scores from The Letson are aggregated with the President’s for places in the final, to be held on Saturday afternoon.
Sixteen of our team made the final. The Adjutant being the only member of the management team to make it through. Tom and Andrew grumbling about problems seeing or some such excuse…
Evening activity featured our reception, shared with the Welsh team, our fellow tourers. The Athelings looked splendid in their number one’s, proudly wearing their distinguished hats. Though we were delighted to see many of our fellow competitors, as there were only some 180 shooters at Connaught, the evening was relatively quiet, even though much Pimm’s was drunk!
I say it was quiet, until a couple of Welsh dragons invaded the marquee, Hotly pursued by some knights wielding their shields and imaginary broadswords, cross of St. George tunics over their mail. Observing historical accuracy faithfully, the dragons were dispatched with ease by our handsome knights. It seems the age of equality arrived much sooner in history than even Joan of Arc, as we did seem to have some young ladies in armour.
Some of us have been lucky enough to enjoy Dragon Boat racing. The evening also featured Dragon racing. Fast dragons to round off the evening’s fun.